Jahana Hayes
D · U.S. House, CT-5 · Tier 3/4
Tier 3/4, between “Pro-Israel, critical” and “Critical / conditions aid”
Cosponsored Block the Bombs late (Jun 4, 2026, 72nd–73rd of its 82 cosponsors) after original cosponsorships of UNRWA restoration (Mar 2025) and the Food for Palestinian Children and Families in Gaza Act (Feb 2026), and voted Aye on the July 2026 Massie amendment to strip Israel’s military financing, explaining that she supports “Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and homeland for the Jewish people,” has “a long-standing voting record in support of defense funding for Israel,” and found the amendment “poorly written,” but that “it opens the door to long overdue, hard conversations on U.S. military aid.” In that statement she said she was “horrified by UNICEF reports that children in Gaza have been killed, maimed, and displaced,” and in September 2026 she signed the Dexter–Ruiz letter seeking the release of detained Gaza pediatrician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya. In 2025 she signed letters demanding answers on the detention of Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil (March) and urging Secretary Rubio to demand a surge of infant formula into Gaza (August), and joined most House Democrats on the Schneider–Raskin letter to Netanyahu and his ministers opposing annexation of the West Bank (September). Her 2023–24 record is mainstream pro-Israel: she voted for H.Res.894, the Antisemitism Awareness Act, the Hamas-financing bill (H.R.340), the “river to the sea” resolution and the April 2024 aid package, and voted against the Republican aid bills of November 2023 and February 2024 because they left out Gaza humanitarian aid, saying “I continue to support Israel’s right to exist and defend herself in the fight against Hamas.” She backs a two-state solution and has not used “genocide.” In June 2026 Hayes 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 3/4. Three steps point toward limiting weapons: she cosponsored Block the Bombs on Jun 4, 2026, among the last of its 82 cosponsors; that month she signed the Balint–Castro letter asking the administration to stop arms transfers used in Israel’s operations in southern Lebanon until the violations cease; and she voted Aye on the July 2026 Massie amendment to strip Israel’s military financing. Her statement on that vote opens by affirming “Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and homeland for the Jewish people,” cites “a long-standing voting record in support of defense funding for Israel,” calls the amendment “poorly written” and says she voted for it because “it opens the door to long overdue, hard conversations on U.S. military aid”; it does not say the aid should stop. Her 2023–24 votes were the pro-Israel ones: Yeas on H.Res.894 (one of 95 Democrats; 92 voted Present), the IHRA-based Antisemitism Awareness Act, the “river to the sea” resolution, the Hamas-financing bill and the April 2024 aid package, whose immediate House vote she had urged in the Gottheimer–Wilson letter that month. She backs a two-state solution and has not used the word genocide. Her original cosponsorships of UNRWA restoration and the Gaza children’s food bill, her Nay on the 2026 anti-boycott bill and the concern in that same statement (“horrified by UNICEF reports that children in Gaza have been killed, maimed, and displaced”) point the same way. Counter-case: 3, since her Massie statement reaffirms her support for defense funding for Israel and the letter also affirms Israel’s right to defend itself.
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).