Paul Tonko
D · U.S. House, NY-20 · Tier 3/4
Tier 3/4, between “Pro-Israel, critical” and “Critical / conditions aid”
NY-20 incumbent. Cosponsor of the Block the Bombs Act and called Gaza a “genocide” at a June 2025 Troy town hall — his first use of the word — then softened it to “tragedy” in a follow-up interview. Boycotted Netanyahu’s July 2024 speech. He cosponsored J Street’s Two-State Solution Act (H.R.5344) in the 117th Congress — Andy Levin’s bill, not reintroduced since he left the House — and used ‘both sides’ framing on Oct. 7. He has also cosponsored the McCollum Palestinian children's-rights bill in each of the last three Congresses (2021, 2023 and 2026), and has taken no lobby money: an Aug 2, 2026 FEC check of AIPAC PAC, DMFI PAC and CUFI across the 2022, 2024 and 2026 cycles returned zero rows. Letters he signed urged the State Department to affirm U.S. opposition to the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza (January 2024), urged sanctions on Israeli ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir over incitement of settler violence (October 2024), demanded answers on the detentions of the student activists Mahmoud Khalil (March 2025) and Mohsen Mahdawi (April 2025), urged Secretary Rubio to press Israel to allow a surge of aid into Gaza, above all infant formula (August 2025), opposed West Bank annexation with most House Democrats (September 2025) and asked the administration to warn Israel off annexation and the E-1 settlement and to reimpose Biden-era West Bank sanctions (January 2026). In August and September 2026 Tonko signed Tlaib’s letter demanding the release of 20-year-old US citizen Sama Safi from Israeli military detention and the Dexter–Ruiz letter seeking the release of Gaza pediatrician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya from Israeli detention without charge (Sep 8). On Oct 1, 2026 Tonko became an original cosponsor of the Stop the Settlements Act (H.R.10642), which would sanction those who build or expand Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza and ban imports of settlement goods. In an Oct 15, 2026 debate, when his Republican opponent demanded that he take back the word “genocide,” Tonko said, as the Times Union reported, that Israel has a right to defend itself and a right to statehood but that he had listened to Amnesty International and the International Association of Genocide Scholars, which call Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide: “I believe if you've broken the laws of international law, we need to respond accordingly,” and “I do think that the recognition made by these scholarly groups needs to be looked at.” In June 2026 Tonko 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.”
Cosponsored the McCollum Palestinian children’s-rights bill in each of the last three Congresses (2021, 2023, 2026) plus Block the Bombs (August 12, 2025), and called Gaza a ‘genocide’ at a June 2025 town hall (later softened to ‘tragedy’), the same month he signed Tlaib’s 19-signer letter condemning the Israeli government’s use of starvation as a weapon in Gaza, rejecting the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and demanding an end to the blockade; boycotted Netanyahu’s July 2024 speech. Pressed in an October 2026 debate to take the word back, he didn’t, pointing to Amnesty International and genocide scholars and saying “the recognition made by these scholarly groups needs to be looked at,” though he did not repeat the word in his own voice. That durable, pre-war conditioning record makes him a 3/4; his Yeas on the April 2024 aid package, the IHRA-based Antisemitism Awareness Act and the “river to the sea” resolution, and a later (Aug 2025) rather than original Block the Bombs cosponsorship, hold him on the 3 side of the split, short of a clean 4. He also voted Aye on the July 2026 Massie amendment to strip Israel’s military financing, saying existing law bars military aid to those “implicated in gross human rights violations,” that “the Netanyahu government met this standard with their horrific conduct in Gaza,” and “I will not support additional military aid that enables Netanyahu to bomb other countries relentlessly with the implicit support of the American taxpayers.”
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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).