Long-shot congressional candidate Bruce Leon, who has said the influential pro-Israel lobbying organization AIPAC pressured him into dropping out of the race for Illinois’ 9th Congressional District, officially filed paperwork Tuesday to remove his name from the ballot and endorsed Phil Andrew, a former FBI agent.

“As we sit beside each other, we are — we’re looking at a nation that is divided in a world that is full of danger and conflict, and we’re both doing this because we recognize that what we’ve been doing up until this point has not worked,” Andrew said in a joint Tribune interview with Leon at Andrew’s Skokie campaign office Tuesday. “As cliche as it sounds, we are stronger together.”

While Leon was primarily self-funded and had a slim-at-best path to victory, his move to endorse Andrew followed him saying the American Israel Public Affairs Committee pressured him to drop out to help clear the field for state Sen. Laura Fine in the crowded race.

Fine and Leon are both Jewish and AIPAC has seemed to tacitly endorse Fine, even though she has said she has not sought the group’s endorsement.

Andrew worked for more than two decades at the FBI, including as an undercover agent and hostage negotiator, according to his campaign. In 1988, he survived being shot while trying to take away a gun from Laurie Dann following a school shooting in which Dann held Andrew and his parents hostage. Since leaving the FBI, he has run PAX Group, a security consulting practice.

As of last quarter, Andrew was among the top fundraisers in the primary race. Though he bolstered his war chest by making a $200,000 loan to his campaign, he lacks high name recognition or the status of an elected official.

Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss and political commentator Kat Abughazaleh led in cash on hand as of the last fully reported fundraising quarter, which ended in September.

Fine was also among the stronger fundraisers last quarter, raising six figures, as did Skokie school board member Bushra Amiwala, state Rep. Hoan Huynh, state Sen. Mike Simmons, former federal prosecutor and Microsoft strategist Nick Pyati and economist Jeff Cohen, all Democrats. Veteran Sam Polan also had a six-figure war chest after loaning money to his campaign.

Updated fundraising reports for all candidates are due later this week.

The winner of the Democratic primary on March 17 will be the front-runner in the race to represent the North Side and north suburban deep blue district, which has been represented since 1999 by retiring U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky.

Earlier this month, Schakowsky endorsed Biss.

Leon said Tuesday that he will keep his staff to campaign for Andrew and described the endorsement as a “merger.”

“We really see this as, like, a force multiplier,” Andrew said. “I’m new to politics, but I understand that it is a process of addition.”

Leon, a staunch supporter of Israel, has said AIPAC pressured him for months to drop out of the race to consolidate support for Fine, who has more widespread backing and has been endorsed by dozens of Democratic leaders in the district. On at least one occasion, representatives of the lobbying group spoke to leaders of Leon’s Orthodox Jewish community, adding to the pressure Leon felt to leave the race, he said.

Leon told the Tribune he planned to drop out more than two weeks ago and filed the paperwork Tuesday, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections.

On the issues, Leon said he aligned with Andrew on supporting community security and on options for low-income students to access private schools.

There was a personal connection, too: Andrew’s wife, Michelle, grew up a few doors down from Leon’s family in Deerfield, Leon said.

Asked in late December whether her campaign had been in contact with AIPAC and how she felt about the organization, Fine didn’t answer directly.

“I’m a proud Jewish woman who supports Israel, and I’m the co-chair of the Jewish Caucus in the Illinois Senate. So it’s no surprise to me that people are putting us together, because I’m a pro-Israel, Jewish woman,” she said.

AIPAC’s fundraising arm is the largest pro-Israel political action committee in the country and one of the most powerful for any issue in the country. AIPAC pushes its allies in Congress to support Israel’s interests, including through continued military assistance that has come under scrutiny during Israel’s attacks on Palestinians in Gaza following the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel by Hamas.

While it supports bipartisan candidates, the organization has been criticized by progressive Democrats who point out that Republican donors have helped fund its efforts to elect allies of Israel.

Martin Ritter, a Chicago-based leader at AIPAC, declined to immediately comment Tuesday.

Andrew, for his part, criticized the “outsized” influence of AIPAC in the race but said his campaign would “welcome support from all the different places that resources could come from, as long as they recognize we are moving forward on a shared vision for the future.”

Leon had dreamed of representing the Orthodox Jewish community in Congress, he said, but felt some relief at giving up the campaign this week.

“I feel better for the city of Chicago, the 9th District and the country if we can pull this off,” he said.