Cory Booker
D · U.S. Senate, New Jersey · Tier 2
Tier 2, “Mainstream pro-Israel”
Voted against every Sanders resolution to block arms to Israel in 2024 and 2025, then for blocking two sales in April 2026; ~$735,781 in pro-Israel money since 2021; does not use the word ‘genocide’; pledged in a March 2026 Politico interview to reject money from AIPAC and other PACs. He framed the flip around the Iran war rather than Israel policy, saying he will “always steadfastly support Israel's defense and deterrence capabilities,” and the New Jersey Globe reported in April 2026 that he had retained AIPAC’s endorsement after pledging off its money. That April 2026 flip covered both the bulldozer sale and, on a resolution only 36 senators supported (36–63), the sale of 1,000-lb bombs, while he still affirms a two-state framework that “guarantees Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state.” In September 2026 he told WHYY he has “long called for a two-state solution with a permanent home for the Palestinian people” and hopes Netanyahu’s government “is thrown out of power in the upcoming Israeli elections.” At his only debate with Republican Justin Murphy, on October 8, 2026, he called the Iran war “one of the most colossally stupid things the president has ever done,” said “Israel and the United States decided to go to war with Iran” and said of Trump, “He and Israel rushed into this war with no conceivable end game” (the lines naming Israel, his answer to a question on where Trump is wrong on Israel, are in the New Jersey Globe’s debate video and JNS).
A 2. Long a Senate backer of Israel, he voted to table Sanders’ 2024 human-rights report request, for both 2024 aid packages, and against every arms-block resolution in 2024 and 2025. About $735,781 in pro-Israel money has gone to him since 2021, nearly all of it the $712,181 AIPAC’s PAC gave him in the 2026 cycle, which Read Sludge reported was the first AIPAC PAC money of his career; in March 2026 he pledged to stop taking it. In April 2026 he cast his first votes to block arms to Israel, on the D-9 bulldozer sale (S.J.Res.32) and the 1,000-lb bombs (S.J.Res.138), framing them around the Iran war rather than Israel’s conduct. He does not use the word genocide and affirms a two-state framework that “guarantees Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state.” Counter-case: 2/3, since the April votes reached the bombs themselves, in September 2026 he voted to bring a similar report request to the floor, he is the Senate author of the West Bank Violence Prevention Act (S.2667, August 2025), which authorizes sanctions on anyone committing illegal violent acts in the West Bank, and he signed the June 2024 Durbin letter backing refugee status for Gazans with U.S. citizen or permanent-resident relatives and the July 2025 Van Hollen letter seeking an independent U.S. investigation into the killing of American citizen Saifullah Musallet by settlers in the West Bank; John Hickenlooper cast the same votes but has explained his as limiting offensive 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).