Joseph Hernandez
R · State Comptroller, New York · Tier 1/2
Tier 1/2, between “Firmly pro-Israel” and “Mainstream pro-Israel”
Wall Street investor who fled Cuba as a refugee at age seven, the Republican and Conservative nominee against Tom DiNapoli. At the February 2026 GOP convention he committed to invest $1 billion of the state pension fund in Israel bonds; he calls Democratic primary candidate Raj Goyle’s Israel-bond divestment plan “an economic attack on one of America's closest allies, Israel,” writes that BDS divestment has been criticized “as a tool of Jewish hate,” and argued in JNS (May 2026) that Israel Bonds are “a strategically intelligent” investment for pensioners. At an October 28, 2026 press conference on Avenue M in Midwood, Brooklyn, he announced “that I will never divest from Israel Bonds,” writing afterward, “I will always stand with our Jewish communities.”
A 1/2, at the pro-Israel edge. His record goes beyond a statement of support: he has made defending Israel Bonds and attacking BDS a campaign plank and pledged $1 billion of pension money to Israel bonds (the fund held about $337.5 million in February 2026, per The Algemeiner), with no expressed concern for Palestinian civilians. But he holds no office, a pledge counts for less than an act already taken, and his framing is fiduciary rather than hardline. Open to a clean 1 if the $1 billion pledge is read as marquee pro-Israel financing in its own right.
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).