Charles Booker
D · U.S. Senate, Kentucky · Tier 4
Tier 4, “Critical / conditions aid”
Progressive Senate nominee (beat McGrath in the May primary; faces Andy Barr for McConnell’s open seat). In May 2026 his campaign site called Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide the US is “funding” against US law and said he “unequivocally supports a free Palestine”; the current site drops that language and instead pledges to “terminate our annual commitment to Israel that sends nearly $4 billion in foreign aid, and to suspend future military spending and arms sales until a two-state solution is enacted.” He pledged to refuse AIPAC money. Pressed twice on Fox News in October 2026 to say whether he supports Iron Dome funding, he gave no yes or no; he said Israel can defend itself, that Netanyahu is “operating like a war criminal,” and that “we should not be funding the ability to continue to slaughter innocent people.” On the Higher Learning podcast (posted October 30, 2026), asked what genocide he means, he said he had held “heavy conversations around genocide and what it means to see bloodshed and slaughter happening and knowing that our tax dollars are driving it,” and that “instead of our tax dollars being used to support the Israeli government and Netanyahu that is clearly a war criminal,” voters should choose leadership “that will not use our tax dollars in that way and invest in us.”
A 4. His current campaign site pledges to “terminate our annual commitment to Israel that sends nearly $4 billion in foreign aid, and to suspend future military spending and arms sales until a two-state solution is enacted.” He has named the genocide: his May 2026 site said Israel’s actions in Gaza “constitute a genocide,” and in April he posted “I stand against genocide.” What holds him at 4 is the frame. The pledge appears only on a site rebuilt after the May primary that dropped the genocide and “free Palestine” language; it argues the cut on cost (“Bring those dollars back home”) and ends on a two-state outcome rather than on the genocide ending. On Fox News in October 2026 he did argue it on conduct (“we should not be funding the ability to continue to slaughter innocent people”), but twice declined to say whether he would fund Iron Dome. In a podcast interview days before the election he again named the genocide in his own voice, speaking of “bloodshed and slaughter happening and knowing that our tax dollars are driving it,” though he still argued for ending the money as a choice to invest at home. His earlier record is mixed: in May 2021, welcoming the Gaza ceasefire, he wrote that “A temporary break on bombing is the minimum” and “Too much innocent blood has been spilled,” but in October 2021 he backed the $1 billion Iron Dome supplemental as “funding for Israel’s ability to defend itself” (Jewish Insider is the only source), and asked about military aid at an April 2026 WHAS11–Courier Journal forum, he answered about big money in politics. Counter-case: 4/5, on a pledge that reaches arms sales as well as aid.
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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).