Note: This is a long one.
Earlier this week, Beto O’Rourke appeared on the Left Reckoning Podcast with David Griscom and Matt Lech. You can catch that full episode HERE. It was such a great conversation. A year or two back, I used to say Left Reckoning should be more Texas-centric and move further away from national politics and toward Texas politics. Since this year’s primary, they’ve really picked up the torch in becoming a leading voice in left-leaning politics (which I love).
Griscom recently published a new book: The Myth of Red Texas: Cowboys, Populism, and Class War in the Radical South. It’s fantastic, especially if you’re unfamiliar with Texas’ left-leaning political history. And on the first page, he mentions the “Lone Star Left.” No, not me. Just Texas leftists, as a whole. But it made me smile.
Near the end of their interview, they asked Beto a question, which I think matters a lot for this election. Voters, especially in Texas, want to know. Here’s a short clip (2 minutes):
Griscom: “We’re talking about trust, we’re talking about confidence, we’re talking about young voters who are the folks who tend to not show up, for a lot of these elections. One issue that is really important, to young people has been Palestine. And it’s been one that has been very central to a lot of people’s political perspective.
And I just want to ask you straight up, do you think that the Texas Democratic Party is big enough to still include politicians who take money from the pro-Israel lobby?”
Beto: “That’s a great question. I’m the last guy to write off any Democrat based on a an ideological difference or a difference of policy. I do think it’s it’s hard to square support for a candidate who who won’t acknowledge what is happening in Palestine, in Gaza, in the West Bank, the genocide that’s been committed with the aid of the American taxpayer and presidential administrations from from both parties. The fact that this continues to this very day and also the fact that you have an organization like AIPAC that is disproportionately impacting the contours of our politics and and our elections.
“You know, $32 million poured into the Michigan Senate primary for example. I think it’s just a a a toxic force in our democracy. I can only imagine if you had a similar organization that was organized around support for the United States China relationship or American Muslims or I mean you you pick it. I think people are right to be concerned about this. I think the best place to adjudicate this is on the campaign trail in town hall meetings to have these candidates answer to their prospective voters. But bottom line, I do not want to see AIPAC have any meaningful role in directing or shaping US policy going forward. It has been terrible first and foremost for America. It has been terrible, terrible for the people of Gaz and the West Bank. And I would argue it has been terrible for the people of Israel as well. And so I hope this is an issue that we hear more about from those who are running for office in Texas.”
I’m going to have to agree with Beto on this. This is something the people of Texas want to hear more about from the people running for federal office. And one of the biggest reasons I agree is that one of my most popular articles in 2026 has been, “Talarico, Crockett, And The Democratic Base On Israel And Palestine.”
Where does each 2026 Democratic candidate stand on Israel, AIPAC, and the money that comes with it?
Let’s get the easiest ones out of the way first. FIVE Texas Democratic candidates have received endorsements directly from Track AIPAC. These are candidates who have explicitly rejected AIPAC and campaign against the Gaza genocide.
Those five candidates are:
TX06: Danny Minton
TX19: Kyle Rable
TX26: Steven Shook
TX27: Tanya Lloyd
TX30: Frederick Haynes
And because of the Meet the Candidate articles, I also have statements about Israel/Palestine from many of the candidates. We’ll start with the candidates above.
The question that was asked was: “Do you support ending US military aid to countries with ongoing human rights abuses, including Israel and Egypt?”
Here were the answers:
Danny Minton: “Yes. And we should acknowledge that human rights abuses happen here in America too. Our foreign policy should reflect a consistent commitment to human rights at home and abroad.”
Kyle Rable: “Yes. Defund Israel. We, as a moral nation, should not support the wholesale slaughter of children and families. We should never support this and should cut our funding to any nation that participates in genocide.”
Steven Shook: “Absolutely yes. The United States should not provide military aid, weapons, or diplomatic cover to any government committing serious or ongoing human rights abuses, including Israel, Egypt, or any other ally. Our standards cannot change depending on which country is responsible.
Military assistance must be conditioned on compliance with US and international law, protection of civilians, and meaningful accountability. When a government uses American weapons to enable collective punishment, unlawful killings, forced displacement, torture, or the denial of humanitarian aid, that assistance should be suspended. American tax dollars should never fund human rights abuses.”Tanya Lloyd: “US foreign aid should always reflect our national interests and our values as a beacon of democracy. I support rigorous oversight of all military aid to ensure it is used for defense and regional stability, while holding all partners to high standards of human rights and international law.”
But others have answered that question and haven’t received the Track AIPAC endorsement.
TX03 - Evan Hunt: Hunt answered the question, and he talks about it on his website.
Answer: “I support conditioning all military aid on strict human-rights and end-use compliance. Israel should maintain legitimate security assistance, but the US must enforce Leahy laws. Egypt’s aid should also be reassessed under the same standards.”
From his website: “I have been deeply horrified by the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, especially over the past two and a half years, which numerous human rights groups have defined as a genocide. The United States must uphold international law and adhere to statutes such as the Leahy Law, which prohibits support for foreign security forces credibly implicated in gross human rights violations. We must also confront the ongoing violence and displacement facing Palestinians in the West Bank, including attacks by extremist settlers. These actions weaken the potential for peace, and these attacks must be met with real accountability and a clear commitment to de-escalation and the protection of civilian communities.”
TX05 - Chelsey Hockett: “Yes. US military aid should not go to governments engaged in ongoing human rights abuses, including Israel, Egypt, and any other country that commits them. This support has persisted across administrations - Democratic and Republican - because of intel sharing and long-standing political and ideological alignment. This has normalized civilian harm, displacement, and violations of international law. The United States has its own history of land seizure, forced removal, and state violence, and we should recognize how these colonizing behaviors repeat globally when enabled. I would love to see the United States refuse to fund harm and align our foreign policy with human dignity, rather than permanent militarization and political convenience, for once.”
TX08 - Laura Jones: “Yes. Human rights can’t be negotiable, and they shouldn’t come with a US taxpayer subsidy attached — that includes Israel and Egypt. I support ending military aid to any government engaged in ongoing human rights abuses. Our tax dollars should reflect our values, not prop up abuses abroad while communities here in TX-08 are told there’s no money left for healthcare, schools, or infrastructure. Accountability has to apply everywhere, not just when it’s politically convenient.”
TX11 - Claire Reynolds: “Yes. Israel has long been an ally of the United States, and I’d love to keep it that way. But when I see my ally dropping bombs on maternity wards, I tend to rethink the company I keep. At the very least, the United States should not be funding this type of action.”
TX21 - Kristin Hook: “Yes. I support full investigations and oversight into countries committing human rights abuses and withholding support – including funding and military aid – from those violating international law and harming civilians.”
TX22 - Marquette Greene-Scott: “I believe that we have enough issues here in the United States that need to be taken care of, like healthcare, homelessness, and veterans’ affairs. We need to stop spending so much of our tax dollars on US military aid to foreign countries. Use our taxes to take care of our people.”
TX31 - Justin Early: “Yes. Any use of US tax dollars for military aid must be tied to human rights standards and subject to review when those standards are violated.”
For the following candidates, I was unable to find any public statements or positions regarding Israel/Palestine or financial entanglements with the AIPAC lobby.
TX01: Yolanda Prince
TX02: Shaun Finnie
TX04: Jason Pearce
TX09: Leticia Gutierrez
TX10: Caitlin Rourke
TX12: Heli Rodriguez Prilliman
TX13: Mark Nair
TX14: Thurman Bartie
TX17: Casey Shepard
TX23: Katy Padilla Stout
TX24: Kevin Burge
TX25: Dione Sims
TX32: Dan Barrios
TX36: Rhonda Hart
TX38: Melissa McDonough
I have reached out to all congressional candidates to participate in the Meet the Candidate series. And just because they do not have a policy position on their website, or it is not easily findable in an interview, doesn’t mean they are pro-AIPAC or pro-war. It just means they haven’t made this policy position public. And maybe that’s something they should think about. My email is always open.
The two incoming flips.
TX15 and TX35 are two seats we’re expecting to flip this year (among others), but like most South Texas Democrats, these guys lean right. And their ideology and the lack of progressive movement in Texas’ toes is a story for another day, but these seats will likely flip, and these likely incoming Congressmen will probably align themselves with Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez.
TX15 - Bobby Pulido: When asked by the Texas Observer where he stands on sending arms to Israel, Pulido said he doesn’t have the kind of information a sitting congressman would have, that he wishes there was peace between the two, and that he blames this administration for not being strong-willed enough.
That’s not a policy position. Pulido’s not wrong that he’s not privy to classified briefings. Neither is anybody else on this list. They found words anyway.
TX35 - Johnny Garcia: This is the one where actual pro-Israel money showed up.
Garcia beat Maureen Galindo in the messy-kind-of-bananas May 2026 runoff. Before that runoff, Galindo went on TPR and said, more or less, that Garcia and “anybody supported by Israel” should be tried for treason. The San Antonio Jewish Federation, correctly, called that antisemitic, and it torched what was left of her campaign.
Garcia told reporters he hadn’t taken any money from AIPAC. That’s true, as far as I can find in FEC filings. What’s also true is the Democratic Majority for Israel endorsed him in February, and per the Texas Tribune, DMFI spent about $163,000 on direct mail on his behalf. That’s an independent expenditure, not a check to his campaign, so Garcia’s denial is technically accurate. It’s also the only real distinction here, because $163,000 in mail hitting your district doesn’t care whether it routed through his campaign account or around it.
So of 28 first-time Democratic candidates in this cycle, this is the one race where the pro-Israel lobby actually opened its wallet. Not AIPAC directly. DMFI, AIPAC’s more polite cousin.
Now, to the oldies. Sitting members (and Colin Allred).
Mostly, we all know the answers to this. The thing about incumbents is they get a bill on the floor, a clock, and a button to push. And on July 15, 2026, Texas’ Democratic delegation got exactly that.
Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie offered an amendment to the State Department spending bill that would have stripped the entire $3.3 billion in military financing to Israel. Massie was the only Republican who voted for his own amendment. It failed, 104 to 314. But 103 House Democrats voted yes, which is the most significant break from unconditional Israel support this caucus has ever put on the record. Here’s how our people voted, next to what the Israel lobby has spent on each of them over their careers.
Yes = voted to cut or block military financing.
No = voted to preserve the aid, keep the money flowing as-is.
Lizzie Fletcher (TX-07): No. $205,478 from the Israel lobby over her career, including direct AIPAC money.
Veronica Escobar (TX-16): Yes. $54,896 lifetime, mostly older AIPAC and J Street money.
💙 Christian Menefee (TX-18): Yes. Brand new to Congress, zero dollars on record yet. He walked in and immediately voted to end the bombs. Noted.
Joaquin Castro (TX-20): Yes. $30,401 lifetime, small potatoes, and long ago. And he didn’t just vote yes quietly; he got up on the floor beforehand and said: “Words are not enough… if we hope to change Israel’s behavior, we must use our leverage.”
Henry Cuellar (TX-28): No. $2,399,841. Nearly two and a half million dollars, the single largest Israel-lobby total in the entire Texas delegation, Republicans included, except for Ted Cruz and John Cornyn. AIPAC, DMFI, NORPAC-adjacent money, all of it. You already know Cuellar’s relationship with campaign finance is complicated. This is just one more line item.
Sylvia Garcia (TX-29): Yes. $101,262 lifetime.
Vicente González (TX-34): No. $397,389 lifetime.
💙 Greg Casar (TX-37, was TX-35): Yes, obviously. Track AIPAC put him on their “Approved” list, the same club as AOC and Rashida Tlaib. As chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Casar personally circulated a letter the day before the vote telling colleagues, “the Israeli government has killed more than 70,000 people in Gaza… the Democratic Party needs a new approach to Israel and Palestine.”
Worth a footnote: Marc Veasey, the retiring TX-33 incumbent whose seat Allred is trying to claim, voted No.
Now, Allred.
This is where I have to be careful, because there’s a real story here and it’s not the one either side wants to tell.
Allred has somewhere north of $625,000 in lifetime support from pro-Israel donors, AIPAC included. His campaign has called him, in an actual quote to the Washington Free Beacon, “a steadfast supporter of Israel” who is “proud to have earned the support of both AIPAC and J Street.”
His actual voting record backs that up. In November 2023, right after October 7, he voted against the House GOP’s stripped-down Israel aid bill, and if you’re thinking, “Oh, so he broke with the pro-Israel position,” no. He voted no because the bill didn’t include enough for Israel, plus Ukraine, plus the border. His words: “We must put aside partisan politics to stand with our ally Israel.”
This go-around, he promised progressives in Dallas he’d be turning over a “new leaf” to combat Julie Johnson’s own pro-war record and distance himself from the pro-Israel lobby. While he made these statements at town halls and in conversations with progressive leaders, I couldn’t find anything on his website or on record. Let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope he keeps his word.
So that’s the map.
Five candidates who put it in writing and rejected AIPAC outright. A dozen more who answered a direct question honestly, even knowing it might cost them a donor or two. Two South Texas seats about to flip that won’t move the needle on this at all. Fifteen candidates who haven’t said a word. And a delegation of sitting Democrats where the votes finally split, 103 to 98, for the first time since October 7th.
David Griscom asked Beto if the Texas Democratic Party is still big enough to hold politicians who take AIPAC money. Look at the list. It already does. The question isn’t whether that’s true. It’s whether it stays true after November, and whether the candidates still sitting on the fence get comfortable staying there.
I’ll keep updating this as more answers come in. You know where to find me.
68 days until the November election!
Did you know you can find links to all the previous Meet the Candidate articles on these lists?:
Click here to find out what Legislative districts you’re in.
This is monumental, Michelle -- thank you so much! Your analysis of the Talarico/Crockett contest was what clinched my decision. Awesome work.
Thank you.