Sanford Bishop Jr.
D · U.S. House, GA-2 · Tier 2
Tier 2, “Mainstream pro-Israel”
A senior appropriator who was an original cosponsor of H.Res.771, the October 2023 resolution standing with Israel, and who said after October 7 that he stands “shoulder to shoulder with the Jewish State.” He voted for the April 2024 aid package (and signed the letter urging Speaker Johnson to bring the Senate’s $95 billion supplemental, with its aid to Israel, to a vote), H.Res.894 (which states that anti-Zionism is antisemitism) and the Antisemitism Awareness Act, and No on the 2025 Greene and July 2026 Massie cuts; with most Democrats he voted against the Republican Israel-only bills of November 2023 and February 2024 — the first, he said, would “neglect the humanitarian crisis now existing in Gaza” — and against H.R.8369 to force the paused bomb shipment, the 2024 ICC-sanctions bill and the September 2026 anti-boycott bill. Explaining his Massie No, he said the amendment “drew attention to how our support, including military aid, can be misused and abused” but cut too broadly, adding “I remain opposed to expanding settlements and occupation” (Jul 2026). He co-signed Troy Carter’s December 2023 letter for a bilateral ceasefire (“Too many innocent lives have been lost already. The bloodshed must end.”), the May 2025 Williams–Sykes letter urging Israel’s ambassador to “thoughtfully, humanely, and effectively facilitate” aid to Gaza after “your two-month blockade,” and the September 2025 Schneider–Raskin letter to Netanyahu opposing West Bank annexation, which also affirms Israel’s right “to defend its people.”
A flat 2, with a case for 1/2. His votes are mainstream pro-Israel — original cosponsor of H.Res.771, Yea on the April 2024 package, H.Res.894 and the Antisemitism Awareness Act, No on the Greene and Massie cuts — and his Nays on the Republican Israel-only bills, H.R.8369 and the 2024 ICC bill were the majority Democratic votes; he explained the November 2023 Nay by the bill’s partisanship and its neglect of Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, not by any objection to arming Israel. What separates him from a 1/2 is daylight in his own voice that does not lean on Israel’s self-defense: his July 2026 opposition to “expanding settlements and occupation” and his acknowledgment that U.S. military aid “can be misused and abused,” alongside the December 2023 bilateral-ceasefire letter and the May 2025 Gaza-aid letter he co-signed. Counter-case: a 1/2, because he has never named Palestinian civilian deaths or the starvation, his November 2023 and October 2024 humanitarian lines were each paired with support for Israel’s defense, and the settlements line came in a statement explaining a vote to keep the military financing. No authored Israel legislation or other leadership on the issue.
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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).