AIPAC Money Reached Connie Chan’s Race — Through a PAC That Hid Its Donors Until After the Vote

Connie Chan ran for Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco seat as one of the most pro-Palestinian candidates in the country, and she put it in writing: she would not accept support from “AIPAC or its lobbyists and representatives.” She kept her word. AIPAC never gave Connie Chan a dollar.

It didn’t have to. The money took a longer road.

On April 14, the United Democracy Project — AIPAC’s super PAC — sent $250,000 to a committee called the EDW Action Fund. We confirmed the transfer directly in UDP’s FEC filings; it doesn’t yet appear in EDW’s own receipts, which is why a quick look at the recipient’s records misses it. Drop Site News, which broke this story, documented two more transfers the same month from the Democratic Majority for Israel — $22,500 on April 13 and $15,250 on April 23 — bringing AIPAC-aligned money into EDW to $287,750 in April alone.

“Chan kept her pledge. AIPAC never gave her a dollar. The money still came.”

Then a brand-new committee did the spending. Pro-Choice Majority Action, affiliated with the EDW network, registered with the FEC on May 1 and proceeded to spend $475,000 supporting Chan — $325,000 on May 21 and $150,000 on May 27 — every dollar of it confirmed in federal independent-expenditure filings.

Here’s the part that should bother you no matter how you feel about Chan or AIPAC: because Pro-Choice Majority Action registered on May 1, its first donor disclosure isn’t due until weeks after the June 2 primary. San Franciscans saw the ads. They could not see who paid for them — by design.

What we can prove, and what we can’t. The AIPAC-to-EDW money is documented: $250,000 from UDP, confirmed in the filings, plus the DMFI transfers Drop Site verified. Pro-Choice Majority Action’s $475,000 for Chan is documented. What is not yet documented is the dollar moving from EDW’s account into the specific ads boosting Chan — because Pro-Choice Majority Action’s donor report doesn’t exist yet. The connection runs through the committees’ affiliation and timing, not a disclosed transfer. We’re telling you that plainly; anyone claiming a sealed dollar-for-dollar trace is ahead of the record.

What is on the record is a structure built for one result: move the lobby’s money in, keep its name off the candidate, and keep the donors off the public ledger until the votes are counted. Chan didn’t ask for it and can’t legally coordinate with it. That’s the point of independent expenditures — and the point of a PAC that registers a month before the vote.

This isn’t unique to San Francisco. The pop-up PAC — incorporated late enough to dodge pre-election disclosure — is a repeatable tactic, and the affiliated-committee hop is how a single lobby launders its name out of a race. Chan advanced to November. The question rides with her: how many other 2026 primaries had a hidden hand on the scale, and we won’t know until the receipts come due — after we’ve already voted?