But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and funding for the government of Israel. How we check

Robert Aderholt

Republican · U.S. House, Alabama District 4
✗Supported sending weapons or funding in 6 of 6 tracked votes

Aderholt’s votes on the Israel aid bills all point the same way, and announcing his April 2024 vote he said: "We are sending guns and bullets today, so we won’t have to send our sons and daughters tomorrow." Nothing located has him addressing U.S. aid to Palestinians.

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Deep Dive

Aderholt represents Alabama’s 4th District, is the sitting member, and is a senior House appropriator.

His recorded votes on the tracked bills appear as badges on this card, all on the support side, including votes against both amendments to cut aid to Israel. Announcing his April 2024 vote for the arms packages, his release said: "We are sending guns and bullets today, so we won’t have to send our sons and daughters tomorrow", and framed the spending as rebuilding American defense manufacturing; the release’s itemization of air-defense systems is on the research page.

His framing of the conflict has a long paper trail on his own site, from a 2002 essay through a 2009 Gaza-war statement to his July 2024 welcome of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address to Congress. His statements from the weeks after the October 2023 attack, including a letter he led asking Egypt to open safe zones for civilians in Gaza, are on the research page.

Nothing located has him addressing U.S. humanitarian aid for Palestinians as a question of its own, at any date.

The record

Supported sending weapons or funding in 6 of 6 tracked votes

Committees

House Committee on Appropriations

Floor votes
H.R. 6126 - Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act2023-11-02 · Passed 226-196
✗ Voted Yes
supported sending it
H.R. 8034 - Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 20242024-04-20 · Passed 366-58
✗ Voted Yes
supported sending it
H.R. 8369 - Israel Security Assistance Support Act2024-05-16 · Passed 224-187
✗ Voted Yes
supported sending it
H.R. 7217 - Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 20242024-02-06 · Failed 250-180 (needed 2/3 under suspension)
✗ Voted Yes
supported sending it
H.Amdt. 55 to H.R. 4016 - strike $500M for Israeli Cooperative Programs2025-07-18 · Failed 6-422 (only 6 voted to cut)
✗ Voted No
voted against limiting it
H.R. 8595 - Massie amendment (Part A No. 8) to bar FY27 funds for Israel and cut $3.3B in Foreign Military Financing2026-07-15 · Failed 104-314
✗ Voted No
voted against limiting it
Bill sponsorship
H.R. 3565 - Block the Bombs ActWould bar transfer of 2,000-lb/BLU-109 bunker busters, JDAMs, 120mm tank rounds, and 155mm artillery shells to Israel. Does not affect Iron
Not sponsoringhas not backed this restriction bill
H.R. 1229 - United States-Israel Defense Partnership Act of 2025Formalizes/expands bilateral defense cooperation with Israel.
Not sponsoringhas not backed this support bill
How this mark works

We track key votes on sending U.S. weapons and money to the government of Israel. A check means every tracked vote they cast came down against sending more, on the side of peace and de-escalation. A question mark means a mixed record: they sided with sending up to half of the time. An X means they voted to send more weapons and money in over half of their tracked votes, even as the way those weapons and dollars were being used became more and more obvious. At exactly half, money this election cycle from a lobbying group we track, or an endorsement from a group that backs sending weapons, makes it an X. Only votes actually cast are counted. Where a candidate has no recorded votes on these bills, the mark comes instead from a reviewed reading of their public record (money from the lobbying groups we track, endorsements, and their own words since January 26, 2024). There an X also covers fully backing the conduct of the war by the government of Israel without significant reservations, and a question mark also covers speaking about Israel without saying clearly where they stand on U.S. weapons and funding. A dash means No Position Found: we found nothing in their own words about Israel, Gaza or the war.

See a dash? Ask the candidate where they stand, then send us their answer and we'll review it and update the mark. Or volunteer to help review candidates.

Voted to send weapons or funding in more than half of their recorded tracked votes. (Supported sending weapons or funding in 6 of 6 tracked votes.)

The money

$18K in lifetime support from the five lobbying groups we track

Lifetime support from the five lobbying groups we track
AIPAC PAC: $17,900
Support-only OpenFEC data (as of 2026-10-03). Opposition independent expenditures are excluded.
Who these lobbying groups are
AIPAC$17,900The American Israel Public Affairs Committee; its PAC backs candidates it sees as strengthening U.S. ties with the government of Israel, including continued U.S. military aid.Direct contributions and independent expenditures supporting this candidate from the five lobbying groups we track, every cycle each has filed, through 2026. Excludes earmarked and conduit contributions.
Endorsed by AIPAC
AIPACThe American Israel Public Affairs Committee; its PAC backs candidates it sees as strengthening U.S. ties with the government of Israel, including continued U.S. military aid.These endorsements come from groups that back sending U.S. weapons and funding to the government of Israel.

In their words

“We are sending guns and bullets today, so we won’t have to send our sons and daughters tomorrow.”
Source ↗, 2024-04-20
Endorsements

AIPAC (2026 endorsement)

Research log

The notes behind this card: what we looked at, what we found, and where each item came from.

U.S. military aid and weapons to Israel

  • His recorded votes on the tracked bills appear as badges on this card, all support-side, including No on both amendments to cut aid to Israel; the grounding for each sits in the record section.
  • [Position, 2024-04-20] His release on the April 2024 packages, quoted on the card. The same page itemizes $1.5 billion in Patriot air-defense missiles and $500 million in anti-drone weapons made in Alabama; defensive-systems detail stays off the front of the card. Verified against his own site.
  • [Reaction window, 2023-10-25] On Speaker Johnson’s election, his release said Congress would "ensure Israel has what it needs to defend itself from Hamas terrorists", per his own site. Not on the card summary.

U.S. aid to Palestinians

  • Nothing located as a position on U.S. aid at any date.
  • [Reaction window, 2023-10-18] He led a bipartisan letter to Egypt’s ambassador encouraging safe zones and humanitarian corridors in southern Gaza for non-combatants, per his release. Not on the card summary; it concerns Egypt’s actions, not U.S. aid, and is not converted into a U.S.-aid position.

Characterization of the conflict

  • [Prior, 2002-04-17] A "Middle Eastern Conflict - Who Is Right?" essay on his own site characterizing Palestine Liberation Organization-affiliated groups as terrorist organizations. Prior band, carried as our research.
  • [Prior, 2009-01-15] A Gaza-war release characterizing Hamas as driven by an ideology "that seeks to destroy the Jewish state of Israel". Prior band; our research recorded the wording.
  • [Reaction window, 2023-10-10] His statement on the attack: "barbaric", "heinous", "gut wrenching", "aided and abetted by Iran", "Like the Nazis of World War II, their only goal is to kill Jews and anyone who dares support Israel". Not on the card summary; our research recorded the wording.
  • [Position, 2024-07-25] He applauded Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address to Congress, per Alabama Political Reporter’s round-up and his own release; the release page was retrieved but its body text did not extract, so no words are quoted from it.
  • [Position, undated] His Iran statement: Iran material stays off the front of the card; nothing quoted.

Related rhetoric and lobbying

  • [Reaction window, 2023] Co-sponsorship of the resolution condemning Hamas, per his release. Not on the card summary.
  • Tracked funding totals appear as a badge on this card.

Safety and antisemitism (context)

  • A 256today.com op-ed on confronting antisemitism appears in the research record, but the page as retrieved names him only in a sidebar of unrelated articles and shows no byline of his; nothing is attributed. The same page appears in his AL-05 colleague’s research record with the same problem.
  • Reported coverage of House Republicans’ education-department scrutiny of campus antisemitism (Notus, Jewish Insider) names the appropriations context; nothing specific to him was verified and nothing is claimed.

Race and status context

  • Sitting member, nominated. His Democratic challenger’s card carries its own record.

Also in this race

  1. ✓ Amanda Pusczek (Democrat)

All Alabama candidates.

But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and funding for the government of Israel. Every claim on this page goes through at least two verification steps. Open Find Your Candidates for votes, funding and contact details.