But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and funding for the government of Israel. How we check
Chris Coons
- Backed with $13K by PACs we track that support U.S. weapons funding for the government of Israel (lifetime)
- Endorsed by AIPAC
- Sits on Senate Appropriations
Coons votes against blocking U.S. weapons sales to the government of Israel and says "I will continue to ensure it has the weapons that it needs". He also says that government has been "impermissibly using hunger as a weapon against Gaza's civilians".
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You asked Chris Coons where they stand.
Deep Dive
Coons is Delaware's senior senator, seeking re-election. He sits on the Foreign Relations Committee and is the ranking member of the appropriations subcommittee that handles defence, which gives him real influence over both halves of this question.
His votes are consistent and he explains them himself. After voting against a resolution that would have blocked a sale of heavy bombs he wrote: "I have always been a staunch defender of Israel and its right to defend itself. I will continue to ensure it has the weapons that it needs to do so." His reason was Iran rather than Gaza: Israel "may not need 2,000-pound bombs to prosecute its war against Hamas, but it will need them in the event of war against Iran." The sales in front of the Senate that November evening were 120-millimetre tank rounds, high-explosive mortar rounds and JDAM bomb guidance kits, and the Gaza health ministry had by then reported 43,985 people killed, 17,492 of them children.
Two years later he voted the same way, on a $295 million sale of armoured bulldozers and a $151.8 million sale of 1,000-pound bombs, at a reported death toll of 72,344 with 20,179 children among them. He said something harder about the government receiving them. His statement that day calls the Netanyahu government "the most right-wing government in Israeli history", says two of its ministers have "eroded Israel's peace and security by advocating for the annexation of the West Bank, supporting settler violence, and promoting the expansion of illegal settlements", and that they "caused international outrage by delaying and repeatedly breaking the ceasefire in Gaza and impermissibly using hunger as a weapon against Gaza's civilians". He adds: "My votes should be taken neither as an endorsement of the actions of the Netanyahu government nor as an abandonment of the state of Israel."
He has also drawn a line he would enforce. In 2024 his office set it out plainly: if the Israeli military went into Rafah at scale without protecting civilians and letting aid through, the United States "should consider restricting security assistance". That is a condition he has stated and, so far, not voted.
The record
Supported sending weapons or funding in 9 of 9 tracked votes
Senate Committee on Appropriations · Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
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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Voted to send weapons or funding in more than half of their recorded tracked votes. (Supported sending weapons or funding in 9 of 9 tracked votes.)
The money
$13K in lifetime support from the five lobbying groups we track
In their words
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
- [Position, 2025-04-03] Statement after voting against a resolution of disapproval on arms sales, on his own Senate site, confirmed word for word: "I have always been a staunch defender of Israel and its right to defend itself. I will continue to ensure it has the weapons that it needs to do so." And: "Israel may not need 2,000-pound bombs to prosecute its war against Hamas, but it will need them in the event of war against Iran." And: "I understand the humanitarian concerns about supplying Israel with these weapons, but the unfortunate fact is that they are necessary to confront the more dangerous world that President Trump has created."
- [Position, 2026-04-15] Statement after voting against the disapproval resolutions again, confirmed word for word: "In the face of those circumstances, I voted not to abandon our steadfast ally, Israel, and the Americans who live within its borders. My votes should be taken neither as an endorsement of the actions of the Netanyahu government nor as an abandonment of the state of Israel, the Jewish people, or the US-Israel relationship." This is the fullest explanation of his votes anywhere on this record.
- [Position, 2024-05-10] **The previously unsourced claim, now sourced.** An earlier version of this record asserted his openness to conditioning aid with nothing behind it. His own office's release states it: "Senator Coons has repeatedly said that if Israel moves forward with a full-fledged military operation in Rafah without taking into account its obligation to protect civilians and facilitate the distribution of aid, the United States should consider restricting security assistance." The same page carries his floor exchange in full, including: "for us to ignore the consequences of using American weapons at scale in a very heavily concentrated place where there's a million refugees there because they were told to move south" would be "a tragic loss of life that is needless". Read it here.
- [Position, 2024-04-04] The New Republic reported the same openness to conditions ahead of a Rafah operation.
- [Position, 2024 to 2026] The recorded votes shown on this card, each cross-checked against the official Senate roll call, for example the April 2024 supplemental and the April 2026 sale. Yes on the supplemental; against discharging every disapproval resolution, with one recorded as not voting. Not re-listed in prose.
- [Position, 2026-04-16] He is one of the Democrats named in Time's account of the seven who voted with Republicans to continue the sales and in The New Republic's list of the same vote. Both open and name him.
U.S. aid to Palestinians
- [Position, 2024-05-10] His office states that as chair of the appropriations subcommittee handling foreign assistance he "has continued to fight for and secure billions in humanitarian aid for Gaza and other regions facing acute food insecurity and famine". That is his office's characterisation of his own work, recorded as such.
- [Position, 2026-04-15] The statement above accuses the Israeli government of "impermissibly using hunger as a weapon against Gaza's civilians", which is a position about aid reaching Palestinians even though it names no United States programme.
Characterization of the conflict
- [Position, 2026-04-15] "The Netanyahu government is the most right-wing government in Israeli history." And, of two named ministers: they have "eroded Israel's peace and security by advocating for the annexation of the West Bank, supporting settler violence, and promoting the expansion of illegal settlements". Confirmed word for word.
- [Position, 2025-10-07] Statement on the second anniversary of the attacks, in which he says it is time for the war in Gaza to end.
- [Position, 2025-10-09] Remarks calling a potential deal a relief.
- [Position, 2025] He is reported to have said the Israeli prime minister needed to end the war to reach genuine security and peace, and to have warned that Israel's international standing was being degraded by the suffering of Palestinian civilians. The only carriers offered are video pages returning about forty words of shell each, so neither is quoted.
Related rhetoric and lobbying
- [Position, 2024-07] He is among the senators photographed with the Israeli prime minister during his address to Congress, per Zeteo's account, which opens and names him.
- [Earlier record, 2017 to 2019] Cosponsored measures against boycott campaigns and a resolution reaffirming support for a two-state solution, per the American Jewish Congress's guide entry for him and a bill tracker. Predates the war; kept as history.
- [Earlier record, 2017-05-01] Co-authored a letter to the United Nations Secretary-General on treatment of Israel, signed by all one hundred senators.
- American Israel Public Affairs Committee support this cycle and Democratic Majority for Israel lifetime support are badges on this card and are not restated.
- An advocacy site, https://www.boughtbyzionism.org/chris_coons, catalogues his record and donations. It opens, but it is a campaigning page rather than a document, so nothing is taken from it.
Safety and antisemitism (context)
- [Position, 2024-04-19] Joined colleagues in introducing the Antisemitism Awareness Act; the 2025 reintroduction also names him.
- [Earlier record, 2020-06-24] Took part in an American Jewish Committee forum on combating antisemitism.
- Context, not an answer on what the United States sends.
Race and status context
- Incumbent, qualified for the Democratic primary per Delaware's official candidate list and Ballotpedia. Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and ranking member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.
- The candidate who launched a primary challenge against him has his own card on this site.
Also in this race
- –No Position Found Mike Katz (Republican)
All Delaware candidates.
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