Rosa DeLauro
D · U.S. House, CT-3 · Tier 2/3
Tier 2/3, between “Mainstream pro-Israel” and “Pro-Israel, critical”
Ranking Democrat on House Appropriations, who wrote the $1 billion Iron Dome replenishment bill in September 2021 (H.R.5323), and has become a sharp critic of Israel during the genocide: she called for a humanitarian pause on Oct 31, 2023, said of the Rafah invasion that “Israel’s military forces have killed tens of thousands of innocent people” (May 2024), skipped Netanyahu’s 2024 address to Congress, co-led 80+ lawmakers urging sanctions on Smotrich and Ben-Gvir (Oct 2024), and in September 2026 opposed the $2.8 billion sale of 40,000 bombs: “I am opposed to this sale. … These weapons must not be sent.” She was an original cosponsor of UNRWA restoration (Mar 2025), Waters’ Gaza children’s food bill (Feb 2026) and the Stop the Settlements Act (Oct 2026), secured Defense-bill report language on whether U.S. weapons are used in violation of the Gaza ceasefire (Jun 2026), and said “Israel’s indiscriminate attacks in Gaza must end” (Aug 2026). She signed the August 2025 Pressley–Pettersen letter urging Secretary Rubio to demand a surge of infant formula into Gaza, joined most House Democrats on the September 2025 Schneider–Raskin letter to Netanyahu and his ministers opposing annexation of the West Bank, and in January 2026 signed the Welch–Khanna letter urging a stronger U.S. response to Israel’s moves to annex the West Bank, including the E-1 settlement. Her votes remain largely pro-Israel: for the April 2024 package, H.Res.894 and the Antisemitism Awareness Act (her statement on that vote said “Innocent Palestinians are being slaughtered by the thousands and facing starvation in Gaza”), and against the July 2026 Massie amendment, while saying that with the current aid agreement expiring “it is time for a major realignment” because “Israel is a developed nation that is capable of procuring advanced weapons without US support,” and that Iron Dome, Arrow and David’s Sling should still be funded. She voted for both 2026 Lebanon war-powers resolutions, including the June 4 one most Democrats opposed. On June 4, 2026 she said she had voted “to prevent the Trump administration from dragging the US into Israel's war in Lebanon,” days after condemning Israel’s strikes on Beirut and Tyre: “These attacks by Israel are causing more unnecessary deaths, and disrupting peace talks” (May 29). On Oct 8, 2026, after settlers besieged a Palestinian family’s home in Wadi Rahim in the occupied West Bank, she said “The Government of Israel has a responsibility to protect this family and their home” and urged the Trump administration to “make clear that the United States opposes settler violence and the expansion of illegal settlements and outposts.” On Oct 16, after masked settlers attacked Palestinian families harvesting olives in Abu Falah and beat Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine, she said: “If the settlers will do this to an American journalist on camera, in broad daylight, imagine what Palestinian families face when no one is watching,” adding that the Israeli military’s investigation “must be real, and those responsible must be held accountable.” On Oct 21, after Israeli forces detained olive-harvest volunteers in the West Bank, she wrote: “This is a pattern of abuse by the Israeli government. Detain peaceful volunteers and Palestinians while turning a blind eye to violent, Israeli settlers.” On June 30, 2026 her campaign said she “is taking no contributions from AIPAC”: she had taken them “when she believed Israel was acting like a strategic partner & was committed to a two-state solution,” and “the Netanyahu government has no interest in either.” In June 2026 DeLauro 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 2/3. Her record is supportive but sharply critical: concern for Gaza’s civilians in her own words since October 2023, the push to sanction Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, UNRWA restoration and the Stop the Settlements Act, Defense-bill oversight of how U.S. weapons are used, and open opposition to the September 2026 bomb sale — a step toward withholding offensive weapons, though in words rather than a vote. AIPAC’s PAC gave to her campaign in every cycle from 2022, including $1,473 in the current one, but on June 30, 2026 her campaign said she “is taking no contributions from AIPAC”: “She did in prior years when she believed Israel was acting like a strategic partner & was committed to a two-state solution.” Her votes keep a foot at the pro-Israel end: she has cosponsored neither Block the Bombs nor the Ceasefire Compliance Act, voted for the April 2024 package, H.Res.894 and the Antisemitism Awareness Act, and voted to keep Israel’s military financing in July 2026 while backing continued missile-defense aid; she also wrote the 2021 Iron Dome bill. Counter-case: a flat 3, now that she has broken with AIPAC publicly and its money to her is small.
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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).