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

Danielle "Dani" Sterbinsky

Democrat · U.S. House, Arizona District 9
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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.

No recorded votes on the bills we track. We found nothing in their own words about Israel, Gaza or the war.

Nothing located as of September 2026 has Sterbinsky taking a position on U.S. weapons or money for the government of Israel, or on U.S. aid to Palestinians. Her campaign platform sets out ten policy headings and none of them is foreign policy.

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Deep Dive

Danielle Sterbinsky, who campaigns as Dani, is the Democratic nominee in Arizona's 9th District, which stretches across much of western Arizona and leans heavily Republican. She served in the Navy as an operations specialist aboard the destroyer USS Bainbridge in the Mediterranean, took a bachelor's degree in social sciences and a master's in industrial organizational psychology, and works as a certified human resources professional. She lives in Wittmann with her husband, who is also a Navy veteran, and their daughter. She has not held office before. She was unopposed in the Democratic primary on July 21, 2026 and took 31,371 votes, and she faces Representative Paul Gosar, who is seeking a ninth term, on November 3.

Her platform is entirely domestic. Its ten headings are a pledge to put country before party, affordability, rural Arizona, veterans and military families, energy and water, seniors, immigration, term limits, getting money out of politics, and a section on the Constitution headed We the People. None is about foreign policy, and the words Israel, Gaza, Palestinian and foreign aid appear nowhere on the site. She also filled in Ballotpedia's candidate questionnaire, answering every question and several at length, on schools, prescription costs, term limits, campaign money, election administration and artificial intelligence. No question on that form asks about foreign policy, and she raised none. An empty record carries no implication either way.

There is one place an answer might exist. On August 27, 2026 she took questions alone in a forum run by Arizona's Citizens Clean Elections Commission. A Phoenix television report says her opponent did not respond to its invitations. The recording runs twenty-eight minutes, carries no transcript, and was not watched for this card. Its address, and the addresses of her campaign accounts, are on her research page.

You are better placed to change this than we are. Ask Sterbinsky directly, or at a candidate forum, and send us the reply: it goes on this page in her own words, which is worth more than anything we could write about her.

The money

Checked the five lobbying groups we track; no direct 2026 support found

2026 support from the five lobbying groups we track
Nothing recorded (as of 2026-09-27) from the five lobbying groups we track; earlier cycles and earmarked donations not yet tracked.
Support-only OpenFEC data. Opposition independent expenditures are excluded.

Research log

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

Every page named below was opened and read on 2026-09-18. Her campaign site was read in full, all five of its pages. Her Ballotpedia page was read from top to bottom, including the whole of the candidate questionnaire she filled in. Her BallotReady profile, an Arizona voter guide, the race page, the local coverage of her nomination and the reports and recordings our research pointed at were read or recorded as unreadable. Bands: Position (2024-01-26 onward), Reaction window (2023-10-07 to 2024-01-25), Earlier record (before 2023-10-07), Undated. Sterbinsky has never held office, so none of the congressional votes this site tracks is hers, and no tracked funding is recorded on this record.

U.S. military aid and weapons to the government of Israel

  • Nothing located, at any date. No statement by her about arms transfers, weapons shipments, Foreign Military Financing, security assistance, a dollar figure, a condition on aid, or any bill on those subjects appears on her campaign site, in her Ballotpedia questionnaire, on her BallotReady profile, in the Arizona voter guide entry for her, in the local reports of her nomination, or anywhere else read for this card.

U.S. aid to Palestinians

  • Nothing located, at any date. Neither the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, nor humanitarian funding for Gaza, nor the aid pipeline, nor the Palestinian Authority appears anywhere in her published material.

Characterization of the conflict

  • Nothing located, at any date. The words Israel, Gaza, Palestinian, Hamas and Middle East appear nowhere on her campaign site, in her questionnaire answers, or in any report about her campaign that could be read. The nearest thing to a foreign reference of any kind is her account of Navy service in the Mediterranean Sea.

Israel-related rhetoric and lobbying

  • Nothing located, at any date. No statement by her about the American Israel Public Affairs Committee or any other advocacy organization on this subject was found, and no pledge about their donations was found under her name.
  • [Position; the page is undated and was read 2026-09-18] Her platform's money-in-politics heading pledges full transparency in campaign finance, limits on the influence of big money, public financing on the model of Arizona's own Clean Elections system, and repeal of the Citizens United decision. Her questionnaire says the same. That is a general position on political money and is never read here as a position on what the United States sends.
  • [Position, 2025-06-30] The advocacy group U.S. Term Limits reported that she signed its pledge to support a constitutional amendment limiting congressional terms. That is what the page is about; it says nothing on this subject.

Safety and antisemitism (context, not an answer to what America sends)

  • Nothing located, at any date. She has published no statement about antisemitism, about the safety of Jewish communities, or about any named episode.

What the campaign site and her own pages say

  • [Position; the pages are undated and were read 2026-09-18] Her campaign site has five pages. The front page carries three policy sections, We the People, Affordability and Country Living; the policy page carries seven more, headed Purple Pledge, Veterans and Military Families, Energy and Water Security, Supporting Seniors, Immigration Reform, Term Limits and Accountability, and Getting Money Out of Politics. A case-insensitive search of every page for israel, gaza, palestin, hamas, antisemit, jewish, unrwa, foreign, arms, weapon, war and zionis returns a single hit, the word war inside the site's terms and conditions. The Veterans and Military Families heading is about transition to civilian careers, health care and mental health services, and stability for military families. Her site names no country other than the United States.
  • [Position, 2025; read 2026-09-18] Her Ballotpedia page records that she completed the Candidate Connection questionnaire in 2025; the page gives the year and not the day, so nothing from it is given a day-precise date. She answered every question, most of them at length. Her three key messages are accountability and term limits, school funding, and small business and rural jobs. Asked what she is passionate about, she named money in politics, term limits and public education. Asked about the United States' greatest challenges over the next decade, she answered on inequality, distrust in institutions, automation and burnout. Asked about the power to originate revenue bills, she answered on schools, health care costs and infrastructure. No question on the form asks about foreign policy, war powers, weapons or foreign aid, and she raised none of them in any answer. Under the questionnaire test this is a fact about the form as well as about her answers, because the form did not ask; but she used the open questions at length on other subjects, so her silence here is her own as well.
  • [Position; read 2026-09-18] Her BallotReady profile carries her professional history and no issue statements. The Arizona Ballot Guide entry for her lists issue stances drawn from her own campaign site on water, education, housing and health care, records no stance on several other subjects, and has no foreign policy category at all.
  • [Position; read 2026-09-18] Her endorsements page lists three state legislators, a Phoenix constable and three local groups; her front page also names the Arizona Secretary of State. None of those endorsements is on this subject, and no position is drawn from any of them.

The race

  • [Read 2026-09-18] Ballotpedia's page for the 2026 election in Arizona's 9th District: “Incumbent Paul Gosar, Danielle Sterbinsky, William Perry, and G. Seville Hatch are running in the general election for U.S. House Arizona District 9 on November 3, 2026.” William Perry and G. Seville Hatch are write-in candidates. The filing deadline was March 23, 2026 and the primary was July 21, 2026. Both nominees were unopposed in it; Sterbinsky took 31,371 votes and Gosar 67,577. Two other Democrats withdrew or were disqualified before the ballot was set. The four analysts Ballotpedia tracks rate the race solid or safe Republican.
  • [Position, 2026-08-27] Arizona's Family, the Phoenix television stations KTVK and KPHO, reported the state's debate schedule: “On Aug. 27, Democratic candidate Danielle Sterbinsky took questions in a one-on-one forum as Republican Rep. Paul Gosar did not respond to debate invites.” The report was published August 21, 2026 and last updated September 16, 2026. The recording is published by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission and runs 28 minutes and 20 seconds. It carries no captions and no transcript by any route available here, and it was not watched, so nothing is claimed from it. A caution for anyone re-checking: the description attached to the same recording on the television station's own page says she is running in Congressional District 8, which is wrong; every other source, including the recording's own title, gives District 9.
  • [Read 2026-09-18] Local coverage of her nomination. The Litchfield Park and Goodyear Independent reported on her primary night that she told supporters on July 21 that the primary was “just the beginning”, and that the district “stretches across much of western Arizona and favors Republicans”. Its sister paper reported the matchup and Gosar's ninth-term bid. Both stories stop after a few paragraphs behind a subscription wall, so only their opening passages were read; neither opening mentions this subject. Our research recorded both as closed to us, and both opened.

Places that could not be read, so nothing is claimed from them

  • The recording of her August 27, 2026 forum, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMHGTOBtxj4 . The page opens and the video is there; there are no captions and no transcript, and it was not watched. This is the single most likely place for an answer to this question to exist.
  • Her campaign accounts. https://www.facebook.com/daniforcongress opened and showed one recent post, about Constitution Day, before asking for an account; https://www.instagram.com/sterbinsky_for_congress/ and https://www.tiktok.com/@sterbinskyforcongress returned nothing readable. A post of hers about accepting the debate invitation, at https://www.facebook.com/daniforcongress/photos/dani-sterbinsky-has-accepted-the-arizona-citizens-clean-elections-debate-invitat/122137035699141762/ , could not be opened without an account. Their addresses are printed rather than linked for that reason.
  • The Citizens Clean Elections Commission's own debate page, https://www.azcleanelections.gov/arizona-2026-debate-series-updates , which refused every attempt on 2026-09-18, and the Arizona Media Association's debate listing, https://azmedia.org/2026-arizona-political-debates/ , which did the same.
  • The Center Square's report of an Arizona congressional forum, https://www.thecentersquare.com/arizona/article_22de2200-0f42-43d6-9950-48dc7cea2ff0.html , which returns a notice that the site is unavailable to readers in Europe. Three routes were tried.
  • An interview she gave to a podcast on August 6, 2025, which is a 49-minute recording with no transcript. Its own published summary lists the subjects as her background, the Navy, social work, parenting and campaigning, the district's issues, education and the economy, campaign strategy, voting access, fundraising and personal questions. It was not listened to and nothing is claimed from it.
  • The two localcandidates.org pages our research cited. That host does not render for us at all, and its pages are never used as a source.

Not on the card, and why

  • Her platform on affordability, housing, childcare, health care, rural broadband, water, seniors, immigration, veterans' services, term limits and campaign money, and the whole of her questionnaire: real positions, none of them about U.S. weapons or money for the government of Israel, or about U.S. aid to Palestinians. They are listed above so the absence is checkable.
  • Her pledge on campaign money and public financing: a position about political money, which is never written as a position on what the United States sends. It is above.
  • Her endorsements, including the one from a statewide officer: other people's recommendations rather than statements by her.
  • The statements a machine-generated candidate summary attributes to her about the war with Iran and about which branch may declare war. The page, at https://smarter.vote/races/az-house-09-2026/danielle-sterbinsky/ , states that its material is compiled by artificial intelligence from public sources, and it is not used as a source for anything. It names two reports as its basis, one by the Arizona Republic and one by The Center Square; neither could be opened here, and neither claim is verified or repeated on this card. Iran is in any case a different question from what the United States sends to the government of Israel.
  • Paul Gosar's record, and his answer or absence of an answer to the debate invitation beyond the bare fact reported above: another candidate's record belongs on that candidate's own card.

Sources retrieved for this card (address; opened or could not open; date)

  • https://www.sterbinskyforcongress.com/ , https://www.sterbinskyforcongress.com/services , https://www.sterbinskyforcongress.com/blank-1 , https://www.sterbinskyforcongress.com/privacy-policy and https://www.sterbinskyforcongress.com/terms-and-conditions (opened; 2026-09-18)
  • https://ballotpedia.org/Danielle_Sterbinsky and https://ballotpedia.org/Arizona%27s_9th_Congressional_District_election,_2026 (opened; 2026-09-18; her questionnaire is dated 2025 by year only)
  • https://www.ballotready.org/people/danielle-dani-sterbinsky and https://arizonaballotguide.com/candidates/danielle-sterbinsky (opened; 2026-09-18)
  • https://www.azfamily.com/2026/08/21/stay-informed-heres-when-candidates-are-debating-before-november-election/ (opened; 2026-09-18; published 2026-08-21, updated 2026-09-16)
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMHGTOBtxj4 (opened; 2026-09-18; no captions or transcript; the recording was not watched)
  • https://www.yourvalley.net/litchfield-park-independent/stories/sterbinsky-celebrates-nomination-looks-ahead-to-gosar,707047 and https://www.yourvalley.net/stories/gosar-to-face-newcomer-sterbinsky-in-cd9-general-election,706375 (opened, opening passages only behind a subscription wall; 2026-09-18)
  • https://termlimits.com/danielle-sterbinsky-pledges-to-support-term-limits-on-congress/ (opened; 2026-09-18; published 2025-06-30)
  • https://amymaccc.substack.com/p/the-foolish-optimist-dani-sterbinsky-be2 (opened; 2026-09-18; published 2025-08-06; the recording was not listened to)
  • https://www.azfamily.com/2026/09/14/2026-election-these-competitive-arizona-races-could-decide-control-us-house/ (opened; 2026-09-18; names the race and carries nothing on this subject)
  • https://smarter.vote/races/az-house-09-2026/danielle-sterbinsky/ (opened; 2026-09-18; not used, because the page states its material is compiled by artificial intelligence)
  • https://www.azcleanelections.gov/arizona-2026-debate-series-updates , https://azmedia.org/2026-arizona-political-debates/ , https://www.thecentersquare.com/arizona/article_22de2200-0f42-43d6-9950-48dc7cea2ff0.html , https://www.instagram.com/sterbinsky_for_congress/ , https://www.tiktok.com/@sterbinskyforcongress , https://www.facebook.com/daniforcongress/photos/dani-sterbinsky-has-accepted-the-arizona-citizens-clean-elections-debate-invitat/122137035699141762/ and the two localcandidates.org pages (could not open; 2026-09-18)
  • This is a record of what was checked on 2026-09-18, not a claim that no statement exists anywhere.

Also in this race

  1. ✗ Paul A. Gosar (Republican)

All Arizona 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.