But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and funding for the government of Israel. How we check
Melat Kiros
Democrat · U.S. House, Colorado District 1
✓OpposesFrom their own words
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.
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Kiros is the Democratic nominee in Colorado’s 1st District (Denver) after defeating 15-term Representative Diana DeGette in the June 2026 primary, a result covered nationally.
Her platform is explicit. Her priorities page lists an "Arms Embargo" alongside Medicare for All, and says: "At $30 billion, our tax dollars have funded what nearly every human rights organization in the world, including the United Nations, has called a genocide in Palestine. Today, 75% of Democrats want to end all military aid to Israel, but our representatives aren’t listening." The Forward reported that her embargo would extend to funding for defensive systems; that detail is on the research page.
In August 2026 she told a television interviewer her "greatest concern right now is that the State of Israel is losing support all across the political spectrum" and that progressives were "leaving a vacuum" for far-right antisemites to fill. After criticism from the left, she wrote that she had "fumbled this line, plain and simple" and reaffirmed: "To be clear, my foreign policy priority is ending Israel’s occupation, apartheid, and genocide in Palestine. I also reject the notion that anti-Zionism is antisemitism."
Days before her primary she declined to call the 2025 firebombing of a Boulder hostage-awareness march antisemitic, telling an interviewer "I don’t know what was in the heart of the perpetrator"; three progressive leaders, including one of her endorsers, called that answer wrong. Nothing located has her addressing U.S. humanitarian aid to Palestinians as a funding question.
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 2026-07-23) from the five lobbying groups we track; earlier cycles and earmarked donations not yet tracked.
Support-only OpenFEC data. Opposition independent expenditures are excluded.
✓ Endorsed by JVP Action +3 more
JVP ActionJewish Voice for Peace's political arm, which now operates as JVP. It backs candidates who support Palestinian rights and work to end U.S. military funding to the government of Israel.Peace ActionA national peace and disarmament group. Its endorsements cover war, Pentagon spending and diplomacy broadly, not only U.S. weapons for the government of Israel.A New Policy PACA group backing congressional candidates who want a new U.S. policy toward Israel and Palestine grounded in U.S. and international law, including conditions on military aid.Track AIPACA watchdog on AIPAC-linked money. It backs candidates who reject AIPAC support and call for an arms embargo and conditions on aid to the government of Israel.These endorsements come from groups that push to restrict or end U.S. weapons transfers to the government of Israel. Endorsements from these groups are shown for information; they do not decide the mark.
In their words
“To be clear, my foreign policy priority is ending Israel’s occupation, apartheid, and genocide in Palestine. I also reject the notion that anti-Zionism is antisemitism, and it’s important that we distinguish the two in order to combat actual antisemitism”
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
[Position, read 2026-08-21] Her priorities page, verified word for word: the "Arms Embargo" plank and the $30 billion / "genocide in Palestine" / "75% of Democrats want to end all military aid to Israel" passage. A live page, recorded on the date we read it.
[Position, 2026-07-01] The Forward’s report that her embargo call includes "a suspension of funding for defensive weapons including the Iron Dome", the outlet’s description, verified. Defensive-systems detail stays off the front of the card.
[Position, 2026-06-30, video we could not watch] Her primary-night line "We will not wait to end the genocide in Palestine", reported from a C-SPAN clip circulated on Facebook. We could not watch it, and the address our research recorded for it is not a working one, so we are not linking it. Not yet confirmed.
U.S. aid to Palestinians
Nothing located as a funding question.
Characterization of the conflict
[Position, 2026-08] The Firing Line arc, per Jewish Insider, verified: her conciliatory interview lines ("that land has a distinctly Jewish character, a distinctly Christian character, a distinctly Muslim character"), her "fumbled this line, plain and simple" reversal, and her reaffirmation quoted on the card, including "a movement for liberation must center the Palestinians being oppressed, occupied, and systematically exterminated".
[Reaction window, 2023-11-07] Her Medium open letter, written as a law-firm associate, criticizing firms for suppressing pro-Palestinian protest and challenging the conflation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism; her firing from Sidley Austin followed and is part of her public biography per Jewish Insider and PalPAC’s endorsement page. The letter itself is in the reaction window: not on the card summary, noted here.
Related rhetoric and lobbying
[Endorsements] PalPAC’s ActBlue page for her (the endorser’s own framing, retrieved and quoted as theirs); Justice Democrats’ profile; Democratic Socialists of America backing per Jewish Insider. Endorsers’ words stay theirs.
No tracked funding badge appears because no tracked-committee support is recorded for her.
Safety and antisemitism (context)
[Position, 2026-06-27] The Boulder-firebombing controversy, per The Colorado Sun, verified: her 9News answer quoted on the card, the attack’s facts (a June 2025 firebombing of a weekly hostage-awareness gathering; one woman died), and the criticism from State Sen. Gonzales, State Rep. Zokaie (an endorser) and attorney-general candidate Seligman, who called the attack antisemitic and her answer wrong.
Two JNS opinion columns attack her campaign; an adversary outlet’s opinion, recorded as that, nothing adopted.
Race and status context
Democratic nominee in a safely Democratic seat, which makes her a likely new member. Her Republican opponent’s card carries its own record.
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.
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