John Braun
R · U.S. House, WA-3 · Tier 1/2
Tier 1/2, between “Firmly pro-Israel” and “Mainstream pro-Israel”
Washington Senate Republican Leader, RJC- and Trump-backed. In October 2023 he and the Democratic majority leader asked Gov. Inslee to fly the Israeli flag at the Capitol, writing that “There is no moral equivalence between self-defense in war and the murder of innocent civilians”; he co-introduced a Holocaust and genocide education bill framed as a response to “pro-Hamas demonstrations”; and in a June 2024 op-ed he wrote that “going easy on Hamas” had become “a pattern for many Washington Democrats”, attacking their Gaza ceasefire resolutions and the campus “pro-Hamas encampments”.
A 1/2, not a clean 1. His record is zero-daylight — the Israeli-flag letter, the “no moral equivalence” framing, and an op-ed attacking Democrats' ceasefire and end-military-aid resolutions for not condemning Hamas — with no expressed concern for Palestinian civilians in Israel’s war; the flag letter’s line on Gazans, “They also hold the Palestinian people in Gaza hostage,” blames Hamas. But none of it is leadership on Israel policy: the Holocaust-education bill is a communal antisemitism measure, the flag letter is symbolic, and the op-ed is partisan rhetoric rather than a brand built on Israel.
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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).