Ken Calvert
R · U.S. House, CA-40 · Tier 1
Tier 1, “Firmly pro-Israel”
Chair of the House defense appropriations subcommittee and the author of two of the House’s main Israel bills of 2024: the $17.6 billion Israel-only supplemental (H.R.7217, Feb 2024), which he said would let Israeli forces finish “hunting down these cowards and eradicating them,” and the Israel Security Assistance Support Act (H.R.8369, May 2024), which bars any funds from being used to withhold or halt arms deliveries to Israel and passed 224–187 after he demanded the paused bombs be sent as Israel moved on Rafah: “It is time to stop trying to appease terrorists and send the necessary weapons to Israel so they can end this war.” In November 2023 he rejected a humanitarian pause — “In no world would the U.S. bend to outside pressure … and neither should Israel” — and called eradicating Hamas “the only option”; in July 2025 he led the House debate against Greene’s amendment cutting $500 million in Israeli missile-defense money from his own defense bill. He voted for every tracked Israel measure — the November 2023 and April 2024 aid packages, H.Res.894, both ICC-sanctions bills and the September 2026 anti-boycott bill — and against the July 2026 Massie amendment. He faces fellow Republican incumbent Young Kim on November 3 after both advanced from the June 2 top-two primary (Calvert 34.9%, Kim 20.6%). In January 2024 he signed the Smith–Manning letter, whose signers “thoroughly reject” South Africa’s “charge of genocide” against Israel.
A clean 1. Calvert is not only a reliable vote: he wrote the Israel-only supplemental and the bill forcing delivery of the arms Biden paused during the Rafah offensive, and as the subcommittee chair who writes the annual defense bill he led the House debate defending Israel’s missile-defense money against Greene in 2025 — authored Israel legislation and sustained leadership, the mark of the pro-Israel end. His rhetoric matches: opposition to a humanitarian pause, eradication framed as “the only option,” and support for clearing Rafah. His acknowledgments of Gaza deaths — “though I mourn the loss of life” and Hamas “murders innocent Palestinians attempting to leave the war zone” (Nov 2023) — come in the same statement as “unwavering” support for Israel’s military operations, with the blame placed entirely on Hamas, so there is no daylight; no counter-case toward 1/2 is apparent.
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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).