NEW ORLEANS — In rapid succession on Friday, three people stood from seats to disrupt a Democratic National Committee meeting, protesting U.S. funding of Israel and chiding the chair for breaking a promise of transparency.
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“Why you afraid of AIPAC?” one woman shouted as security escorted her out of the Hilton Hotel meeting room. Another yelled directly at the DNC chair: “What are you hiding, Ken Martin?” “How many kids have you killed? F— f—ing Israel!”
The outbursts were part of a push to pressure leaders into vowing to reject money from the major pro-Israel advocacy group and to call out atrocities committed against Palestinians. But as a major point of tension flared within the party, Democrats flew home from their spring meeting with little settled on what to say, even symbolically, on AIPAC.
AIPAC’s big-spending role in Democratic primaries has become a major issue in recent campaigns, and the question of whether to provide U.S. aid to Israel, even for defense, has become a litmus test in midterm primary contests — and for Democrats considering a 2028 presidential run.
But party leaders say once they’re back home, the conversation shifts dramatically. In interviews, many state party chairs, candidates and elected officials did not name AIPAC or Israel funding as a top-three concern they’re hearing from rank-and-file voters. Instead, it’s the nuts and bolts of the economy that are weighing down their constituencies, they say, with the cost of housing and food and the availability of health care all top of mind. They also express concerns about how the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration tactics impact neighborhoods, schools and small businesses, keying off of interactions caught on video in state after state since 2025.
“I think sometimes that people who are in Washington, D.C., for far too long are far too disengaged from what the ground is actually feeling,” said North Carolina Democratic Party chair Anderson Clayton. Clayton said her state’s residents are struggling to keep up with day-to-day costs. “The reality right now about North Carolina is it is the third-fastest-growing state in the country, and it is becoming more and more impossible for people to stay in the communities that they’ve grown up in and lived in, and costs are just rising every single day.”
In Iowa, tariffs have taken a toll on farming and those living outside major cities are in crisis as hospitals and clinics shutter across the state.
“It’s about what’s happening to people’s inability to get ahead right now. It’s the grocery prices. It’s the gas going up. It’s our rural hospitals closing down,” Iowa Democratic Party chair Rita Hart said. “It’s about rural Iowa really struggling to survive. It’s about how does a young couple stay in Iowa when there’s no place to go to have a baby that’s closer than an hour and a half away.”
The discussion comes as the party grapples with how to carve out a roadmap to the White House in 2028 and the Democratic Party as an institution scores low marks in poll after poll, even as President Donald Trump’s approval has fallen. A March NBC News survey found that just 30% of registered voters view the Democratic Party positively, compared to 52% who view it negatively. For Republicans, that split was 37%-51%.
At the same time, American support for Israel is sharply declining. The U.S. war with Iran, waged in conjunction with Israel, has inflamed anger over whether the party is giving adequate voice to that sentiment. Some DNC members expressed their frustration that the committee wasn’t formally sending a message with resolutions rejecting AIPAC and calling out aggression by Israel, including by calling its actions in Gaza a genocide.
During recent focus groups observed by NBC News (produced by Syracuse University and the research firms Engagious and Sago), Democrats in Michigan and Maine voiced significant criticism of Israel’s government around its conduct in the war with Hamas in Gaza, with a handful calling Israel’s actions “genocide.”
Party leaders are now contending with how to both address that anger and, at the same time, make sure they’re focusing on what the bulk of voters say they’re struggling with.
In South Carolina, Democratic Party chair Christale Spain said affordability, health care and education were issues weighing on the minds of her state’s residents. Spain said the state left money on the table by not expanding Medicaid and that health concerns have been especially acute in some parts of the state amid a measles outbreak and overall access to care.
Michigan’s Democratic Party chair, Curtis Hertel Jr., said that looking ahead, Democrats needed to reclaim their identity as the working people’s party.
“That doesn’t mean we’re walking away from anybody or changing who we are in any other regard,” Hertel said, later adding: “If you’re worried about whether you can afford to pay rent next month, or whether you can afford groceries, the rest of it doesn’t matter. How could it? This is a matter of survival for a lot of people.”
Some Democrats in the recent focus group were critical of AIPAC’s spending in Democratic primaries, but many weren’t aware of the group and most said neither the issue nor AIPAC’s involvement would affect how they vote in a primary.
Earlier last week, a DNC panel failed to pass two resolutions that would have placed conditions on military aid to Israel and recognized a Palestinian state and instead referred them to a working group. Critics said it was akin to kicking the can down the road, since the group has studied the issue since last year. Members advanced a resolution broadly targeting all dark-money groups but not singling out AIPAC. Pro-Israel groups hailed that as a victory.
“We’re pleased that the DNC Rules Committee rejected a set of divisive, anti-Israel resolutions. These measures would be a gift to Republicans, would further fracture our party, and do nothing to bring Israelis and Palestinians closer to peace,” Democratic Majority for Israel president and CEO Brian Romick said in a statement. “The DNC and party advocates need to keep focus where it belongs — on building a united Democratic Party that can win back Congress this November.”
Martin, in a post on X, defended the DNC’s actions, highlighting a “blanket repudiation” of dark money in politics that advanced.
He did not respond to request for interviews during the DNC, nor did he make himself available to reporters’ questions.
At a general session DNC meeting Friday, Jonah Garson, the first vice chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, expressed his frustration that the AIPAC language was stripped.
“AIPAC deserves to be singled out,” Garson said. “AIPAC, as a Jewish Democrat … makes me less safe.”
Cameron Landon, vice president of the College Democrats of America and a Georgia DNC member, urged the party to take a definitive stance against atrocities in Gaza.
“I do believe that the DNC must recognize the genocide in Gaza,” Landon said to cheers at the meeting. “When we call out the evil of the war in Iran, we must also say that arming the co-belligerent powers is wrong.”
In some primaries, questions over support of Israel and a candidate’s proximity to AIPAC have taken an outsized role in spending and television ads. That includes recently in Illinois, where AIPAC spent millions of dollars through shell organizations to support or combat certain candidates.
Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., said she polled her own district after the contentious March primary, and her internal survey showed 80% of respondents had heard of AIPAC. “It’s higher than some members of Congress’ name ID in their own districts,” she said.
Ramirez, of Chicago, said the average voter in her district is mostly concerned about the cost of gas and groceries as well as immigration enforcement overreach. But the “more informed voter,” she said, is agitating against any Democratic alliance with AIPAC. She said DNC leaders would be wise to reconsider how its handling the issue, particularly as it attempts to cultivate a younger generation of leaders.
“The DNC cannot say that it wants young people to be heard here, and when we bring these resolutions, it’s silence. We can’t do both,” Ramirez said. “What I have heard from some of the younger people, but also just in general, is people who feel like their voice has not always been heard here is that there is not a clear process, but also a fair process for their concerns.”