Rick Larsen
D · U.S. House, WA-2 · Tier 2
Tier 2, “Mainstream pro-Israel”
AIPAC-endorsed Democrat who voted for the April 2024 aid package, saying “I continue to stand with the Israeli people and support Israel’s right to defend itself” while sharing constituents’ frustration that what he called Israel’s legitimate response “has enveloped all of Gaza in suffering, instead of being narrowly focused on defeating Hamas.” In the week before that vote he signed the Gottheimer–Wilson letter urging Speaker Johnson to bring the Senate’s aid package, with its aid to Israel, to an immediate vote. He cosponsored UNRWA funding restoration (Aug 2025), signed the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation oversight letter and said “Providing secure humanitarian assistance to Palestinians is a moral obligation” (Aug 2025), and in October 2025 pressed for the release of an Orcas Island constituent detained by Israel after the Global Sumud Flotilla. He voted for the “river to the sea” resolution and the Antisemitism Awareness Act (Present on H.Res.894) and against the July 2026 Massie amendment, explaining “I support Israel’s right to exist and to defend itself” while opposing “the continued expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank”; he voted against the bill to force the paused bomb shipment, both ICC-sanctions bills and the 2026 anti-boycott bill.
A flat 2. The votes are mainstream pro-Israel — the 2024 aid package, the “river to the sea” resolution, the Antisemitism Awareness Act and No on the Massie amendment — with no step toward limiting weapons, and AIPAC endorsed him. What separates him from 1/2 is concern for Palestinian civilians in his own words without self-defense language: “Providing secure humanitarian assistance to Palestinians is a moral obligation,” alongside opposition to “any effort for Israel to take over Gaza” (Aug 2025). Counter-case for 2/3: he cosponsored UNRWA restoration, signed the January 2024 Pressley–Raskin letter urging the State Department to keep affirming U.S. opposition to any forced transfer of Palestinians out of Gaza, criticized Israel’s conduct in Gaza in his own words as early as April 2024, calls the settlements illegal and signed, with most House Democrats, the September 2025 letter opposing annexation of the West Bank; but those are humanitarian and diplomatic steps, and he paired his most critical lines with Israel’s right to defend itself while voting to keep the military financing in place.
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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).