Members of a WhatsApp group founded by wealthy pro-Israel donors coordinated to infuse last-minute cash into Don Samuels’s primary race against Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.
The members of the group — which included a consultant who at the time was working for the Samuels campaign as well as far-flung political donors — discussed raising six-figure sums for a political action committee, strategies for campaign phone banks, and an effort to marshal Republican voters to boost Samuels in Tuesday’s open primary.
“Hi Everybody, My Name is Alexander Minn, I work for the campaign,” Alex Minn, the campaign consultant, wrote to the group on July 24. “WE ALL HAVE THE POWER TO HELP GET RID OF ~the squad~ AND PUBLIC ENEMY #1 TO JEWS, ISRAEL, AND AMERICA- ~ilhan omar~” (Samuels campaign manager Joe Radinovich said on Saturday that Minn no longer works for the campaign. An August 4 episode of a YouTube show featuring Samuels included Minn as a campaign staffer.)
While national pro-Israel groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee have not come out swinging in the Samuels–Omar race, a far-flung, group of disparate activists are using the WhatsApp group, called “Zionists for Don Samuels Against Ilhan Omar,” to fill the gap.
Samuels lost to Omar by just 2 percentage points in 2022 in a showdown largely focused on policing.
This year, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict has become the focus of outside spending in Democratic primaries. In recent years, AIPAC formed a pair of political action committees that have poured more than $25 million into defeating two Black incumbent Democrats, Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., and Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y.
Whereas pro-Israel groups in Bush and Bowman’s races ran ads about issues other than Israel itself, the Samuels campaign has focused on Omar’s calls for a ceasefire, her denouncing the war in Gaza as a genocide, and allegations of antisemitism against the incumbent for her stances on Israel.
Samuels’s 2024 campaign has lagged behind Omar in fundraising — her $1.6 million haul in the quarter ending June 30 dwarfed Samuels’s $535,000 — but Wesley Bell’s defeat of Bush in an August 6 Democratic primary spurred a late donation boost. Minn posted a screenshot in the WhatsApp chat showing almost $100,000 was raised for the campaign in the 24 hours after Bush’s loss.
Campaign finance laws prohibit coordination between candidates’ campaigns and outside spending groups like super PACs, but Radinovich, the Samuels campaign manager, said the campaign has no involvement with any outside groups. “The Samuels campaign also has nothing to do with any independent expenditure groups, consistent with laws preventing coordination between campaigns and such organizations,” he said.
In a statement, Minn alleged antisemitism on the part of Omar. “Rep. Omar is a purveyor of hate against Jewish people, routinely criticized by both Democratic and Republican colleagues for her antisemitic bigotry,” he said. “I hope she loses, and I’ve done everything in my power and in accordance with law to make sure that she does.”
Big Super PAC Money
Members of the “Zionists for Don Samuels” group hail from various locations, with some from Minneapolis and others based in New York and Puerto Rico. Some have supported former President Donald Trump and other Republicans. Others are regular Democratic donors who have expressed disillusionment with the party over Israel.
“I’ve heard dozens of questions of where is AIPAC. We are fucking AIPAC now.”
One participant in the WhatsApp group, Michael Sinensky — a wealthy entrepreneur who on the chat justifies support for “alt right Christian Neo Nazis” — said he has worked with Make a Difference MN to raise over $120,000 for Samuels since July 31, according to messages he sent to the group chat. Make a Difference MN, a super PAC, was used by AIPAC in 2022 to route $350,000 into Samuels’s race.
This cycle, the super PAC spent $59,708 on printing and mailing in early August, according to FEC filings, though filings covering the donations have not yet been made public. Sinensky said his goal is to raise another $100,000 for the PAC.
“I’ve heard dozens of questions of where is AIPAC,” Sinensky said in the chat. “We are fucking AIPAC now.”
In a statement to The Intercept, Sinensky said he was not affiliated with the Samuels campaign. “To clarify, I’m not affiliated with Don Samuels’ campaign,” he said. “I was disappointed to learn that AIPAC wasn’t supporting Samuels and stepped in late to fill that void by rallying friends and family to donate.”
He alleged that Omar was antisemitic and said that the October 7 attack had changed his perspective on politics. “October 7th changed everything for me,” said. “Since then, I’ve become a one-issue voter, backing those who understand that threats to Israel are threats to Jews and liberal democracy everywhere.”
Minn, whose LinkedIn page identifies him as director of strategic engagement for the Samuels campaign since 2022 and who posted a contact email ending with @donsamuels.com to the chat, discussed campaign strategy freely with the donors supporting Make a Difference MN. At one point, Sinensky requested a phone call with Minn and another group chat member to discuss funding voter outreach.
(In the chat, Minn disavowed coordination with the PAC: “Some context from our compliance department at the campaign. I need to be clear that I can’t have anything to do with what a PAC decides to fund,” he said in an August 4 message. “This is for anybody in the group who would use any communication that has existed for nefarious purposes.”)
A screenshot of the “Zionists for Don Samuels” WhatsApp group.
Obtained by The Intercept
Minn also said he had been in touch with AIPAC. In one case, a Samuels supporter in the group had an email to an AIPAC regional official bounce back, and Minn offered to check the address.
“The campaign is in regular and will continue to be in regular communication with AIPAC,” he wrote on July 24. “Several members of my campaign staff, myself included, have intimate relationships with active and Former executive member of AIPAC.”
“Jews Against the Squad”
In an example of the eclectic and vociferously pro-Israel politics of the “Zionists for Don Samuels” chat group, it was formed in October 2023, according to the chat history, by vehemently anti-Democratic public relations impresario Ronn Torossian.
The group was founded under the name “Jews for Ritchie Torres” — the Democratic representative from New York known for his over-the-top support of Israel. (In a statement, Torres said, “The Intercept, as usual, is reporting fiction.”) During the summer, however, the group name changed to “Jews Against the Squad” and then later “Zionists for Don Samuels Against Ilhan Omar.”
“The bottom line is and it’s a sad one, we need to be supportive ON PRESIDENTIAL LEVEL of the alt right Christian Neo Nazis.”
Along with Torossian, other participants in the “Zionists for Don Samuels” chat have supported Trump in the past. In the chat group, Sinensky, who has given donations to many Democrats in the past, justified his support for the far right on the national level.
“The bottom line is and it’s a sad one, we need to be supportive ON PRESIDENTIAL LEVEL of the alt right Christian Neo Nazis at the moment (like Ukraine) to fight off the socialist, Marxist, anarchists who are supporting radical Islam,” he said. “Nazis are better than Islamic terrorists at this moment in time FOR PRESIDENT. On state and city level it’s different as proof with us supporting Ritchie and fetterman,” a reference to Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman.
In his statement to The Intercept, Sinensky said, “While I’ve mostly supported Democrats, the rise in antisemitism within the party has shaken my confidence. Given the stakes, I now feel that the current Republican Party, despite its flaws, offers stronger support for Israel and Jewish safety in America in regards to the presidential race.”
A screenshot of the “Zionists for Don Samuels” WhatsApp group.
Obtained by The Intercept
On the chat, Sinensky, who is based in Puerto Rico, with roots in New York, shared a receipt for a $10,000 donation to Make a Difference MN. Later, he added a user named Jordan Fried to the group, who then shared his own receipt for another $10,000 to the PAC. Fried, also from Puerto Rico, has donated over $14,000 across Donald Trump’s various campaign committees so far this year so far. (Fried did not respond to a request for comment.)
Beside the WhatsApp group, The Intercept found other links between the Make a Difference MN and Samuels’s bid to unseat Omar. The super PAC had existed in a now-defunct form for the 2022 cycle, when it spent more than $600,000 also in favor of Samuels’s last challenge to Omar. The filing listed Nicholas Lindstrom as treasurer and included an address that public records showed as Lindstrom’s residence. The address was also associated with August King, at the time the Samuels campaign’s finance director.
When the group was revived with a new statement of organization filed on July 24, 2024, Lindstrom remained the treasurer. Public records show separate current addresses for Lindstrom and King. As of November 2023, King was still on the payroll of an affiliated committee to the Samuels campaign, Neighbors for Samuels, according to FEC filings, after Samuels had declared his candidacy. (Lindstrom, King, and Make a Difference MN did not respond to requests for comment.)
Radinovich, the Samuels campaign manager said, “August King worked for the campaign in 2022 and helped produce our launch video in November. He has had no role in the campaign since that time, and we are not familiar with his roommate.”
Republican GOTV
On the WhatsApp group, Sinensky, Minn, and others bandied about strategies to give Samuels a leg up. With an open primary system in Minnesota, the chat group members discussed at length an idea to target registered Republicans to vote against Omar, according to screenshots of the group chat obtained by The Intercept.
On July 25, a chat participant wrote, “I have also asked the campaign if there is a way to obtain the contact details of all registered Republicans in the district.” (Minnesota does not require party declarations when registering to vote.) Sinensky replied, tagging Minn and the other participant, “Can us 3 get on a call to discuss this? I also want to do a voicemail drop” — a marketing tactic that leaves voicemails in user inboxes without ringing their phones.
A screenshot of the “Zionists for Don Samuels” WhatsApp group.
Obtained by The Intercept
Six days later, Sinensky had good news for the group: “We received a donor who is willing to match up to $50,000 into our pac – $100k donated to this campaign will help to put us over the top. (Texts, emails, vm drops, mailers, digital ads…).”
At another point on July 25, a chat group user wrote, “Let’s reach out to our conservative friends for whom Israel is a bipartisan issue and would support an Omar challenger. I have reached out to some of mine and the response has been positive!”
Minn responded within five minutes: “That’s fantastic. Please feel free to direct any questions to me.” Shortly afterward, Minn helped edit a text for activists on the group chat to send to conservative and Republican friends to help get them to vote. (In his statement to The Intercept, Radinovich said the Samuels campaign had no list of Republican voters and “doesn’t think winning a primary with Republican voters in an 80% Democratic district is a strategy that would be successful.”)
Minn also posted a link on July 28 to a Google Drive with campaign graphics, social media assets, and talking points on it. “For anyone looking to access to all of our graphics, please use this Google Drive,” he wrote. After an inquiry from The Intercept, the Google Drive was made private.
“This is a memory that all of us can hold onto forever. Being a part of getting rid of the squad!”
On August 4, Sinensky shared a promotional video “made as volunteers with zero affiliation to the campaign,” saying that he was looking for “big Jewish influencers.” An associate posted a Google Drive link with the video, which has since been deleted. Minn then responded, “I know we are working on talking to influencers.”
Later that day, Minn posted a message to rally the activists in the group, which had grown to hundreds in number.
“We are making History!!!” he wrote. “My daughter knows that it is something important. She and I call Ilhan the wicked witch and when she goes to school some days she tells all her classmates that ‘her daddy has an important job fighting the wicked witch.’ This is a memory that all of us can hold onto forever. Being a part of getting rid of the squad!”
The post Inside the “Zionists for Don Samuels” WhatsApp Group Raising Big Money to Oust Ilhan Omar appeared first on The Intercept.