Debbie Dingell
D · U.S. House, MI-6 · Tier 2/3
Tier 2/3, between “Mainstream pro-Israel” and “Pro-Israel, critical”
Represents a large Arab American community and called for “a bilateral ceasefire” on Nov 29 2023, citing “the horrific loss of more than 13,000 Palestinian lives, including more than 6,000 children”; in 2024 she signed both the April letter urging Biden “to withhold this and any future offensive arms transfers” after the World Central Kitchen strike and the May Rafah letter urging him to “immediately withhold certain offensive military aid.” In July 2025 she wrote “Starvation is not self defense. The blockade must end,” and after Israel’s strike on Gaza’s Catholic church asked Rubio how the U.S. ensures its weapons are not used “in ways that violate international humanitarian law”; in August 2025 she led 142 House members demanding that injured Gaza children get medical visas and signed the letter urging Secretary Rubio to demand “a massive surge of humanitarian aid” into Gaza, infant formula above all, and she was an original cosponsor of UNRWA restoration (Mar 2025) and a co-lead of the June 2024 letter seeking refugee pathways for Palestinians. She also signed the October 2024 letter urging Biden to sanction Israeli ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir for “driving policies that promote settler violence,” the March 2025 letter demanding answers on the detention of Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil and, with most House Democrats, the September 2025 letter opposing West Bank annexation. She voted against the “river to the sea” resolution, the bill to force the paused bomb shipment, the 2024 ICC-sanctions bill and the 2026 anti-boycott bill and Present on H.Res.894, but for the Antisemitism Awareness Act and the Hamas-financing bill; she was absent for every vote on the days of the April 2024 aid package and the July 2026 Massie amendment, and has cosponsored neither Block the Bombs nor the Ceasefire Compliance Act. Asked on CNN on Oct 15, 2026 whether she sees Israel as a threat, as Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed had said, she faulted the Netanyahu government (“We’ve seen what’s happened in Gaza”), called “a nuclear Iran” “one of the biggest threats that there is to world peace,” and said: “I believe Israel has a right to exist. So, there are tweaks probably to where the Senate candidate is and I am definitively.” In June 2026 Dingell 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.”
A 2/3. Her humanitarian record is among the strongest of any member who has not acted on weapons: “Starvation is not self defense. The blockade must end” (July 2025); an original cosponsorship of UNRWA restoration; the 2025 medical-visa letter for injured Gaza children she led with Kim Schrier; a co-lead on the 2024 refugee-pathways letter for Palestinians; and her signature on two 2024 letters urging Biden to withhold offensive arms. She voted against condemning “from the river to the sea,” against forcing the paused bomb shipment and against the 2024 ICC-sanctions bill. But she has taken no step of her own to limit weapons: no Block the Bombs or Ceasefire Compliance Act cosponsorship, no vote on the April 2024 aid package or the Massie amendment, and both withholding letters were led by others. She voted for the Antisemitism Awareness Act and frames her goal as a bilateral ceasefire and two states, affirming that “Israel has a right to safety and security.” Counter-case: a flat 3, reading the two letters she signed as a weapons record.
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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).