Dr. Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in the Democrats’ U.S. Senate primary in Michigan last Tuesday was the latest sign of an emerging kingmaker in U.S. politics – a little-known super PAC that has tapped the wealth of a new cadre of Muslim-American mega-donors to support far-left candidates.
Since it was launched just six months ago, American Priorities has channeled millions of dollars, primarily from donors with Arab, Muslim, and/or Middle Eastern backgrounds, to a string of winning candidates in high-profile races.
Most of the entity-supported candidates are running on various democratic-socialist policies, such as single-payer health care, abolishing ICE, and slashing the military. But one area in which all candidates are aligned, consistent with the PAC’s mission, is in their antagonism towards Israel.
With several such candidates considered locks for the U.S. House in deep blue districts and potentially Michigan’s Senate seat in November, the independent expenditure vehicle is at the forefront of an increasingly politically influential and growing Muslim-American community – one that has ascended as the Israeli-Palestinian Arab conflict has become a central U.S. political issue following Hamas’ massacre of 1,200 Israelis on October 7, 2023.
In some ways, this is a very American story: As new groups of immigrants establish themselves in America, they eventually seek room for their voice in politics and culture. The key issues that have mobilized Muslim-Americans and the positions held by associated organizations, however, are seen by some as radical. Polls show such voters are significantly more hostile towards Israel and Jews, and tolerant toward groups and ideas the U.S. government has linked to terrorism than the general public – views reflected by the insurgent crop of leftist candidates they are increasingly backing.
Sen. Ted Cruz alleges that an effort is underway to, as Muslim Brotherhood leaders pledged in a 1991 memo, “destroy … Western civilization from within.”
A recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing convened by Sen. Ted Cruz raised a more chilling issue. The Texas Republican alleged, and witnesses concurred that – in a parallel to what has transpired in countries like France, Germany, and the United Kingdom – the Muslim Brotherhood, a subversive transnational Islamist organization, has cultivated an “entrenched institutional network” in America of NGOs, advocacy groups, and political organizations to advance its leaders’ recorded mission to “destroy … Western civilization from within.” That network, terrorism expert Kyle Shideler found, has actively partnered with the Democratic Socialists of America, as part of what Cruz called a “Red-Green Alliance,” that Shideler said is “united around a revolutionary objective advocating for the overthrow of the U.S. Constitution.” Democrats on the panel boycotted the hearing in protest, claiming in a statement the Texas senator was “[s]capegoating Muslims.”
While such partisan conflicts simmer, Muslim-Americans, who represent meaningful percentages of the population in dark blue New York and purple Michigan alike, are buoying the leftists increasingly dominating the Democrat Party. All indications are that this bloc is positioning itself not only to play an outsize role in shaping the next Congress but also in defining the 2028 presidential contest and America’s future.
American Priorities was founded in February as a self-styled “countervailing force” to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Though the largest such group, it is just one of several relatively new PACs with overlapping donors centered on opposition to Israel (see sidebar). The super PAC is led by Hannah Fertig, a strategist self-identifying as Jewish who figured prominently in the 2020 presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders, who is also Jewish and a backer of staunch anti-Zionist candidates. The group’s treasurer is Mark Hanna, an assembly district leader in New York who began his political career as an organizer focusing on Muslim-related issues, including through forming Yalla Brooklyn, an NGO dedicated to mobilizing Arab and Muslim voters. American Priorities has pledged to put up $10 million this cycle to elect Democratic candidates who believe the party establishment is too pro-Israel. AIPAC and its affiliates have also poured tens of millions of dollars into recent election cycles as support for the Jewish state generally has declined – a long-term trend among Democrats correlating with the rise of the anti-Israel progressive left. To support its political claims, American Priorities cites polls showing a majority of Democratic voters oppose U.S. military aid to Israel, are more sympathetic to Palestinian Arabs than Israelis, and shun candidates who accept AIPAC support.
Many of the super PAC’s top donors are first-generation Muslim immigrants who have made their fortunes in the U.S. They include:
These are highly successful immigrants who, by all accounts, have lived the American dream. Nevertheless, the super PAC they have written six-figure checks to is partnered with groups advocating far-left social and economic policies aimed at fundamentally transforming America, including Justice Democrats, the Working Families Party, Leaders We Deserve, and the IMEU Policy Project.
RealClearInvestigations could not reach or did not receive responses to a series of questions posed to Mahrouq, the Mokhtarzada Brothers, Khan and other top American Priorities donors about their views.
For his part, Mahrouq told CNN in connection with a July 2026 report that he believes in “a U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East that respects the dignity of all people in the region.”
“My focus is not partisan politics, but rather promoting policies that strengthen America, encourage opportunity, and serve the interests of American citizens. I believe decisions affecting our country should be made based on what is best for the United States, independent of pressure from any foreign government, foreign interest group or partisan agenda,” he told Jewish Insider via a spokesperson earlier this year.
Some on the right in the U.S. and Israel alike have advocated for phasing out aid — on good faith grounds that it would redound to both countries’ benefit.
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