Chellie Pingree
D · U.S. House, ME-1 · Tier 4
Tier 4, “Critical / conditions aid”
The most vocal member of Maine’s delegation for Palestinian rights: cosponsored Block the Bombs and the H.Res.876 genocide-recognition resolution, was an original cosponsor of the joint resolution of disapproval blocking an offensive arms sale to Israel (H.J.Res.83) and of the UNRWA-funding restoration bill, co-led the six-member senior-Democrat letter pressing enforcement of Section 620I against Israel, signed the letter urging US recognition of Palestinian statehood, and in 2019 broke rank with Maine’s delegation to oppose the anti-BDS resolution. Voted no on the 2024 Israel aid supplemental. But she has explicitly spared Iron Dome and defensive systems (“I have long supported Israel’s capacity to defend itself through systems like the Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and the Arrow 3 systems,” April 2024), drawing her line then at offensive weapons, frames the outcome as a two-state peace for both peoples, and has not called for a full arms embargo or taken an anti-Zionist position. She also signed the January 2024 Pressley–Raskin letter opposing the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, the October 2024 letter urging sanctions on Israeli ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir over settler violence, Tlaib’s June 2025 letter of 19 members condemning the Israeli government’s use of starvation as a weapon and rejecting the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the August 2025 Pressley–Pettersen letter urging a surge of infant formula into Gaza, the September 2025 Schneider–Raskin letter, with most House Democrats, opposing West Bank annexation, and the January 2026 Welch–Khanna letter urging a stronger U.S. response to Israel’s moves to annex the West Bank. In 2025 she signed letters to the administration on the detention of student activists Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi. In September 2026 Pingree 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 Sep 14 she cosponsored Nadler’s Antisemitism Response and Prevention Act (H.R.6806), whose findings fault the “conflation of criticism of Israeli government policies with antisemitism” and the use of the IHRA definition in deportation proceedings. On Oct 1, 2026 Pingree 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; on Oct 16, after settlers attacked Palestinian olive harvesters and the photojournalist Heidi Levine, she wrote that “Witnesses say Israeli soldiers did nothing to stop it” and that “This escalating settler violence cannot continue with impunity or with the support of the United States.” Pingree 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.” Explaining that vote in her own words on July 20, 2026, she wrote: “We should not be giving another dime of taxpayer money to support Netanyahu’s genocidal regime.” In June 2026 Pingree 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.” Jewish Insider reported on Oct 23, 2026 that Pingree was among about 30 signers of a draft letter, led by Rep. Ro Khanna and gathering signatures through Nov 6, urging the negotiators of the 2027 defense authorization bill to strip its U.S.-Israel defense-technology cooperation provisions; the draft, which cites Israel’s conduct in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, says “These are not the actions of a government whose defense establishment should be granted deeper access to American military technology, nor rewarded with U.S. defense contracts,” and asks that any framework kept “carry human rights conditions consistent with those governing other United States security assistance.” On Oct 24, 2026, the day after two Israeli soldiers were killed at a checkpoint near Hebron, she called it “a clash between IDF soldiers and armed Palestinians” and wrote that “the Israeli government is using this incident as a pretext to increasing its hold on the West Bank,” that “The United States must make clear that such escalation is unacceptable,” and that Netanyahu “must be held accountable. Not just at the ballot box, but for his genocidal campaign of terror against the Palestinian people—a genocide that’s being paid for with OUR tax dollars.” Asked about aid to Israel in her Oct 29, 2026 debate with Republican Ron Russell, she said: “I’ve supported the bills that have put the brakes on some of the spending in Israel, particularly after the situation in Gaza and the current situation on the West Bank.”
A solid Tier 4 on a broad record: genocide-resolution and Block the Bombs cosponsor, original cosponsor of H.J.Res.83 and of Casten’s Ceasefire Compliance Act, UNRWA cosponsor, Section 620I enforcement, Palestinian-statehood recognition, and a 2019 refusal to condemn BDS. Held at 4 rather than 5 by real moderating positions — she has explicitly spared Iron Dome and defensive systems and in July 2025 voted to keep Israel’s missile-defense funding, though in July 2026 she wrote, “We should not be giving another dime of taxpayer money to support Netanyahu’s genocidal regime”; and she frames the outcome as a two-state, both-peoples peace with Palestinian statehood. That two-state position, sparing missile defense, is one Pressley and Balint share; unlike a clean 5 she has not called for a full arms embargo or taken an 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).