Mike Thompson
D · U.S. House, CA-4 · Tier 3/4
Tier 3/4, between “Pro-Israel, critical” and “Critical / conditions aid”
Block the Bombs cosponsor (Aug 15 2025, 33rd of 82) and an original cosponsor of the Ceasefire Compliance Act (Feb 2026), which he said would “hold Israel accountable in honoring the ceasefire deal”; in May 2024 he signed the Jayapal–Dean letter urging Biden to “immediately withhold certain offensive military aid to the Israeli government” before the Rafah assault, and he cosponsored UNRWA funding restoration (Jul 2025). He signed the January 2024 Pressley–Raskin letter urging the State Department to affirm U.S. opposition to the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza and the August 2025 Pressley–Pettersen letter urging Secretary Rubio to demand a surge of infant formula into Gaza; in 2025 he also signed the March letter demanding answers on the detention of Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil and, with most House Democrats, the September Schneider–Raskin letter to Netanyahu and his ministers opposing West Bank annexation. Explaining his Present vote on the July 2026 Massie amendment to strip Israel’s military financing, he said “I stand firmly against sending offensive weapons to Israel” and that Netanyahu “has caused a humanitarian crisis in Gaza”; at a March 2026 town hall, asked to denounce the genocide, he answered “I believe war crimes have been committed.” He voted against the bill to force the paused bomb shipment (H.R.8369, May 2024), both ICC-sanctions bills and the September 2026 anti-boycott bill, but for the April 2024 aid package (H.R.8034), H.Res.894 and the “river to the sea” resolution, and in November 2023 he rejected a ceasefire “without security for Israel.” In an Oct 15, 2026 interview published by the Davis Vanguard on Oct 29, asked whether he would vote for the April 2024 package again, he said “Knowing what I know now, probably not.” He said he voted Present on the Massie amendment “because there’s no way I was going to vote for Netanyahu. And there was no way I was going to vote against humanitarian aid for the Palestinians.” Asked whether Israel’s conduct in Gaza is genocide, he answered “I believe what’s happening in Gaza is a tragedy. I think there’s been illegal actions taken,” to be investigated after a negotiated ceasefire, and “if there are war crimes, they need to be prosecuted.” Of Block the Bombs he said “So I support the Iron Dome”: “Offensive weaponry would be a bomb going out.” In June 2026 Thompson signed a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, led by Reps. Becca Balint and Joaquin Castro, on Israel’s operations in southern Lebanon, saying Israel’s “targeted, mass destruction of civilian homes and infrastructure does not constitute Israeli self-defense” and asking that, if U.S.-origin arms were confirmed in those operations, the administration “stop arms transfers being used in these operations until these violations cease”; the letter also affirmed that “Israel has a right to defend itself.”
A 3/4. Block the Bombs, an original Ceasefire Compliance Act cosponsorship and the May 2024 Rafah letter urging Biden to withhold offensive weapons, backed by his own July 2026 statement against “sending offensive weapons to Israel,” make a real conditioning record, and he has voiced concern for Palestinian civilians in his own words since November 2023 (“not collective punishment on innocent Palestinians”), including “I am horrified by the starvation of two million civilians in Gaza” (Aug 2025). What keeps him short of 4 is the rest of the record: he voted for the April 2024 aid package (in October 2026 he said that, knowing what he knows now, he would “probably not” vote for it again), H.Res.894 and the “river to the sea” resolution, voted Present rather than Aye on the Massie amendment, and says of Israel’s conduct in Gaza that “war crimes have been committed” but has not used the word genocide. Counter-case: a flat 3 if the 2024 package vote and the Present vote are read as outweighing the Rafah letter and two cosponsorships.
Open the full card, with votes, money and every source, on elect26 →
elect26 places 2026 midterm candidates on a six-tier spectrum, from 1 (most pro-Israel) to 6 (most critical of Israel).