Kasie Whitener
I · U.S. Senate, South Carolina · Tier 2/3
Tier 2/3, between “Mainstream pro-Israel” and “Pro-Israel, critical”
The Libertarian nominee and a non-interventionist. Asked in July 2025 how she would fill Lindsey Graham's role as a close ally to Israel, she wrote “I don’t see filling that role as part of the job description for a South Carolina Senator” — adding, “While I will be glad to forge close alliances and friendships with our diplomatic allies, I expect to navigate that in my own way” — and, on the Middle East, “I think we ought to stay out of it”; her campaign blog called Israel's June 2025 strike on Iran aggression (“State sponsored murder is aggression”) and in June 2026 counted “funneling taxpayer dollars into defense industry companies through Ukraine, Iran, and Israel” among the costs behind the national debt, and in March 2026 urged care for “Israeli and Jewish people in our community” who fear for their safety as antisemitism rises. Asked in iVoterGuide’s 2026 general-election questionnaire whether the U.S. relationship with Israel is important, Whitener answered: “Yes, Israel is an ally to the Unites States.” At the October 11, 2026 debate, asked what change she would like in U.S. policy toward Israel, she said, “Israel is a great partner, a great ally, but Israel is a strong country that can and should defend itself,” called diplomatic activities between the two countries “fine,” and said, “I would expect them to defend themselves.” The Post and Courier reported that she set herself apart on the alliance by saying Israel could afford to pay for its own defense. Going back over that answer in an October 21, 2026 campaign livestream, she spoke of “a tremendous amount of respect for Israel” after the October 7 attacks and said the humanitarian crisis “being reported” in Gaza “is of course of concern, but I also know there’s a tremendous amount of aid going into that area,” and that Hamas “has for a long time been a terrorist group that has withheld the aid that has been offered to their people in Gaza”; the answer, she said, is to “do the best you can to eradicate that kind of evil,” and “Israel is strong enough to be able to handle that problem themselves.”
A 2/3, on a thin record: distance from the alliance that grows out of non-interventionism, with no daylight on Gaza. In July 2025 she said Lindsey Graham’s role as a close ally to Israel is not “part of the job description for a South Carolina Senator.” Her blog called Israel’s June 2025 strike on Iran aggression (“State sponsored murder is aggression”) and in June 2026 counted “funneling taxpayer dollars into defense industry companies through Ukraine, Iran, and Israel” among the debt’s causes. On aid, asked about policy toward Israel at the October 2026 debate, she said it “is a strong country that can and should defend itself,” and the Post and Courier reported her saying Israel could afford to pay for its own defense: an objection to paying for Israel’s military, not a call to end or condition aid. On Gaza, in an October 2026 livestream, she spoke of “a tremendous amount of respect for Israel,” set the humanitarian crisis “being reported” beside “a tremendous amount of aid going into that area” and Hamas withholding it, and called for doing “the best you can to eradicate that kind of evil,” with nothing on the genocide. Counter-cases: 3, on her distance from the alliance and from Graham’s role; 2, since she calls Israel “a great partner, a great ally” and frames Gaza’s crisis as something reported.
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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).