Missouri Alliance Network Poised to Play in Democratic Primaries – PAC’s Funders Include Republican Donors

The first Missouri Ethics Commission committee report for the Missouri Alliance Network is out.

Formed in March, the Missouri Alliance Network is, according to its website, a “state-wide political action committee, designed to promote an alliance with local and state elected officials, as well as business leaders with Missouri’s Jewish community and Israel.” Modeled on the successful campaign to push Cori Bush out of Congress, the Missouri Alliance Network wants to be an American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) for state and local politics, forcing politicians to show support for Israel, while its military intensifies its genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people.

If successful, the Missouri Alliance Network could destroy existing progressive electoral politics in Missouri and further weaken the Democratic Party. It will likely mostly involve itself in Democratic primary races. In addition to county council, municipal, and state legislative elections, Missouri Alliance Network plans to target school board races, as the Christian right has done for years. According to a recent Pew poll, 69% of Democratic voters hold an unfavorable view of Israel, showing that a pro-Israel stance is unpopular among Democratic voters. Support for Israel’s ongoing military operations undermines a candidate’s credibility with the progressive base of the party. A well-funded group dedicated to defeating candidates who share the views of the majority of voters creates a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t scenario for candidates,  and a further turning away from the Democratic Party by idealistic youth whose energy the party needs to win.

In the  last two months, the Missouri Alliance Network has suffered two major defeats. The first candidate that it ever endorsed, then-candidate and now St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer, rejected the organization’s very first endorsement. They also actively engaged state legislators in an attempt to codify a pro-Israel speech code in Missouri schools and universities – an effort that seems to be failing.

These initial failures don’t mean that the organization is going away – far from it. As such, it is worth looking at its first Missouri Ethics Commission committee disclosure report to examine the initial donors to the organization.

Stacey Newman (Progress Woman)

The top donor to the Missouri Alliance Network is another PAC, Progress Women, who donated $2,707.45. Progress Women was founded and run by former Missouri State Representative Stacey Newman. She is also the director of the Missouri Alliance Network.

Progress Women began in 2011. The PAC’s mission was to “engage more progressive women in the political process and recruit candidates”. Newman established the PAC in 2016, and she terminated this PAC on April 1, 2025. At this time most of its last funds were transferred to the Missouri Alliance Network. Its website and Facebook page no longer exist. This would mean that donors who thought their contributions would be used to support progressive women candidates are instead seeing their money used to advance the interests of the State of Israel. A recent Jewish Light editorial sheds some light on this move. According to Newman, she used to be a “progressive liberal activist” but now she is not. She is “just a Jew”. 

Newman demonstrated that she should never again be called a “progressive liberal activist” when she became a key player in Wesley Bell’s 2024 congressional campaign, leading the Jewish outreach campaign. This included encouraging normally Republican-voting Orthodox Jews to vote in the  Democratic primary. The founder of Progress Women helped push out of Congress Cori Bush, one of the most progressive congresswomen in history, utilizing the strategy of encouraging conservative Republicans to vote for the more conservative candidate in a Democratic primary. 

As “just a Jew” who is no longer a “progressive liberal activist”, Newman has expressed no concern for Palestinian victims of the Israeli military. She does spend a good amount of time expressing anger about “friends on the left” who don’t see the issue of Israel the way she sees it. She seems baffled by people showing empathy for Palestinians or criticizing Israeli war crimes.

Newman’s feed on X reveals her to be a fanatic who sees all expressions of solidarity with Palestinians as “antisemitism” – an example being her retweet of a post claiming that a United Airlines flight attendant wearing a Palestinian flag pin and a necklace with the map of Palestine justified a boycott of the airline. She also retweeted another post that claimed wearing a keffiyeh is an antisemitic act. She has called the anti-war, pro-equal rights for Palestinians organization Jewish Voice for Peace a “fifth column”, looking to undermine the Jewish community from within.

Jeffrey Abraham

B’nai Amoona Rabbi Jeffery Abraham was also a key player in Wesley Bell’s congressional campaign, working with Newman on Bell’s Jewish outreach effort.

Until this February, Abraham was one of the go-to people for mainstream St. Louis media outlets to interview about issues relating to Jewish life and about middle east politics. He accused people of antisemitism and “Jew hatred”, including former Congresswoman Cori Bush. He said the protests at Washington University and St. Louis University against Israel’s assault on the Palestinian people were “violent” while failing to provide any evidence whatsoever. He called anti-Zionist and non-Zionist Jews, such as myself, part of “token extremist groups”, and claimed that we represent “literally less than 1% of Jews in St. Louis. In actuality, in contradiction to Abraham, a recent community study conducted by the Zionist St. Louis Jewish Federation concluded that 36% of St. Louis Jews do not consider themselves Zionist, 24% do not consider it important for Israel to exist, and 34% do not consider it important for Israel to be a Jewish state.

Most of the local media stopped turning to him when he revealed that he believes that there are no innocent civilians in Gaza, that all Palestinians need to be reeducated, and when he agreed with a statement comparing everyone in Gaza to animals. Abraham was named as a founding board member of the Missouri Alliance Network in an article published by the Jewish Insider and as the Board Chair in a Jewish Light article. However, his name disappeared from the organization’s website as a founding board member after Cara Spencer rejected the group’s endorsement, at least partially because of Abraham’s extremist racist views. As is befitting an organization’s founding Chair, Abraham gave money to the PAC on its first day of operation.

The Missouri Alliance Network website also listed Central Reform Congregation Rabbis Susan Talve, Karen Bogard, and James Goodman as founding members of the organization’s advisory board, They were also named as such in the Jewish Light. Talve was a very prominent supporter of Wesley Bell’s congressional campaign against Cori Bush. These rabbi’s names also mysteriously disappeared from the organization’s website.

Rick Cornfeld

The Missouri Alliance Network’s treasurer, retired attorney Rick Cornfeld, made an $1800 contribution. Cornfeld has been involved with AIPAC for a long time. His Federation Election Commission donation record shows that Cornfeld gave $7625 to AIPAC in the last three years.

He also gives prolifically to Congressional campaigns – mostly Republican congressional campaigns. In the last three years, Cornfeld has given $9375 to Republican congressional candidates, including donating $2500 to Congresswoman Ann Wagner in 2023 (which she used to defeat Ray Hartmann), and $500 to St. Charles Congressman Bob Onder.

The fact that Stacey Newman is working directly with a major Republican campaign donor and major donor to AIPAC as the Treasurer of her organization should further teach the St. Louis community to believe what she tells you. When Newman recently wrote that she is no longer a “progressive liberal activist”, she told us the truth.

Keith Beardslee

With a $1000 donation, Keith Beardslee is another major donor to both Republican candidates and the Missouri Alliance Network.

According to a recent opinion piece he wrote in the Missouri Times Beardslee is vice president of the Seen Read Heard PR firm, although the Missouri Ethics Committee report says that he does public affairs work at KMB Innovations. His Missouri Times piece misrepresented the real purpose and potential effect of House Bill 937, which is not about protecting Jewish students, but instead is designed to abridge basic First Amendment rights at schools to protect the State of Israel from warranted criticism.

Beardslee has written standard pro-Israel propaganda for the Times of Israel and he used to manage PR for Missouri Republican Congressmen Billy Long and Blaine Luetkemeyer. He began his career working in the office of Republican Missouri governor Matt Blunt. He helped host an AIPAC fundraiser in Jefferson City. He has appeared on This Week in Missouri Politics to speak in favor of Israel as it ramped up its complete destruction of Gaza, and he states in his articles that he is a Catholic supporter of Israel.

Like Cornfeld, Beardslee is also a major donor to AIPAC ($2800 in the last three years) and Republican political campaigns, including a donation to President Donald Trump’s Joint Fundraising Committee and a total of $3950 to Ann Wagner’s congressional campaigns.

Todd Siwak

Todd Siwak donated $500 to the Missouri Alliance Network. He is the Chair of the St. Louis Jewish Federation.

Siwak runs a private equity fund, the Encore Group. He is the former CEO of the Ferrara Candy Company. He was a major Republican donor in the past, giving, for example, $2000 to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, $2000 to George W. Bush’s reelection campaign, and $2000 to John Ashcroft’s 2000 Senate campaign.

Michael Lourie

Michael Lourie is also one of the PAC’s initial donors. He is the Vice President of Public Affairs and Chief of Staff for the St. Louis Jewish Federation.

Nathan Cohen

Attorney Nathan Cohen is co-chair of St. Louis AIPAC, an opponent of Cori Bush, and a supporter of Wesley Bell. He donated $1800 to the Missouri Alliance Network.

Dafna Revah

Dafna Revah gave $1000 to the MIssouri Alliance Network. She and her husband David Palatnik are the co-founders of CBD Kratom, the ubiquitous cannabis, kratom and CBD dispensary that can be found all around the St. Louis area. They also recently acquired WellBeing Brewery, a Maryland Heights non-alcoholic beer brewery. They have both been involved in planning events “to honor and remember the Israeli hostage survivors”.