Ami Bera
D · U.S. House, CA-3 · Tier 2
Tier 2, “Mainstream pro-Israel”
Senior Foreign Affairs Democrat and physician, running in CA-3 rather than his current CA-6 under the map adopted by Proposition 50 in November 2025, who has made Gaza humanitarian access a recurring cause: he authored H.Res.935 calling for aid to reach civilians in Gaza (Dec 2023), saying “As a doctor, I know we must address the need for humanitarian aid in Gaza,” and co-led House letters opposing Israel’s total blockade of aid (May 2025), on starvation (Aug 2025) and on Israeli dual-use restrictions (Aug 2026); he also signed letters opposing the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza (Jan 2024), urging a surge of infant formula into Gaza (Aug 2025) and opposing West Bank annexation (Sep 2025). In July 2025 he said “There is widespread starvation” and “The Israeli government has not done enough to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid”; he skipped Netanyahu’s July 2024 address to Congress, urging a ceasefire to “end the horrific suffering of innocent Palestinian civilians.” He voted for the April 2024 aid package (praising its Iron Dome replenishment), H.Res.894 and the Antisemitism Awareness Act, and against both ICC-sanctions bills, H.R.8369 and the September 2026 anti-boycott bill; he cosponsors the U.S.-Israel Defense Partnership Act (H.R.1229, March 2025). On the July 2026 Massie amendment he voted Present, writing that he believes in Israel “as a Jewish and democratic state” but “I cannot vote against this amendment because I do not condone the Netanyahu government’s conduct of the war in Gaza and the resulting humanitarian crisis.” In January 2024 he signed the Smith–Manning letter, whose signers “thoroughly reject” South Africa’s “charge of genocide” against Israel. In March 2025 he signed the Jayapal–Raskin–Scanlon letter demanding answers on the detention of the Columbia student activist Mahmoud Khalil “simply for exercising his First Amendment right to free speech.”
A 2, at the high-daylight end. He criticizes the conduct of the war in his own voice — in July 2025, “The Israeli government has not done enough to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid” and “There is widespread starvation” — and in July 2026 he voted Present rather than No on the Massie amendment because he does “not condone the Netanyahu government’s conduct of the war in Gaza and the resulting humanitarian crisis.” His Gaza humanitarian work is largely self-led: an authored resolution (H.Res.935) and three co-led letters. But apart from co-signing one May 2024 letter, he has taken no step toward limiting weapons. Present is not an Aye; he cosponsors neither Block the Bombs nor the Ceasefire Compliance Act; he voted for the 2024 aid package, the IHRA bill, H.Res.894 and the “river to the sea” resolution; he cosponsors the U.S.-Israel Defense Partnership Act; and he affirms Israel’s right to exist “as a Jewish and democratic state.” Counter-case for 2/3: in May 2024 he co-signed the letter, with 87 other House Democrats, warning that Israel was “risking its eligibility for further offensive security assistance” and urging the administration to weigh “withholding specific arms transfers,” and in January 2024 one that found Israeli officials’ calls for “Nakba 2023” “deeply alarming.”
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elect26 places 2026 midterm candidates on a six-tier spectrum, from 1 (most pro-Israel) to 6 (most critical of Israel).