John Garamendi
D · U.S. House, CA-8 · Tier 3/4
Tier 3/4, between “Pro-Israel, critical” and “Critical / conditions aid”
Voted against the April 2024 Israel aid package (H.R.8034), saying “I voted no on sending more money for offensive weapons to Israel” and that “we cannot continue to provide unconditional U.S. funding for Prime Minister Netanyahu’s unconscionable bombing campaign in Gaza.” In July 2025 he said “It’s impossible to look at the starvation caused by Israel’s dangerous and willful failure to enable humanitarian aid and not see a genocide being committed against the people of Palestine,” and that “America should no longer provide destructive bombs and munitions to Israel”; he cosponsored Block the Bombs (H.R.3565) on Aug 26, 2025, was an original cosponsor of UNRWA restoration (Mar 2025) and the Ceasefire Compliance Act (Feb 2026), and in July 2026 voted Aye on the Massie amendment to strip Israel’s $3.3 billion in military financing, joining a 27-member statement opposing $3.3 billion more “for Israeli military operations in Gaza and Lebanon—operations which have killed tens of thousands of civilians.” He signed the October 2024 DeLauro–Van Hollen letter urging the Biden administration to sanction Israeli ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir over incitement of settler violence. In 2025 he signed the March Jayapal–Raskin–Scanlon letter demanding answers on the detention of Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, the August Pressley–Pettersen letter urging Secretary Rubio to press Israel for a massive 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. In January 2026 he signed the Welch–Khanna letter urging Secretary Rubio to warn Israel off annexation and the E-1 settlement and to reimpose Biden-era West Bank sanctions. On Sep 24, 2026 he signed the Pocan–Quigley letter on Palestinian medical workers held by Israel without charge and a 72-member letter urging Netanyahu to contain settler violence in the West Bank and “halt further settlement approvals.” He voted against both ICC-sanctions bills and the Antisemitism Awareness Act, and Present on H.Res.894. His record early in the genocide was mainstream: an original cosponsor of the October 2023 “Standing with Israel” resolution, which he said reaffirmed support for “Israel’s security, its right to self-defense, and US security assistance to Israel,” and Yea on H.Res.888, the “river to the sea” condemnation and the Human Shields Act; he voted against Greene’s 2025 cut to Israeli missile-defense aid. In June 2026 Garamendi 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.” Jewish Insider reported on Oct 23, 2026 that Garamendi 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 3/4 at the critical edge. His record since 2024 is a 4’s: the Nay on the April 2024 package, which he explained as a refusal to fund offensive weapons for the bombing of Gaza, then Block the Bombs, the Ceasefire Compliance Act and the Aye on the Massie amendment, and he names the genocide in his own voice. What holds him short of a clean 4 is his vote for the April 2024 resolution condemning “from the river to the sea,” which 44 members opposed, alongside his original cosponsorship of the October 2023 “Standing with Israel” resolution, his votes for H.Res.888 and the Human Shields Act, and his 2025 vote to keep Israel’s missile-defense money. He stops well short of 5: he voted in July 2026 to strip Israel’s $3.3 billion in military financing, but in 2025 he voted to keep its missile-defense aid, and he frames the goal as two states. Counter-case: a 4 if he disowns his “river to the sea” vote in his own words.
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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).