Political candidates backed by the controversial Middle East advocacy group J Street were trounced at the polls on Tuesday, with J Street’s endorsees losing in almost every competitive race.
J Street scrambled to save face on Wednesday after two candidates that the group described as must-wins were defeated by their Republican opponents.
While J Street spread its money across 92 races around the country—the majority of them uncompetitive contests—J Street candidates locked in tight races were repudiated by voters.
Analysts say this is further proof that voters are increasingly likely to embrace more hawkish pro-Israel candidates over the dovish views characteristic of J Street and its allies in the Obama administration.
Democrats Mark Udall (Colo.) and Bruce Braley (Iowa), both of whom lost yesterday, received repeated endorsements and cash from J Street, which claimed that both candidates would counter “dangerous, neoconservative ideas” in the Senate.
“We can’t afford to lose these two [Senate] races,” J Street political director Dan Kalik wrote in a September email to supporters, urging them to donate at least $18 dollars to Udall and Braley.
“If Mark and Bruce don’t have the resources they need in these last few weeks, you can expect their opponents’ dangerous, neoconservative ideas to gain momentum in the Senate,” J Street wrote at the time.
J Street’s efforts to make the races about its anti-Israel agenda appears to have flopped, as voters in both states favored the Republican challengers Joni Ernst and Cory Gardner.
J Street endorsee Michelle Nunn, who the group made several high-profile pitches for, lost her race in Georgia to Republican David Perdue, a candidate J Street described as “shameful.”
“These guys think they can scare votes their way by borrowing a page from the neoconservative playbook. Will you prove them wrong?” J Street asked in an October fundraising pitch for Nunn.
The organization’s efforts to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins in Maine also ended in failure.