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By Tony A.
AIPAC-Linked PACs and Big Tech Cash Flood MA-6 as Spending Tops $10M; Nguyen’s Gaza Flip-Flop Draws Scrutiny
ANDOVER, MA – Democratic voters inundated with mailers and advertisements for the race to replace Seth Moulton in Massachusetts 6th District primary this Tuesday could easily be confused by the array of inconspicuously named Super PACs listed in the ads’ tiny “Paid for By” disclaimers.
The race is now the most expensive House race in Massachusetts history, blowing past the previous record set in the 4th District in 2020, which saw genocide enthusiast Rep. Jake Auchincloss elected with over $10,000,000 spent. The record was surpassed by June 30, according to the last FEC data, and hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions more have been spent since in July and August.
One PAC is drawing significant scrutiny: Pro-Choice Majority Action (PCMA), dropping $500,000 for self-styled progressive State Representative Tram Nguyen in recent weeks..
As reported by Sludge, SunlightHub, and Drop Site’s Ryan Grim on Breaking Points, the PAC is funded largely by its affiliate PAC Elect Democratic Women Action Fund, which in turn receives most of its backing from AIPAC’s PAC, which it calls United Democracy Project.
The previously reported $450,000 has been supplanted with another $50,000 donation on Friday, bringing the total to half a million dollars.
Many commenters have questioned why AIPAC would support Nguyen, who recently reversed course and acknowledged Israel’s genocide in Gaza and backed an arms embargo. Pro-Choice Majority Action’s unsuccessful contributions against DSA-backed Democratic nominee Melat Kiros in Colorado had a more straightforward goal: retaining pro-Israel incumbent Dianna DeGette.
Some point to Tram’s previous ducking on the issue, and a jaw-dropping statement on Massachusetts Peace Action’s candidate questionnaire, claiming in January of 2026, “An arms embargo on Israel could result in genocide… [Hamas and Hezbollah’s] leaders have been upfront in their intention to remove all Jewish Israelis from the land.”
Others have speculated in similar races across the country that AIPAC could have subversive aims to divide progressives in a crowded field, clearing the way for the establishment pick to succeed. That could be at play here, with longtime pro-Palestine candidate Jamie Belsito, Massachusetts’ first Arabic state representative, being an early top contender in the race.
It was in Breaking Points’ August 25 interview with Jamie Belsito that questions of AIPAC’s influence in the race reached a national audience, after Working Mass’s August 19 reporting on Dan Koh’s $180,000k received from overlapping donors with AIPAC.
Belsito told Grim she met with a representative of Elect Democratic Women (EDW) in DC early in her campaign and was told to take AI- and AIPAC-linked Super PAC funding to win the race. Belsito refused, and lo and behold, last month EDW endorsed Nguyen.
The district is now flooded with PAC-funded advertisements, with this reporter based in Andover receiving a mailer every day for the past week in support of Dan Koh—from AI-aligned Think Big PAC and DraftKings-buoyed New Leadership PAC—and ads for Koh and Nguyen regularly served on social media.
While the race is setting the record for most expensive U.S. House race in Massachusetts history, there has been an almost complete media blackout on the race former Biden/Marty Walsh assistant Dan Koh is the presumed frontrunner, no independent polling has been done in the district, despite the record spending. Koh staffers could get a handsome payout on Kalshi or Polymarket with consistently probable odds on this race, now at 90%, Nguyen having tanked there in recent weeks and the lights dimming for self-funded corporate exec bobblehead John Beccia as well.
Recent polls paid for by PR consultanting firms on behalf of Koh, Nguyen, and progressive challenger Beth Andres-Beck have all shown their candidate in the lead.
Koh, Nguyen, Belsito, and “You ‘Beccia have consistently taken top spots in those the polls.
With pressure to rally the progressive vote around a single acceptable candidate, Nguyen was boosted by endorsements from Squad member Rep. Ayanna Pressley, AIPAC-backed Lori Trahan and the pro-Moulton Boston Globe Editorial Board in the last week, giving them a big boost from their previous number one endorser, Massachusetts Speaker of the House, progressive champion, Ronald Mariano.
Onlookers were then baffled by an unusual endorsement of Nguyen by watchdog platform TrackAIPAC on August 26, after TrackAIPAC had just endorsed Belsito on August 19, and just one day after TrackAIPAC posted on Instagram Sludge’s reporting on Nguyen’s $450,000 in AIPAC-linked PAC backing. The post has since been deleted.
TrackAIPAC shenanigans
Commenters on TrackAIPAC’s endorsement of Nguyen on Instagram ratioed the Nguyen’s campaign’s comments on the post.
One commented: “This endorsement is being thrown in the face of pro-Palestine organizers in the district by the supporters of the Nguyen campaign, which was explicitly pro-Israel just a few weeks ago.”
Others noted that the endorsement graphic lacked the “$0.00 from pro-Israel PACs” graphic that typically appears on TrackAIPAC’s endorsements.
Nathan Story, an independent journalist with Sunlight Hub who, through prolific public records requests, has tracked pro-Israel outside spending in elections throughout Massachusetts, said, “[TrackAIPAC] spoke with her; she pledged to support the positions they care about. My concern is whether she is being sincere in those positions, given how long it has taken her to acknowledge the genocide in Gaza.”
A campaign source told Working Mass that Rep. Ayanna Pressley personally got in touch with TrackAIPAC to push for a Nguyen endorsement.
TrackAIPAC, after all, isn’t merely a watchdog, but a coveted endorsing organization this election cycle.
DSA, working class and grassroots scrambling
Progressives and labor unions are, as often the case, split in this race.
With the urging of former Boston mayor and U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, a one-time Laborers’ Union 223 business representative, Dan Koh—Walsh’s chief of staff at City Hall and the Department of Labor—has amassed endorsements from nearly all area labor unions. This, even as Koh gets millions in PAC support from Big Tech, AIPAC donors, and private equity managers.
DSA is also split. Boston DSA, which includes district neighborhood groups North Shore DSA and parts of Merrimack Valley DSA, did not endorse in the race, but issued a voter guide recommending against Koh and Nguyen and third moderate candidate John Beccia.
The race included three progressive candidates: Beth Andres-Beck, Jamie Belsito, and Mariah Lancaster. The local DSA support had been split among the three, with calls to consolidate behind one progressive gone unheeded.
On August 29, Lancaster dropped out of the race and endorsed Rep. Tram Nguyen, against Boston DSA’s voter guide recommendation.
In many parts of DSA (think NYC-AOC, LA, Denver-Kiros, Michigan-McKinney), a candidate like Belsito with electoral experience joining and aligning with DSA would likely receive DSA’s backing.
The Boston chapter declined to endorse a progressive candidate, perhaps due to a historical skepticism of non-cadre candidates.
Cluster**** or tossup coalitional test?
The North Shore and the inland Merrimack Valley, which make up the 6th District (some of the Merrimack Valley being in District 3), are prime organizing terrain for DSA in the region as the organization grows. The North Shore Neighborhood Group is the largest in the Boston chapter behind Cambridge, Somerville, and Allston/Brighton, all in the city center. The region has a significant working-class base and history, and its largest city, Lynn, has the highest proportion of Black residents north of Boston and one of the highest proportions of immigrants in Massachusetts.
With the split field, the DSA disorganized, and the tremendous outside spending flowing into the race, many will be happy simply that corporate “moderate” ghoul Seth Moulton will be ousted. But the district faces the specter of electing Genocide Joe Koh, or, in Nguyen, a career progressive-label politician with a knack for cozying up to power — either of which could become significantly harder to unseat as incumbents.
Races like these show the tremendous obstacles the disorganized left faces, with corrupt Beacon Hill leadership-backed “progressives”, the labor bureaucracy, big money, and big egos all going to bat.
Meanwhile, the North Shore’s working class and poor keep getting poorer, yacht club members in Manchester-By-The-Sea and Marblehead grow richer, and ICE family separations continue daily.
Tony A is a contributing writer to Working Mass and a resident of Massachusetts’ 6th Congressional District.
The post Tram Nguyen Gets $500K in AIPAC-Linked Ad Money as TrackAIPAC Faces Scrutiny in Record MA-6 Race appeared first on Working Mass.
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