Daniel Biss
D · U.S. House, IL-9 · Tier 3
Tier 3, “Pro-Israel, critical”
J Street-backed Evanston mayor; won the March primary as a target of AIPAC-linked spending (about $1.4M spent attacking him by Elect Chicago Women, which also put about $4.38M behind his opponent Laura Fine, and whose largest donor is AIPAC’s UDP super PAC at just over $4M). A liberal Zionist, as Jewish Currents describes him, critical of the Netanyahu government: backs the Block the Bombs Act and preemptive recognition of a Palestinian state, but supports expanding Iron Dome funding and opposes BDS (in a 2025 position paper he republished in January 2026 and said he stands by), and has not called Gaza a genocide; asked by WBEZ in February 2026, he answered: “I have not used the term genocide to describe the horrors committed by Netanyahu’s government in Gaza but I do not argue with those who do.” In April 2026 he wrote that he is “not a supporter of the global BDS movement” but backed repealing the Illinois law, which he voted for in 2015, that bars state pension funds from investing in companies that boycott Israel. At a September 24, 2026 candidate forum in Skokie he said “we saw the U.S. write blank check after blank check to the Israeli government to facilitate the effectuation of unbelievable humanitarian crimes in Gaza” (Chicago Tribune, Daily Northwestern). Campaigning for Abdul El-Sayed among Jewish voters in Detroit on October 19, 2026, he said he believes “that the Jewish people have a legitimate claim to the land where the state of Israel has been established,” warned against “the political narrowness of the organized Jewish community” (JTA), and said El-Sayed had shown a “genuine commitment to Jewish safety” (Evanston Now). On October 21 he posted that the Israeli army had detained Brad Lander and his group “simply for being part of the olive harvest in the West Bank. Instead of protecting Palestinians from the violent marauding Israeli settler groups, this is how they operate. It’s unacceptable.”
A 3. With no votes in Congress, the Evanston mayor is judged mostly on his words. His weapons line stops at offensive arms: in August 2025 he wrote that the U.S. “must immediately stop the transfer of the offensive weapons that facilitate this horror,” and his Evanston RoundTable candidate profile says “The U.S. must enact the Block the Bombs Act.” Asked by WBEZ in February 2026 whether he supports strict human-rights conditions on U.S. military aid to Israel, he answered “Yes, and we should start by adhering to the laws we currently have in place, including the Leahy Law.” Beside it he pledges to keep arming Israel: a position paper he republished and stood by in January 2026 backs continued aid under the 2016 memorandum of understanding, says the U.S. “must aggressively support and expand funding for the Iron Dome” and backs the “protection and prosperity of the Jewish homeland.” He is “not a supporter of the global BDS movement,” and he has not used the word genocide, though he says “I do not argue with those who do.” Of his 2015 vote for Illinois’s law barring pension investments in companies that boycott Israel, he wrote in April 2026: “I would not cast the same vote today.” Counter-cases: 3/4, for Block the Bombs and the recanted vote; 2/3, for the pledge of continued aid and more Iron Dome funding.
Open the full card, with votes, money and every source, on elect26 →
elect26 places 2026 midterm candidates on a six-tier spectrum, from 1 (most pro-Israel) to 6 (most critical of Israel).