Deborah Ross
D · U.S. House, NC-2 · Tier 3
Tier 3, “Pro-Israel, critical”
Cosponsored Casten’s Ceasefire Compliance Act (Apr 20, 2026) and UNRWA restoration (May 29, 2026), signed the Castro–Van Hollen letter (Jun 2026) pressing the State Department to report Israel’s spending on West Bank settlements and deduct it from U.S. loan guarantees as the law requires, and voted Aye on the July 2026 Massie amendment to strip Israel’s military financing. She issued no statement on that vote, but asked by WFAE she said “Our country’s precedent of unconditional support has, in many ways, undermined progress toward those goals” — a secure, democratic Israel and a Palestinian state — and “I voted yes because it sends a message that the status quo cannot persist,” while pledging to “continue to support a strong U.S.-Israel alliance.” Her office told The Intercept in August 2025 that “Congresswoman Ross is not currently accepting AIPAC contributions,” a pledge it said covers the 2026 cycle. In a July 2025 letter to President Trump she called images of malnourished children in Gaza “heartbreaking,” wrote that “current levels of aid permitted into Gaza are tragically inadequate relative to the massive need on the ground,” and judged the Israeli military’s temporary aid increases “completely insufficient.” In 2025 she also signed the March letter demanding answers on the detention of student activist Mahmoud Khalil, the August Pressley–Pettersen letter urging Secretary Rubio to press Israel to allow a surge of aid into Gaza, above all infant formula, and, with most House Democrats, the September Schneider–Raskin letter to Netanyahu and his ministers opposing annexation of the West Bank. Her 2021–25 record is mainstream pro-Israel: she voted for Iron Dome replenishment (2021), H.R.340, H.Res.888, the “river to the sea” resolution, the Antisemitism Awareness Act and the April 2024 aid package (H.R.8034), which she said would “give Israel the support it needs,” voted Present on H.Res.894, and in June 2025 said “I strongly support Israel’s right to defend itself.” In September 2026 she signed the 72-member letter urging Netanyahu to contain settler violence in the West Bank. In June 2026 Ross 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 flat 3. Two 2026 steps toward limiting weapons — the Ceasefire Compliance Act cosponsorship and the Massie Aye — plus UNRWA restoration, the settlement loan-guarantee letter and a forceful 2025 letter on famine in Gaza make her supportive but critical. She is short of 3/4: no Block the Bombs cosponsorship and no call in her own voice to condition weapons as such, every step on weapons dates from 2026, and her votes keep the pro-Israel frame — Yeas on the IHRA-based Antisemitism Awareness Act, the “river to the sea” resolution and the April 2024 aid package — while she affirms Israel’s right to defend itself. Her one account of the Massie vote, given in answer to a reporter rather than issued as a statement, faults “unconditional support” but calls the vote a message and pledges to “continue to support a strong U.S.-Israel alliance.” Counter-case for 2/3: the acts are late, and the Massie Aye sits beside a June 2025 pledge that the U.S. “should remain committed to ensuring Israel’s security.” Counter-case for 3/4: faulting “unconditional support” is a conditioning principle in her own voice, and her office says she takes no AIPAC money this cycle.
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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).