Letitia James
D · Attorney General, New York · Tier 2
Tier 2, “Mainstream pro-Israel”
Incumbent AG; mainstream liberal Democrat. Marched in the 2026 Israel Day Parade and the next day condemned the “hateful rhetoric” of Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich, who had joined it; in the 2026 primaries she endorsed Rep. Adriano Espaillat (NY-13) and Assembly Member Jessica González-Rojas (state Senate). Her office's civil-rights settlement barred the far-right Zionist group Betar from violence and harassment, and Betar told her office it is winding down its NY operations. Of the April 2024 Columbia protests she wrote that “everyone has a right to peacefully protest, but acts of antisemitic violence cross a line,” and no statement of hers calling Gaza a genocide was found. In July 2025 her office released a statement, joined by more than 90 New York elected officials, saying “a famine is unfolding in Gaza before the eyes of the world” and “Palestinian children are dying from hunger and preventable disease.” At the October 8, 2026 NY1 debate she pointed to her long ties to the Orthodox Jewish communities she represented on the City Council; pressed on whether City Hall and other institutions should adopt a standard definition of antisemitism, she gave no definite answer, VIN News reported: “We are looking at the definition of antisemitism.”
A soft Tier 2. As a state attorney general she has no aid, arms, or BDS record, so her record is gestures and words: she voluntarily marched in the 2026 Israel Day Parade, wrote of the 2024 Columbia protests that “everyone has a right to peacefully protest, but acts of antisemitic violence cross a line,” and has not called Gaza a genocide in any statement found. Her office's settlement with Betar — barring the group from violence and harassment, after which Betar told OAG it was winding down in New York — is not counter-evidence: Betar was listed in the ADL's Glossary of Extremism and Hate and engaged in documented violence and harassment, so the enforcement action was baseline civil-rights work, not a stance on Israel. What separates her from 1/2 is that July 2025 statement on Gaza, released by her office: “Children are not combatants and human life cannot be collateral.” A mild but real pro-Israel lean rather than a partisan record.
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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).