Chris Coons
D · U.S. Senate, Delaware · Tier 2
Tier 2, “Mainstream pro-Israel”
A firm pro-Israel Democrat who has never voted to withhold weapons from Israel, though he told Axios in September 2025 that if Israel’s government did not change direction, “for the first time I would seriously consider that.” He voted NO on both July 2025 and both April 2026 Sanders arms-disapproval resolutions (he did not vote on the January 2024 motion to table Sanders's human-rights request, S.Res.504), and worked to build support for the April 2024 supplemental. AIPAC-backed; spoke at AIPAC’s 2018 policy conference. Backs aid and a (nonmilitarized) two-state outcome, having joined a March 2024 letter urging a path to U.S. recognition of a nonmilitarized Palestinian state. Up for reelection 2026. In April 2024 he said for the first time that he would vote to condition aid if Netanyahu sent the IDF into Rafah at scale with no provision for civilians — “I’ve never said that before” — but two years later he had voted No on eight of the nine arms-block resolutions and missed the ninth. In September 2026 he was an original cosponsor of S.Res.852, Van Hollen's request for a State Department report on Israel's human-rights practices, and voted to advance it (it failed 47–51). On Sep 23, 2026 he introduced S.5476, which would sanction foreign persons who have facilitated Israeli settlement construction in the E1 area of the West Bank; 20 Democrats have cosponsored it. On Oct 16, 2026, after masked settlers attacked Palestinian villagers at the olive harvest and beat a Washington Post photographer, he wrote: “There must be swift justice and accountability for perpetrators of violent extremism in the West Bank, which stands in the way of regional peace and is escalating an already unpredictable and dangerous situation.” At an October 22, 2026 forum with Mike Katz, Spotlight Delaware reported, he said he would reconsider military support for Israel if Netanyahu moves to annex the West Bank or ignores humanitarian needs in Gaza, adding: “I recognize that a traumatized Israeli population is not in the mood today to embrace the path of peace.” On Oct 27, 2026, Israel’s election day, he wrote: “I hope Israelis head to the polls today looking for a change in leadership and a path toward peace and stability in the region.” On CBS’s The Takeout that day he said “it was Hamas that carried out those brutal attacks and Israel that has defended itself against repeated attacks from Iran and its proxies in the region,” but that Netanyahu and “his far-right Cabinet, that includes extremists like Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, have carried out a campaign in Gaza and the West Bank that has distanced them from the core values that have long united us”: “If Netanyahu is re-elected prime minister, we’re going to have to look hard at how our policies align or don’t,” while a government led by Gadi Eisenkot “may give us an opportunity at a conversation about the path forward for our relationship.”
A 2. He is a firm pro-aid vote who has never voted to withhold weapons from Israel: No on eight of the nine Senate resolutions to block arms sales (he missed the ninth). He has also led on the pro-Israel side: as chair of the Senate appropriations subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations he sponsored the Senate’s 2024 foreign-aid bill (S.2438), which set aside “not less than $3,300,000,000” in military financing for Israel; in 2018 he introduced, with Marco Rubio, a bill authorizing at least $3.3 billion a year through 2028 (S.2497, which passed the Senate); and in 2023 he introduced a bill, never taken up, to expand U.S.–Israel cooperation on development projects in other countries (S.2240). What places him at 2 rather than 1/2 is daylight in his own acts and words. In September 2026 he introduced S.5476 to sanction those who facilitate settlement construction in the E1 area of the West Bank, and he was an original cosponsor of S.Res.852, Van Hollen’s request for a State Department report on Israel’s human-rights practices, and voted to advance it. In October 2024 he signed the bicameral DeLauro–Van Hollen–Durbin–Casten letter urging President Biden to sanction ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, whose “incitement to violence” it tied to settler attacks. In April 2026 he faulted the Netanyahu government for “impermissibly using hunger as a weapon against Gaza’s civilians.” In April 2024 he said that if Netanyahu sent the army into Rafah at scale and made “no provision for civilians or for humanitarian aid, then I would vote to condition aid to Israel.” Counter-case for 1/2: the hunger line came in the statement explaining his votes to keep the arms sales going, and none of it has become a vote to limit weapons.
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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).