Marty Jackley
R · U.S. House, South Dakota at-large · Tier 1
Tier 1, “Firmly pro-Israel”
South Dakota’s attorney general (2009–2019 and since 2023), a former U.S. attorney under George W. Bush and the Trump-endorsed Republican nominee for the open at-large seat. As attorney general he joined a 27-state statement days after October 7, 2023 that said “We stand with Israel as it defends itself,” praised “Israel’s remarkable resilience and restraint” and laid “responsibility for every life lost in this conflict” at “the feet of the cowardly Hamas leadership.” He also signed multistate letters urging Brown (August 2024) and Columbia (October 2024) to reject campaigns to divest from Israel, the second calling them “blatantly antisemitic pressure,” and a March 2025 letter backing the Justice Department’s antisemitism task force that said foreign students’ “anti-American, pro-terrorist demonstrations” “may be grounds for removal” and cited Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest as underscoring “the importance of these efforts.” His House campaign has said nothing on Israel or Gaza; asked about the Iran war, he answered that “America must always be prepared to defend itself and our allies.”
A 1. As attorney general he has signed a run of measures aimed at students and protest movements in the United States: the 2024 letters pressing Brown and Columbia to refuse divestment from Israel, and the March 2025 letter backing the Justice Department’s antisemitism task force, which called foreign students’ protests possible grounds for removal and pointed to Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest. His first act after October 7 was a statement praising Israel’s “restraint” and laying every death in the war on Hamas; its only concern for Gaza’s civilians comes wrapped in Israel’s self-defense. $20,000 has reached his campaign through AIPAC’s PAC this cycle (direct and earmarked). On the record’s limits: all four are multistate letters of Republican attorneys general that he joined rather than led, he has said nothing on Israel in his own voice as a House candidate, and he has cast no votes. Counter-case: 1/2, if co-signing letters that circulate among Republican attorneys general is read as routine rather than a pattern of his own.
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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).