Ted Lieu
D · U.S. House, CA-36 · Tier 2
Tier 2, “Mainstream pro-Israel”
Air Force JAG veteran and co-chair of the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism whose clearest Gaza statement rebuked Republicans’ dehumanization of Palestinians: when Rep. Brian Mast suggested there were no innocent Palestinians, Lieu called it “a lie” that “would justify collective punishment, which is a war crime,” adding “Palestinian civilians—including children—are civilians who must be protected under both American and international law” (Nov 2023). In September 2025 he signed the Schneider–Raskin letter to Netanyahu opposing West Bank annexation, and in October 2025 he said U.S. humanitarian aid to Gaza “is clearly not enough and is unacceptable.” His votes lean pro-Israel even for his caucus: he voted for the Republican standalone aid bill H.R.7217 (Feb 2024), the April 2024 package and the amendment barring the State Department from citing Gaza Health Ministry casualty figures (Jun 2024), and against the July 2026 Massie amendment, though he voted Present on H.Res.894 and against H.R.8369, the 2024 ICC-sanctions bill and the September 2026 anti-boycott bill. Before 2020 he authored the U.S.-Israel Directed Energy Cooperation Act and resolutions on U.S.-Israel economic ties, and he says Israel “has the absolute right to defend itself” (Oct 2024). In January 2024 he signed the Smith–Manning letter, whose signers “thoroughly reject” South Africa’s “charge of genocide” against Israel.
A flat 2, with a case for 1/2. What separates him from a reliable-vote 1/2 is repeated concern for Palestinian civilians in his own words, made without self-defense language in the same statement: the November 2023 law-of-war rebuke of Mast and Zinke and the October 2025 demand for more aid to Gaza. He has shown no leadership on the issue during the genocide: the Israel measures he wrote date from 2015–2019, and co-chairing the antisemitism task force is not leading on Israel policy. Counter-case: 1/2 if his votes are weighed over his words — he backed H.R.7217 and the amendment barring Gaza casualty figures, both of which most Democrats opposed — or a 1 if the pre-2020 authorship and the task-force role are counted as leadership.
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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).