Democrats tackle outside groups flooding their primaries with campaign cash

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are struggling to come up for air after outside groups flooded their first round of midterm primaries with campaign cash.

As the party fights to regain control of Congress, organizations affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence have dominated the airwaves, sometimes leaving candidates on the sidelines of their own campaigns.

Democratic pollster Zac McCrary said the primaries have “become proxy wars, and the candidates are almost afterthoughts in larger skirmishes."

In an effort to push back, the Democratic National Committee voted at its spring meeting in New Orleans to condemn the surge in spending.

Members who opposed the package of resolutions wanted language to condemn specific groups, such as AIPAC, which was founded to foster stronger relations between Israel and the U.S. The organization has become especially controversial during the war in Gaza and because of its aggressive campaign tactics.

The flood of money from a variety of groups has exacerbated tensions within the party. Candidates who lost have pointed their fingers at special interests, blaming them for derailing their campaigns. Others who are still in the running are courting voters by denouncing deep-pocketed outside groups. Even those who have benefited from the spending have expressed concern.

“It’s definitely a brave new world,” McCrary said.

“We’re not talking about doubling of campaign expenditures,” he added. “We’re talking about 10 times or 20 times more.”

Dan Sena, a former executive director at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said party organizations are no longer the only ones with the clout to push favored candidates.

“All that’s been completely smashed now,” Sena said. Even if Democrats regain control of the U.S. House, he warned that outside spending could damage the party in the long run.

Referring to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, he said, “You’re going to hand Jeffries a caucus that is divided.”

So far this cycle, outside money in U.S. House races has largely targeted districts particularly friendly to Democrats, meaning the primaries will likely determine who will win the general election in November. After a record number of House members retired this year, many of those seats opened up for the first time in years, drawing dozens of Democratic hopefuls.

In Illinois, for example, there was more than $125 million in outside spending across five open Democratic primaries. In all but one of those congressional races, the outside spending exceeded candidate spending.

While it's still early in the calendar, there are indicators that many more races could see big spending. Almost 40 seats have already seen more than $1 million in outside spending, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

In Illinois, the top three spenders in U.S. House races were groups affiliated with AIPAC, according to AdImpact, which tracks ad buys in political races, followed by the cryptocurrency-affiliated Fairshake.

A resolution presented to a subcommittee at the DNC specifically named AIPAC, but that one didn't pass. Instead, members voted for a separate resolution that “condemns the influence of unregulated dark money in Democratic primary elections.”

“We had various resolutions that focused on different industries and groups, and instead of going one-by-one, we passed a blanket repudiation,” DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a statement.

The latest DNC meeting marked another chapter in longstanding disputes between progressives and the party establishment.

Some progressives want the party to adopt official language that all Democratic presidential contenders oppose money from dark-money groups, or super PACs that aren't required to disclose their donors.

“It’s necessary that we actually have the party do something on this issue, not just say something,” said Larry Cohen, co-chair of Our Revolution, a progressive group founded by independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who caucuses with Democrats.

The resolution passed at the DNC meeting in New Orleans is viewed by progressives as a step toward that goal. However, some Democrats warn against weakening their candidates when facing a Republican Party that's flush with cash.

“Provided that we don’t handcuff ourselves in the general elections — because if the Republicans are going to use dark money in general elections, we should be using our money in general elections, too — if you provide an even playing field, I think then that’s fine,” said Sen. Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat. “But we just can’t be handcuffing ourselves in the general to lose races.”

DNC resolutions do not stop outside groups from surging funds into primary contests or general elections. But some Democrats believe the issue is core to the party's values.

“We should eliminate any super PAC in a Democratic primary. And I think every presidential candidate in 2028 should pledge that they will not have any super PAC spending in a Democratic primary,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, a progressive and possible Democratic presidential contender who co-chaired Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign.

“That should be a litmus test,” Khanna argued. “If you’re not willing to take that pledge, then you’re part of the problem.”

Brown reported from New York.

FILE - Ken Martin speaks at the 2026 California Democratic Party State Convention in San Francisco, Feb. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

Federal safety investigators opened two days of hearings Tuesday to examine why the engine flew off a UPS cargo plane last year, causing a crash that killed 15 people, and why Boeing didn’t address an underlying flaw sooner.

The engine separated from the MD-11's wing as it accelerated down the runway Louisville’s Muhammad Ali International Airport in November. The crash killed three pilots on the plane and 12 people on the ground. More were injured.

“Please know: Your loved ones are the reason we’re here. We want to find out what happened,” Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, said as she addressed families during her opening remarks.

Separately, more details emerged as the NTSB released more than 2,000 pages of documents related to the disaster. The ill-fated plane was pressed into service after a fuel leak sidelined the original plane, investigators said, and the flight crew shared good-natured banter with the maintenance team during the second pre-flight inspection about “meeting again” so soon.

The hearings at the NTSB headquarters in Washington involve rounds of questions and answers among board members, investigators, and representatives of Boeing, UPS, the mechanics' union and other parties. The NTSB's final report likely won’t be ready until more than a year after the crash because it will look at every potential factor.

Here's what you should know:

The UPS plane, which was headed for Hawaii loaded with packages and fuel, had barely left the ground and cleared the airport fence when it crashed into several nearby Louisville businesses and created a massive fireball.

Dramatic photos the NTSB released after the crash showed the engine detaching and flying up and over the wing as flames erupted on the wing. The final images show the plane ablaze as it briefly gets airborne, leaving behind trails of smoke.

All MD-11s and DC-10s, a predecessor aircraft, were grounded after the crash. NTSB investigators said Tuesday that similar part flaws were found in three other UPS planes and a DC-10.

The Louisville disaster was reminiscent of a 1979 crash in Chicago involving a DC-10. The left engine also fell off in that crash, which killed 273 people and led to the worldwide grounding of 274 DC-10s.

The airliner returned to the skies because the NTSB determined that maintenance workers had damaged the plane that crashed while improperly using a forklift to reattach the engine. That meant the crash wasn’t caused by a fatal design flaw even though there had already been a number of accidents involving DC-10s.

But even at that point, the plane's manufacturer, McDonnell Douglas, raised concerns about the spherical bearing that helps hold the engines to the wings. McDonnell Douglas later merged with Boeing.

The NTSB said shortly after the Louisville crash that investigators had found cracks in some of the parts that held the engine to the wing. Those cracks hadn’t been caught in regular maintenance done on the plane, which raised questions about the adequacy of the maintenance schedule. The last time those key engine mount parts were examined closely was in October 2021, and the plane wasn’t due for another detailed inspection for roughly 7,000 more takeoffs and landings.

Boeing had documented in 2011 there were four previous failures on three different planes of a part that helps secure the MD-11’s engines to the wings, but at that point the plane manufacturer “determined it would not result in a safety of flight condition.”

The service bulletin that Boeing issued didn’t require plane owners to make repairs like an FAA airworthiness directive would, and the agency didn’t issue such a directive. At that point, Boeing just recommended replacing the bearings with a redesigned part that was less likely to fail.

Some MD-11s, a workhorse of the cargo fleet, are now back in the air after the FAA approved Boeing's plan to replace the spherical bearing on each aircraft and increase inspections.

FedEx resumed using the planes to deliver packages on May 10, but UPS has said it plans to retire its fleet of MD-11s. Western Global also uses MD-11s but hasn’t said what it plans to do.

Some experts speculated after the crash that the MD-11s might never fly again if the repair proved to be more expensive that it was worth in these older planes. But Boeing said it found a way to address the safety concerns simply by replacing the bearing and stepping up inspections.

FILE - This photo provided by the National Transportation Safety Board shows UPS plane crash scene, Nov. 6, 2025 in Louisville, Ky. (NTSB via AP, File)

FILE - Plumes of smoke rise from the area of a UPS cargo plane crash at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, Nov. 4, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry, File)