Joaquin Castro
D · U.S. House, TX-20 · Tier 4
Tier 4, “Critical / conditions aid”
Lead sponsor of the Stop the Settlements Act (H.R.10642, introduced Oct 1, 2026, with 42 original cosponsors), which would sanction individuals and entities that build or expand Israeli settlements and outposts in the West Bank and Gaza and ban imports of goods made in them; announcing it, he said “settlers are engaged in a violent land grab that’s ripping Palestinians from their land.” As cosponsors passed fifty he said on Oct 14, 2026 that “Settlement expansion pushes Palestinians off their land and makes peace harder to achieve. It’s time to use tools like sanctions to stop it,” and after Israeli forces detained dozens of olive-harvest volunteers, including a congressional candidate and rabbis, on Oct 21 he said: “If American public servants, diplomats, and journalists are targeted, imagine what Palestinian families face every day.” He called for a ceasefire on Oct 17, 2023, said that December he “cannot support sending Israel more weapons as long as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains in power,” voted against all three Israel aid bills of 2023–24 (H.R.6126, H.R.7217 and H.R.8034, leading the Nay statement that supplying “offensive military aid” would make Congress “complicit”), against H.R.8369 to force the paused bomb shipment and against both ICC-sanctions bills, co-led the March 2024 letter arguing that Israel’s aid obstruction barred further U.S. weapons under Section 620I, and cosponsored UNRWA restoration (Mar 2025), Jayapal’s joint resolution of disapproval to block an arms sale to Israel (H.J.Res.83, original, Mar 2025), Block the Bombs (Aug 2025) and the Ceasefire Compliance Act (original, Feb 2026). He signed the June 2024 letter backing refugee priority status for Gazans with U.S. citizen or permanent-resident relatives, the October 2024 letter urging sanctions on Israeli ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir over settler violence, the August 2025 Pressley–Pettersen letter urging a surge of infant formula into Gaza, the September 2025 Schneider–Raskin letter, with most House Democrats, opposing West Bank annexation, and the January 2026 Welch–Khanna letter urging a stronger U.S. response to Israel’s moves to annex the West Bank; in 2025 he also signed letters to the administration on the detention of student activists Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi. Speaking for the July 2026 Massie amendment to strip Israel’s military financing, which he voted for, he said “Israel does not need, and quite honestly does not deserve, more American money for weapons” and that October 7 “has become a justification for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.” He keeps defensive aid inside his frame — he voted for Iron Dome replenishment (2021), against Greene’s 2025 cut to missile-defense aid and for H.Res.888 affirming Israel’s right to exist, his letters back “the continued provision of defensive systems,” and the April 2024 Nay statement also says “We believe strongly in Israel’s right to self-defense” and “All of us support strengthening the Iron Dome and other defense systems” — and he says “ethnic cleansing” and “war crimes,” not “genocide.” In June 2026 Castro led, with Rep. Becca Balint, a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Israel’s operations in southern Lebanon, signed by 76 House members, 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.” Jewish Insider reported on Oct 23, 2026 that Castro was among about 30 signers of a draft letter, led by Rep. Ro Khanna and gathering signatures through Nov 6, urging the negotiators of the 2027 defense authorization bill to strip its U.S.-Israel defense-technology cooperation provisions; the draft, which cites Israel’s conduct in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, says “These are not the actions of a government whose defense establishment should be granted deeper access to American military technology, nor rewarded with U.S. defense contracts,” and asks that any framework kept “carry human rights conditions consistent with those governing other United States security assistance.”
A flat 4. His record of trying to withhold offensive weapons is among the longest in the House and is carried by votes, not only words: a ceasefire call ten days after October 7, Nays on every 2023–24 Israel aid bill (H.R.8034 explicitly over its offensive weapons), the Section 620I letter, Block the Bombs, the Ceasefire Compliance Act, an Aye on stripping Israel’s military financing in July 2026, and an authored bill to sanction settlement expansion. What keeps him at 4 rather than toward 5 is that his line stops short of defensive systems: he writes support for Iron Dome and defensive systems into his own statements, voted to keep missile-defense funding flowing during the genocide (No on the 2025 Greene amendment), affirms Israel’s right to self-defense and a two-state goal, and has not called it a genocide. Counter-case for 4/5: his July 2026 statement that Israel does not deserve more American money for weapons and the settlement-goods import ban reach past offensive-only conditioning, but neither cuts defensive aid or questions Israel’s legitimacy as a Jewish state.
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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).