Karen Ortiz
I · U.S. House, NY-12 · Tier 5
Tier 5, “Critical on most positions”
The third of her five top priorities reads: “End endless wars and genocide. We must impose an arms embargo on and stop sending our tax dollars to Israel. Americans should not be forced to fund the genocide of Palestinians and attacks on innocent civilians in the Caribbean and across the world.” Asked about Columbia’s dealings with Trump and the protests there, she said “by bringing the NYPD on campus, that just made it worse” and “the students should have led”; as an EEOC judge in 2025 she called the agency's survey of Columbia and Barnard employees in its antisemitism inquiry “a complete overreach.”
An arms embargo stated twice in her own words and backed by an act. The third of her five priorities: “We must impose an arms embargo on and stop sending our tax dollars to Israel. Americans should not be forced to fund the genocide of Palestinians…” That is an embargo with no exception for defensive systems, and the genocide named in her own voice. Her 2026 Ballotpedia survey repeats it, speaking of “the livestreamed genocide of Palestinians by Israel with America’s financial backing.” Her campaign site says she “participated in the Global Sumud Flotilla as a U.S. Delegate,” the 2025 flotilla that set out to break the siege on Gaza; in her survey she says she “joined a humanitarian flotilla from Tunisia,” and Track AIPAC, which endorses her, says she helped prepare the mission in Tunisia and remains active in the Global Movement to Gaza’s U.S. delegation. Her March 2026 West Side Rag interview does not mention Israel, Gaza or weapons, though in it she said that bringing the NYPD onto Columbia’s campus during the encampment “just made it worse,” and as an EEOC administrative judge in 2025 she called the agency’s survey of Columbia and Barnard employees “a complete overreach.” Her site, survey and interview take no BDS, anti-Zionist or right-of-return position.
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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).