People wait to check in for voting in the New York Primary election at the Brooklyn Museum voting station in New York City, U.S., June 22, 2021. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

The Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) PAC announced its endorsement of 15 Democrats for the 2022 primary election season on Monday.

The first slate of candidates that will receive backing from DMFI PAC include:

• Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), who is so far running unopposed for reelection to the 4th Massachusetts Congressional District.
• Florida State Sen. Randolph Bracy (D-Fla.) is in a contested primary to fill a Democratic seat representing Florida’s 10th Congressional District.
• Rep. Shontel Brown (D-Ohio) is again being challenged for the Ohio 11th Congressional District seat in the Democratic primary by former Ohio State Sen. Nina Turner. Brown defeated her in a special election last year with help from the DMFI PAC and other pro-Israel Jewish organizations.
• Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.), an incumbent, is competing in a primary for a third term representing Illinois’s 6th Congressional District against another incumbent, Rep. Mary Newman (D-Ill.), after redistricting in the state.
• Democrat Jane Hamilton is running in a nine-candidate primary for the open, solidly Democratic Texas 11th Congressional District.
• Steve Irwin has been endorsed in the contested primary to represent Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District seat.
• Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), an incumbent who is being challenged in the primaries for Connecticut’s 1st Congressional District seat.
• Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) is facing a six-candidate primary to represent the strongly Democratic New York 12th Congressional District.
• Former Congressman Max Rose, who lost in the 2020 general election, is seeking to regain his seat representing New York’s 11th Congressional District, starting with winning a five-candidate Democratic primary race.
• Incumbent Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) is fighting a primary challenge for the (likely) Democratic Oregon’s 5th Congressional District seat.
• Incumbent Rep. Haley Stevens, (D-Mich.) is DMFI’s endorsement for the Democratic primary race in the newly formed Michigan 11th Congressional District. Stevens is running against incumbent Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.), whose district was combined after the state lost a district in redistricting.
• Incumbent Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) has been endorsed for re-election to New York’s 15th Congressional District race. Torres is currently running unopposed.
• Incumbent Rep. David Trone (D-Md.) is running against two primary challengers to retain his seat representing the solidly Democratic Maryland 6th Congressional District.
• Gilbert Villegas, a Chicago City Council member, is running as one of three Democratic candidates for the open seat in Illinois’s 3rd Congressional District.

The endorsements were made due to their support for strengthening the US-Israeli relationship, supporting military aid to Israel without preconditions, and opposition to the BDS movement while working with the Biden administration to advance the Democratic agenda, according to a DMFI news release.

“DMFI PAC was proud to have played a pivotal role in ensuring the success of dozens of pro-Israel Democrats in 2020 and in 2021 special elections across the country — election cycles that proved being pro-Israel is good politics, as well as good policy,” said DMFI PAC President Mark Mellman in the release, adding that “2022 is another critically important election year with several strong pro-Israel champions facing challengers hellbent on using the US-Israel alliance to divide Democrats when the party most requires unity to defend our slim House and Senate majorities.”

A few of the candidates running against DMFI endorsed candidates have taken positions openly critical of Israel and in favor of BDS.