Josh Gottheimer
D · U.S. House, NJ-5 · Tier 1
Tier 1, “Firmly pro-Israel”
One of the House's most vocal pro-Israel champions and among its largest recipients of pro-Israel money ($2,001,136 in career pro-Israel money through the 2024 cycle on OpenSecrets, plus $817,114 from AIPAC’s PAC in 2026 per FEC). He authored the U.S.-Israel Joint Missile Defense Act, has repeatedly led federal anti-BDS legislation, was an original cosponsor of McCaul’s bill giving Congress a veto over any arms-sale delay (H.R.8437), of Mast’s bill to claw back UNRWA funding (H.R.8232) and of Lawler’s Replace UNRWA with Real Humanitarian Assistance Act (H.R.9680, July 2026), voted twice to sanction the ICC, and publicly opposes any conditioning of aid, saying it “will only have one outcome: it would help Hamas in their goal of completely annihilating Israel and the Jewish people.” On Oct 1, 2026 Gottheimer returned from co-leading a bipartisan House Intelligence Committee delegation to Lebanon, where he pressed Beirut to meet its commitments under the June 2026 framework with the US and Israel — “removing Iran’s influence and fully disarming and defunding Hezbollah.” On Oct 6, 2026 he introduced a bipartisan resolution marking the third anniversary of October 7 (H.Res.1618), honoring the victims and hostages and “calling for the complete disarmament of Hamas for a durable end to the war in Gaza”; at an anniversary event in Tenafly the next day he said “Hamas has not disarmed,” announced new legislation with Mike Lawler that would bar U.S. contributions to the United Nations until it designates Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations, and cited the $100 million he secured in the defense bill for his U.S.-Israel Anti-Killer Drone Act. In January 2024 he signed the Smith–Manning letter, whose signers “thoroughly reject” South Africa’s “charge of genocide” against Israel. Later in 2024 he led letters urging Speaker Johnson to put the Senate’s national-security supplemental, with its aid to Israel, to an immediate vote after Iran’s missile and drone attack (April, with Joe Wilson), asking the Treasury and State Departments to designate and sanction UNRWA employees who took part in the October 7 attacks (May, with French Hill), and seeking a classified briefing on Iranian government efforts “to promote and encourage anti-Israel protests” (July); in October he signed the Lawler–Moskowitz letter warning the UN Secretary-General that any downgrade of Israel’s standing at the General Assembly would bring a matching cut in U.S. support to the UN. At an Oct 12, 2026 event on antisemitism at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan, with Hillary Scholten, Dan Senor and Bret Stephens, he said of Democrats’ shift on Israel, “All you had to do is say this magic word [genocide] and it would all go away. … And then the disinformation gets out there,” and said of protests outside a temple, “It has nothing to do with your position on Israel. That’s just finding a great scapegoat” (Jewish Insider, the only outlet reporting his remarks). On the eve of Israel’s Oct 27 election he said in a statement to Punchbowl News (Oct 26, 2026): “Our alliance with Israel is far too important to America’s national security and fight against terror to hinge on who is in charge,” and “If their opposition is truly about Bibi, as many of them say, if the Israeli voters choose a new Prime Minister, I look forward to my colleagues that have wavered re-embracing our key ally.” On Oct 28, 2026, of an ad by Rebellion PAC backing Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, which Jewish Insider describes as blaming U.S. aid to Israel for high grocery prices, he wrote: “This ad is vile antisemitism, plain and simple,” and “Scapegoating Jews is one of the oldest tropes in the book.”
A clean Tier 1 and one of the clearest pro-Israel champions in the House. He doesn’t merely vote pro-Israel, he leads and enforces the position: authoring the U.S.-Israel Joint Missile Defense Act and the 2026 U.S.-Israel Anti-Killer Drone Act, sponsoring the October 2026 anniversary resolution calling for Hamas’s complete disarmament (H.Res.1618), repeatedly leading anti-BDS legislation, leading 2024 letters that sought sanctions on UNRWA employees over October 7 and a classified briefing on Iranian influence in anti-Israel protests, signing on as an original cosponsor to a bill giving Congress a veto over arms-sale delays (H.R.8437) and another clawing back UNRWA funding (H.R.8232), voting twice to sanction the ICC, speaking at the AIPAC Policy Conference, and publicly criticizing colleagues who call for conditions on aid. Among the largest pro-Israel money totals in the House ($2,001,136 through the 2024 cycle, plus $817,114 from AIPAC’s PAC in 2026); his concern for Palestinian civilians comes mostly as calls to get aid to them past Hamas (“Hamas — not Israel — is preventing food from reaching innocent Palestinians,” Fox News op-ed, September 2025), though after the April 2024 strike that killed World Central Kitchen workers he said “Israel must investigate the IDF airstrike that took their lives.”
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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).