Young Kim
R · U.S. House, CA-40 · Tier 1/2
Tier 1/2, between “Firmly pro-Israel” and “Mainstream pro-Israel”
A House Foreign Affairs Republican who has repeatedly put her name at the front of pro-Israel measures: with Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick she led 85 colleagues in a letter demanding that UN Women condemn Hamas’s sexual violence (Nov 2023); she was one of four lawmakers who introduced H.Res.1537 for the anniversary of October 7, which called on Hamas’s leaders “to immediately and unconditionally surrender” (Oct 2024), and was listed with the same three colleagues at the head of the 2026 third-anniversary resolution calling “for the complete disarmament of Hamas for a durable end to the war in Gaza” (H.Res.1618, Oct 2026); and she joined Chris Smith in introducing the 2026 bill to permanently bar U.S. funding for UNRWA (H.R.9893). Her own Iran Counterterrorism Act (H.R.6323), which she framed around the $6 billion Iran deal approved “just as Hamas was preparing its assault on Israel,” passed the House in April 2024, and in a House speech she said “Israel has a right to defend itself against terrorist aggression, bring its hostages home, and the right to exist” (Oct 2023). She voted for both Israel-only supplementals, the April 2024 package (H.R.8034), the bill to force the paused bomb shipment (H.R.8369), both ICC-sanctions bills, H.Res.894 and the September 2026 college anti-boycott bill, against the Greene and Massie cuts, and was an original cosponsor of the 2026 Replace UNRWA Act (H.R.9680). She faces fellow Republican incumbent Ken Calvert on November 3 after both advanced from the June 2 top-two primary (Calvert 34.9%, Kim 20.6%). In January 2024 she signed the Smith–Manning letter, whose signers “thoroughly reject” South Africa’s “charge of genocide” against Israel.
A 1/2, not a clean 1, though close. She has written no Israel bill of her own — her sponsored legislation includes none — and holds no Israel caucus role; what she has is a sustained run of co-leads and letters: the 87-member UN Women letter, the October 7 anniversary resolution demanding Hamas’s unconditional surrender, Chris Smith’s 2026 UNRWA defunding bill, and her own Iran sanctions bill framed around Hamas’s assault. Her votes are zero-daylight, and the only humanitarian language came inside the October 7 anniversary resolutions she co-led, which paired aid for “Palestinian noncombatants” (2024) and “an increase in humanitarian assistance and reconstruction efforts for Gazans” (2026) with Israel’s right to self-defense, so it is not concern for Palestinian civilians in her own voice. Counter-case: a clean 1 if those co-leads, the letter and the Iran bill are read together as leading on Israel.
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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).