Betty McCollum
D · U.S. House, MN-4 · Tier 3/4
Tier 3/4, between “Pro-Israel, critical” and “Critical / conditions aid”
Author and lead sponsor of the Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act in five consecutive Congresses (H.R.4391 in the 115th through H.R.7545 in the 119th). Original cosponsor of the H.Res.1289 Nakba and right-of-return resolution and of the UNRWA Funding Emergency Restoration Act; Block the Bombs cosponsor (Sept 30, 2025). Voted Nay on the H.R.23 ICC-sanctions bill and Nay on the H.R.6090 IHRA bill. Own voice: “the United States must not tolerate the apartheid policy of our ally, Israel.” She also voted Yea on the April 2024 aid supplemental, Yea on the 2021 Iron Dome supplemental, Yea on the resolution condemning “from the river to the sea,” and was Present rather than Aye on the July 2026 Massie amendment. In 2024 she signed the January Pressley–Raskin letter urging the State Department to affirm U.S. opposition to the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, the June Durbin-led letter backing refugee priority status for Gazans with U.S. citizen or permanent-resident relatives and the October DeLauro–Van Hollen letter urging the Biden administration to sanction Israeli ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir over incitement of settler violence. In 2025 she signed the letters demanding answers on the detentions of the student activists Mahmoud Khalil (March) and Mohsen Mahdawi (April), the August Pressley–Pettersen letter urging Secretary Rubio to press Israel for a massive surge of aid into Gaza, above all infant formula, and, with most House Democrats, the September Schneider–Raskin letter to Netanyahu and his ministers opposing annexation of the West Bank. In January 2026 she signed the Welch–Khanna letter urging Secretary Rubio to warn Israel off annexation and the E-1 settlement and to reimpose Biden-era West Bank sanctions. In August and September 2026 McCollum signed Tlaib’s letter demanding the release of 20-year-old US citizen Sama Safi from Israeli military detention, the Dexter–Ruiz letter seeking the release of Gaza pediatrician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya from Israeli detention without charge (Sep 8) and the Pocan–Quigley letter on Palestinian medical workers held by Israel without charge (Sep 24). On Oct 22, 2026, after Israeli forces detained U.S. rabbis and Brad Lander among volunteers protecting Palestinian olive harvesters, she wrote that “Israel’s government must be held accountable for their drastic act.” In June 2026 McCollum signed a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, led by Reps. Becca Balint and Joaquin Castro, on Israel’s operations in southern Lebanon, 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.”
A 3/4: an authoring record against her votes. Toward the critical end, she has written the strongest Palestinian-rights bill in Congress across five Congresses, has been an original cosponsor of three of Tlaib’s Nakba resolutions affirming the Palestinian right of return (H.Res.1123 in 2022, H.Res.388 in 2023 and H.Res.1289 in 2026), voted Nay on both the ICC-sanctions bill and the IHRA bill, cosponsors Block the Bombs (since September 2025) and the Ceasefire Compliance Act (an original cosponsor, February 2026), and uses “apartheid” in her own voice, and “genocide” too: “It is illegal, immoral, and intentional. It is genocide” (July 2025), the charge the 2026 Nakba resolution she cosponsored also makes. Cosponsoring the Nakba resolutions puts her on record for the right of return, a position that questions Israel’s legitimacy and reaches toward the Tier 6 end. FEC Schedules A, B and E show no money from AIPAC, DMFI, CUFI or the other counted pro-Israel PACs. Toward the pro-Israel end, and substantially: she voted Yea on the April 2024 supplemental, Yea on the 2021 Iron Dome supplemental and Yea on the resolution condemning “from the river to the sea,” was an original cosponsor of H.Res.771, and went Present rather than Aye on the July 2026 Massie amendment when nearly every member rated 4 voted Aye. She did not cosponsor H.Res.876 and reaffirms two states while calling Israel “our ally.” H.R.7545 also centers on the West Bank and East Jerusalem: it never names Gaza, and it limits what U.S. aid may pay for without stopping any arms transfer. The authored bill and the right of return place her at the critical edge of 3/4; her votes for the April 2024 aid package and the “river to the sea” resolution keep her from a clean 4.
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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).