Why 98 Democrats ignored voters and opposed an Israel aid cut
Polygraph | Newsletter n°347 | 25 Jul 2026
IN THIS NEWSLETTER: I compare House votes on aid to Israel with US public opinion and pro-Israel money.
Votes on Israel aid vs. US public opinion
The House voted on an amendment last week that would have stripped funding for Israel from next year’s State Department budget, including $3.3 billion in Foreign Military Financing, a military aid program that functions as a gift card for Israel to spend on US-made (and some Israeli-made) weapons. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) sponsored the amendment. The amendment failed, 104–314.
Massie’s amendment would have been adopted had House votes reflected public opinion. According to a May 2026 New York Times/Siena poll, US registered voters oppose sending additional aid to Israel by a 57–37 margin. Using that poll as an analog for public support for last week’s votes, Massie’s amendment should have been adopted, 253–165, not rejected, 104–314. That’s a 149-vote discrepancy between public opinion and House votes.
Which party was further out of step with its base?
Among Democratic voters, opposition to US aid to Israel exceeds support, 74–20; among Republican voters, opposition trails support, 37–59. The polling on Democratic voters translates to 152 Yes votes on the amendment; there were 103 actual Yes votes from House Democrats — a 49-vote discrepancy. The aforementioned polling on GOP voters translates to 84 Yes votes on the amendment; there was only 1 actual Yes vote from the House GOP — an 83-vote discrepancy. The 37% of GOP voters who oppose aid to Israel have virtually no intra-party representation in Congress on this issue.
By that measure, House Republicans were further out of step with their base. However, if you asked each Republican member to justify their vote, every one could point to the same poll I just showed you. A majority of GOP voters support US aid to Israel (59%).
The same excuse is not available to the 98 House Democrats who opposed the amendment. In doing so, they rejected a view held by three in four Democratic voters. Money helps explain why.
Votes on Israel aid vs. money from pro-Israel donors
I looked at how much each House Democrat accepted from pro-Israel donors before voting on the amendment to cut more than $3.3 billion in US aid to Israel. Then I looked at how they voted on the amendment.
Those data are in an interactive table below that you can sort by name, vote, or amount received. Amounts came from an OpenSecrets dataset which covers the 1990 through 2024 election cycles.
Above the table is a chart that shows what happened when I compared House Democrat votes on Israel funding with political funding from the Israel lobby: House Democrats who voted against cutting US aid to Israel received three times as much money from pro-Israel donors as those who voted in favor. (Median = 3.1 times as much.)
Democrats who voted against the amendment accepted an average of $348,239; those who voted in favor received $115,932 on average. All together, $34 million in pro-Israel cash was behind the votes against cutting aid to Israel.
Did the money actually buy votes? Or did the money simply help keep in office politicians who are comfortable ignoring voters?1 Neither option is very good.
^Alt text for screen readers: Democrats who opposed cutting Israel aid got 3 times the money from pro-Israel donors. Voted to cut US aid to Israel: $116,000. Voted against cutting US aid to Israel: $348,000. Data: House votes on House Amendment 235 to H.R>8595, to prohibit funds for Israel, including $3.3 billion in Foreign Military Financing (July 2026); OpenSecrets, pro-Israel money to Congress (1990–2024).
The table below includes all active House members, their vote on the amendment to cut aid to Israel from the State Department budget, and how much each received in pro-Israel donations over their career through the 2024 election.
If you sort the table by donations, the names at the top might not be who you expect. Among the top Democratic recipients, there are basically two groups.
The vieux riche are the seemingly indefinitely tenured members who’ve steadily racked up sizable career takings. This group includes Steny Hoyer (D-MD), former House Minority Leader; Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), former Chair of the Democratic National Committee; and Brad Sherman (D-CA), who has served on the House Foreign Affairs Committee for nearly 30 years and is now its second-highest ranking Democrat. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) also qualifies. However, despite being in office longer than the available data on campaign funding (1990–2024), Pelosi didn’t even crack the top 30 current House recipients of pro-Israel cash.
The nouveau riche are newer House members who are already millionaires in terms of pro-Israel donations. This group includes Wesley Bell (D-MO), George Latimer (D-NY), Ritchie Torres (D-NY), Shontel Brown (D-OH), and Haley Stevens (D-MI) — all top 15 House recipients of pro-Israel cash, despite first being elected in 2024, 2024, 2022, 2020, and 2018, respectively.
Stevens hadn’t quite topped the $1 million mark as of the 2024 election,2 but I’m including her anyway because she has already taken more than $2.3 million in pro-Israel cash in her Senate primary against pro-universal healthcare and anti-genocide candidate Abdul El-Sayed. By the end of the 2026 election cycle, Stevens will likely be the largest recipient of pro-Israel money ever, topping Joe Biden’s $4.2 million career takings.
SPECIAL THANKS TO: Abe B., Alan F., Alexander L., Alissa Q., Amin, Andrew R., AT., B. Kelly, Barbara B., Bart B., BeepBoop, Ben, Ben C.,* Bill S., Bob N., Brett S., Byron D., Carol V., Catherine L., Chris, Chris G., Claudia, Cole H., Coleman J., D. Kepler, Daniel M., Dave, David J., David S.,* David V.,* David M., Dharna N., Elizabeth R., Emily H.,* Errol S., Ethan R., Foundart, Fran Q., Francis M., Frank R., Fred R., Gary W., Gladwyn S., Graham P., Griffin R., Heath P., Hunter S., IBL, Irene B., Isaac, Isaac L., Jacob, James G., James H., James N., Jamie LR., Jcowens, Jeff, Jennifer, Jennifer J., Jessica S., Jerry S., Joe R., John, John, John A., John K., John M., Jonathan S., Joseph B., Joshua R., Julia G., Julian L., Katrina H., Keith B., Kesh L., Kheng L., Lea S., Leah A., Leila CL., Lenore B., Linda B., Linda H., Lindsay, Lindsay S.,* Lora L., Lou B., Mapraputa, Marie R., Mark L., Mark G., Marvin B., Mary Z., Marty, Matthew H.,* Megan., Melanie B., Michael S., Mitchell P., Nick B., Noah K., Norbert H., Omar A., Omar D.,* Peter M., Phil, Philip L., Ron C., Rosemary K., Sari G., Scarlet, Scott H., Silversurfer, Soh, Springseep, Stan C., TBE, Teddie G., Theresa A., Themadking, Tim C., Timbuk T., Tom B., Tony L., Tony T., Troy, Tyler M., Victor S., Viviane A., Wayne H., William H.,* William P.
* = founding member
-Stephen (Follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and Bluesky)
And voting like they can’t tell right from wrong?
OpenSecrets may underreport career totals; search here and you get $945,864 in pro-Israel donations; but go to Stevens’ profile page and add up the donations from the 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2024 elections, and you get $1,174,896. I used the first figure in the table, but I wrote to OpenSecrets about this so the figures are subject to change.