Jim Himes
D · U.S. House, CT-4 · Tier 2
Tier 2, “Mainstream pro-Israel”
Senior Intelligence Democrat (ranking member). Supports “steadfast” US backing for Israel and continued Iron Dome / David’s Sling missile-defense funding, alongside humanitarian aid and a two-state solution. He was an original cosponsor of H.Res.473 (June 2025), Pramila Jayapal’s resolution calling for the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza. AIPAC was his top 2022 donor. In October 2023 he declined to call for a lasting ceasefire; in August 2025 he co-led the ranking members’ letter urging President Trump to make “a permanent ceasefire a core objective.” He signed the April 2024 Gottheimer–Wilson letter urging Speaker Johnson to bring the Senate’s national-security supplemental, with its aid to Israel, to an immediate vote, and voted for the April 2024 aid supplemental; his criticism stays modest, condemning settler violence and West Bank settlement expansion, and he opposed censuring Rashida Tlaib. In March 2025 he signed the Jayapal–Raskin–Scanlon letter demanding answers on the detention and attempted deportation of the Columbia student activist Mahmoud Khalil. On Sep 8, 2026 Himes signed the Dexter–Ruiz letter urging Secretary Rubio to press for the release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the Gaza pediatrician and hospital director held by Israel without charge or trial since December 2024. In January 2024 he signed the Smith–Manning letter, whose signers “thoroughly reject” South Africa’s “charge of genocide” against Israel.
A solid mainstream pro-Israel Tier 2. He calls US support for Israel “steadfast,” backs the US-Israel MOU and supplemental funding for Iron Dome and David’s Sling, took AIPAC as his top 2022 donor, and voted for the April 2024 aid supplemental. In October 2023 he declined to call for a lasting ceasefire, saying he would not do so absent an alternative mechanism to bring Hamas to justice. His daylight stays inside a pro-Israel frame: he condemns settler violence and West Bank settlement expansion, signed the September 2025 Schneider–Raskin letter to Netanyahu opposing West Bank annexation, supports humanitarian corridors and pauses, and backs an eventual two-state solution — concern within firm support, with conditioning so far only in words (June 2026). What places him at 2 rather than 1/2 is concern for Palestinians in letters he led or signed: with Meeks, Raskin and DeLauro he led the August 2025 letter urging President Trump to make “a permanent ceasefire a core objective,” which said “the primary military objectives of this war have long since been achieved” and that aid must reach “starving, sick and suffering civilians”; with Raskin, Nadler, Jacobs and Goldman he led the November 2025 letter to Netanyahu calling the demolition orders against the West Bank village of Umm al-Kheir “cruel, unjustified, and in naked violation of international law,” and he signed the August 2025 letters urging Secretary Rubio to restore medical visas for children from Gaza and to press Israel’s government for a surge of aid and infant formula into Gaza, as well as the September 2026 letter seeking the release of the detained Gaza pediatrician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya. He leads no pro-Israel legislation, opposed censuring Rashida Tlaib and has taken no step toward limiting weapons, though in June 2026, calling the Massie amendment “way too overbroad,” he said he was “all in favor of making sure that the Israelis don’t get weapons that can find their way into settlers’ hands in the West Bank, [and] put some conditions on the way they conduct their wars in Gaza and in Lebanon.”
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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).