Kevin Kiley
I · U.S. House, CA-6 · Tier 1
Tier 1, “Firmly pro-Israel”
The House's only independent since leaving the Republican Party in March 2026, now running in the redrawn CA-6, Kiley has spent three years driving action against campus Palestine-solidarity activism: his resolution language condemning campus antisemitism was folded into H.Res.798 (passed Nov 2023), after which he called on universities to disavow “any on-campus activities supporting Hamas terrorists”; he asked the Education and Workforce Committee to extend its investigation to California, told universities to “clear encampments, arrest lawbreakers” and announced a resolution against “illegal pro-Hamas encampments” that lists their demands to divest from companies tied to Israel (May 2024); he demanded that UC Santa Barbara explain its sponsorship of an “Anti-Palestinian Racism” workshop (Feb 2025) and, as K–12 subcommittee chair, opened an antisemitism investigation of the Berkeley, Fairfax and Philadelphia school districts with Walberg (Nov 2025). After an April 2024 Israel trip organized by the American Israel Education Foundation he pledged support “as our ally finishes the task of defeating Hamas.” He has voted the pro-Israel side of every tracked measure before and after leaving the party — the 2023–24 Israel supplementals, H.Res.894, the Antisemitism Awareness Act, the May 2024 bill to force the paused bomb shipment (H.R.8369), both ICC-sanctions bills, the Gaza casualty-figures amendment, No on the 2025 Greene and July 2026 Massie cuts, and Yea on the September 2026 anti-boycott bill. In January 2024 he signed the Smith–Manning letter, whose signers “thoroughly reject” South Africa’s “charge of genocide” against Israel.
A clean 1. Beyond a zero-daylight voting record, Kiley has personally driven the House campaign against campus Palestine-solidarity activism since October 2023 — authored resolution language, the request that brought the investigation to California, an anti-encampment resolution, letters targeting a Palestinian-rights workshop and alleged “anti-Israel bias” at the patent office, and a school-district investigation he co-leads as subcommittee chair. That is enforcement leadership rather than a reliable vote, and his statements show no concern for Palestinian civilians. Counter-case: 1/2 if campus-antisemitism work is read as separate from Israel leadership; his March 2026 move to independent has not changed his Israel votes, and at an August 2026 Sacramento Bee debate with Richard Pan he “quickly rejected the notion of genocide perpetrated by Israel against Palestinians,” in the words of the Bee’s Tom Philp.
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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).