Campaign Finance · WA-09 · 2024 Cycle
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the Money
Every candidate answers to someone. Campaign finance records are public. The question isn't whether Adam Smith has donors — it's who they are, what they make, and what they expect in return.
The old paradigm funds war and violence and calls it security.
The new paradigm builds housing, healthcare, free college, climate resilience, and constitutional accountability — and calls that security.
This race is a choice between the two.
What this money buys
His donors profit from endless war, mass surveillance, and the siphoning of American wealth into private military contracts.
That is not a side effect. That is the business model. Every dollar that flows to these contractors is a dollar that does not build a school, fund a clinic, or house a family. It is bad for Americans. It is bad for the world. And it is, for them, extraordinarily good for business.
Donor #1 — by a factor of ten
AIPAC: $326,914.
His next-highest donor gave $34,600.
$326,914
American Israel Public Affairs Committee · 2024 cycle · OpenSecrets
AIPAC is Adam Smith's single largest donor — by nearly ten times. His second-highest donor, General Atomics — maker of lethal drones the U.S. uses in targeted killings — gave $34,600. AIPAC gave $326,914: $316,914 from individuals affiliated with the organization, plus a $10,000 PAC contribution. This is not a routine donor relationship. This is a defining financial commitment — from an organization whose explicit mission is to shape U.S. policy in favor of the Israeli government, whose military operations have killed tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza while receiving American weapons, funding, and diplomatic cover. Adam Smith chairs the House Armed Services Committee. AIPAC's investment in him is not a mystery.
Melissa Chaudhry does not take AIPAC money. She does not take any foreign-interest money, any corporate PAC money, or any money from defense contractors. When she says she answers to the people, you can check her receipts too.
The Surveillance & Autonomous Weapons Complex
After AIPAC: Palantir, drones, autonomous weapons, and the companies building the infrastructure of permanent war.
This is not a generic defense industry donor list. Look at who these companies are and what they build — and then look at what Adam Smith's committee votes have authorized and funded.
Rank #4
Palantir Technologies
$28,100
Peter Thiel's data surveillance company. Palantir builds the AI infrastructure that powers ICE targeting, predictive policing, and government mass surveillance. Melissa's platform already names Palantir by name: "We actively oppose federal contracts between DHS/ICE and Palantir, and any AI-powered infrastructure that converts human courage, dissent, or vulnerability into a data commodity." Adam Smith takes their money. The contrast is not subtle.
Rank #2
General Atomics
$34,600
Manufacturer of the Predator and Reaper drones — the unmanned systems responsible for hundreds of civilian deaths in U.S. targeted killing programs across the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia. General Atomics is Smith's second-largest donor after AIPAC.
Rank #9
Anduril Industries
$13,900
Palmer Luckey's autonomous weapons startup, building AI-driven lethal systems for the U.S. military. Anduril is one of the fastest-growing defense contractors in the country, explicitly focused on replacing human soldiers with autonomous killing machines. This is the future Adam Smith's donors are funding.
Rank #3
General Dynamics
$29,000
One of the largest defense contractors in the world. Manufactures M1 Abrams tanks, Stryker armored vehicles, Virginia-class submarines, F-16 aircraft components, and munitions. General Dynamics has been a consistent top-ten donor to Adam Smith for years.
Rank #10
Transdigm Group
$13,300
A defense parts monopolist that has been the subject of a Pentagon Inspector General investigation for systematically overcharging the U.S. government — in some cases by 4,000% above fair market value. Senator Bernie Sanders has called Transdigm "war profiteers." Adam Smith's committee oversees the Pentagon budget that Transdigm bills against.
Rank #11
Boeing Co
$11,970
Most people know Boeing as one of the world's great commercial aerospace companies — a massive employer in this district, a manufacturer that keeps planes in the air and workers in good jobs. Melissa stood on the IAM 751 picket line with those workers when they went on strike in 2024, and she has no quarrel with Boeing's civilian operations. But Boeing is also one of the largest defense contractors in the United States, collecting billions annually in Pentagon contracts — missiles, fighter jets, weapons systems, and the infrastructure of permanent war. That is the Boeing that donates to Adam Smith. The contributions flow from the defense side, the war-profit side — the side that does well when conflicts don't end. He takes the money. She does not.
Rank #6
SpaceX
$20,900
Elon Musk's rocket and satellite company is one of the fastest-growing defense contractors in the United States — collecting billions in Pentagon contracts for launch services and military Starlink satellite communications.
Adam Smith sits on the House Armed Services Committee. That committee authorizes the defense budget. The defense budget funds SpaceX's contracts.
SpaceX donates to Smith. Smith's committee authorizes SpaceX's contracts. That is a direct financial relationship between a donor and the lawmaker who controls the spending the donor is paid from. It is legal under current campaign finance law. It is also exactly the kind of donor capture this campaign is running against.
Musk also heads DOGE, which has fired inspector general officials and disrupted the contracting oversight systems designed to check how defense contractors are paid — all while his own company collects those contracts. The man who benefits from defense spending is simultaneously weakening oversight of defense spending. Adam Smith takes his money.
Also on the list: BAE Systems (#16, $10,050) and Honeywell International (#17, $10,025) — both major defense contractors with PAC money flowing to Smith at the legal maximum. Each can be verified on OpenSecrets →
On "No Foreign Interests"
Deutsche Telekom is on his donor list. It is a foreign-headquartered corporation.
Deutsche Telekom (#19, $10,000) — a German multinational telecommunications conglomerate headquartered in Bonn — gave Adam Smith $10,000 in 2024, entirely through PAC contributions. This is a foreign-headquartered corporation giving PAC money to a sitting member of the House Armed Services Committee who sits on subcommittees with direct jurisdiction over telecommunications infrastructure and national security.
Melissa's commitment: no corporate PAC money. No foreign interests. His donor list includes both — from the same organization.
