“It’s not just avoiding AIPAC money,” Congressman Ro Khanna told me. “It’s the guts to take them on with clear policy.” Khanna has stressed that “what matters more is the clarity of calling what happened a genocide and stopping military sales to Israel used to kill civilians in Gaza and Lebanon.”

The governor getting the most attention for 2028, California’s Gavin Newsom, has offered assurances that he will never take AIPAC money. In an early March interview, he seemed to compare Israel to an “apartheid state”—but later emphatically backtracked, expressing regret over using the word “apartheid” and declaring: “I revere the state of Israel. I’m proud to support the state of Israel.” That expression of reverence came more than three weeks after Israel had initiated its current wars on Iran and Lebanon.

Another governor eyeing the Oval Office who has vowed not to take AIPAC funding is Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania. He became controversial during the intense carnage of the Israeli war on Gaza when he called for a crackdown on peaceful campus protests.