Becca Balint
D · U.S. House, Vermont at-large · Tier 4
Tier 4, “Critical / conditions aid”
Original Block the Bombs cosponsor and H.Res.876 genocide-resolution cosponsor; by her office’s account the first Jewish member of Congress to call Israel’s campaign a genocide (Sept 2025), grounded in her grandfather’s murder in the Holocaust. Boycotted Netanyahu’s 2024 speech; voted against the IHRA antisemitism-definition bill. She keeps to a two-state frame and takes no BDS, embargo, or anti-Zionist position. After voting No on the April 2024 Israel aid package she co-signed a 19-member statement saying “We believe strongly in Israel’s right to self-defense” and “All of us support strengthening the Iron Dome and other defense systems.” In a CNN piece published in July 2026 she said “I still believe that Jews should have a homeland,” “I still believe in a two-state solution,” and “I do not believe Israel should be dismantled.” In April 2025 she led the letter of 68 House members demanding answers on ICE’s arrest of Mohsen Mahdawi, a Columbia student, at his citizenship interview in Vermont, after signing the March letter on the detention of Mahmoud Khalil. She also signed the January 2024 Pressley–Raskin letter against the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, the October 2024 letter urging President Biden to sanction Israeli ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir over incitement of settler violence, the August 2025 Pressley–Pettersen letter urging a surge of infant formula into Gaza, and both West Bank annexation letters (the September 2025 Schneider–Raskin letter, with most House Democrats, and the January 2026 Welch–Khanna letter). In September 2026 Balint signed the Dexter–Ruiz letter seeking the release of Gaza pediatrician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya from Israeli detention without charge (Sep 8) and a 72-member letter urging Netanyahu to contain settler violence in the West Bank and “halt further settlement approvals” (Sep 24). On Oct 1, 2026 Balint became an original cosponsor of the Stop the Settlements Act (H.R.10642), which would sanction those who build or expand Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza and ban imports of settlement goods. After settlers attacked Palestinians and a Washington Post photographer during the olive harvest, she wrote on Oct 16 that the violence “is unacceptable. As is the Israeli government's enabling of it,” and that the bill “is essential to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and create a true pathway to peace”; after Brad Lander and dozens of harvest volunteers were detained on Oct 21, she called the detentions “a violation of international law” and said Congress must “tell the Israeli government that enough is enough.” On Oct 28, 2026, writing that a U.N. human rights panel had found “for a second time” that Israel is committing genocidal acts in Gaza, this time since the “ceasefire,” she posted a statement saying that with “a conclusive body of evidence in front of us” she has “a moral responsibility to speak out,” that “We must speak out against antisemitism and hold Israel accountable for its actions. We can do both. We must do both,” and that “I want both a safe and secure Israel and a safe, secure independent Palestinian state.” Balint signed the 27-member statement led by Jim McGovern explaining the July 15, 2026 Massie Aye, which says existing human rights conditions on US security assistance “have not been meaningfully enforced.” In February 2024 she was one of six House Democrats on a J Street delegation that went to Khirbet Zanuta, which their joint statement calls “a Palestinian village in the West Bank where settlers destroyed homes and a school”; the statement called for greater accountability for perpetrators of settler violence and for reinforcing that the West Bank and Gaza are “occupied territory” under international law. In June 2026 Balint led, with Rep. Joaquin Castro, a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Israel’s operations in southern Lebanon, signed by 76 House members, saying Israel’s “targeted, mass destruction of civilian homes and infrastructure does not constitute Israeli self-defense” and asking that, if U.S.-origin arms were confirmed in those operations, the administration “stop arms transfers being used in these operations until these violations cease”; the letter also affirmed that “Israel has a right to defend itself.”
Original Block the Bombs cosponsor (May 21, 2025) and H.Res.876 genocide-resolution cosponsor who, by her office’s account, was the first Jewish member of Congress to call the campaign a genocide, and who also voted against the IHRA antisemitism-definition bill and boycotted Netanyahu’s 2024 address. That conditioning record reaches Tier 4. Held at 4 by her two-state frame and the absence of any BDS, embargo, or anti-Zionist position.
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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).