The Last-Minute Million-Dollar Ad Spend Against Will Lawrence Is Coming From a Major Pro-Israel GroupStill from the attack ad by Rolling Sea Action Fund against candidate Will Lawrence in Michigan’s…

The Last-Minute Million-Dollar Ad Spend Against Will Lawrence Is Coming From a Major Pro-Israel Group (substackcdn.com)Still from the attack ad by Rolling Sea Action Fund against candidate Will Lawrence in Michigan’s 7th district.Democratic Majority for Israel is behind a million-dollar effort to slow the momentum of populist candidate William Lawrence in the closing days of a three-way primary in mid-Michigan’s 7th congressional district, according to two sources familiar with the arrangement.Lawrence, a co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, is running primarily against data center buildouts in the district, but has also made opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the war in Iran core parts of his campaign. He has two well-funded centrist challengers. The winner will take on Republican incumbent Tom Barrett.DMFI is using a vehicle called Rolling Sea Action Fund PAC to move money into the race. It is unclear if DMFI is funding the ad buy with a transfer or whether DMFI donors were being directed to Rolling Sea, but Joel Wanger, DMFI’s chief political officer, is organizing the effort. It’s a PAC affiliated with the Congressional Black Caucus, but it is regularly used by big money interests as a pass-through to cloak the true source of spending. “Rolling Sea exists as a place to wash money,” as one consultant working on the race put it to Drop Site. The ad buy began with $899,000 being put behind it (x.com).DMFI, Rolling Sea and CBC PAC didn’t respond to requests for comment.There is a rich irony in the nature of the attack ad from DMFI (youtube.com › watch). The ad takes a shot at Lawrence for a 2024 podcast interview, in which Lawrence talked about the way that the progressive momentum is often countered by a party establishment that co-opts the moral legacy of the Civil Rights movement and repurposes it as a weapon in its own defense. A pro-Israel PAC shrouding its activity in the veil of the Congressional Black Caucus would be exactly the kind of co-optation that Lawrence was warning against. It is much easier in a Democratic primary to take on a pro-Israel PAC directly than it is to take on the CBC, which was the precise point Lawrence is being attacked for making.Drop Site needs readers like you to make it run. Subscribe for free or make a tax-deductible gift (givebutter.com › support dropsite) today. On the podcast (convergencemag.com)Black Internationalism (convergencemag.com), (convergencemag.com) Lawrence was being interviewed by host Khury Petersen-Smith, who brought up President Joe Biden’s commencement address at Morehouse College. “The fact that Biden gave his commencement address at Morehouse College was pretty painful to watch, as a Black person, as a Black leftist, the Morehouse administration, in such a crass way, to lend its platform to Biden,” Peterson-Smith told Lawrence. “It was just so cynical, to say, We know that the majority of Americans want a ceasefire, we know that young people in particular are absolutely appalled by U.S. support for Israel, but this place that is kind of the crown jewel of historically Black colleges, the fact that Biden can give this commencement address is a gesture toward the idea that this is a progressive administration and so that is something for us to grapple with.”Petersen-Smith argued that Morehouse and Biden knew exactly what they were doing. “We recognize the political significance of the moral authority and credibility of the Black freedom struggle. It’s not just that we recognize that, but power re