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

Joseph Arminio

Republican · U.S. House, Delaware District 1
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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.

Two reviewers, reading the public record as a whole, agree: On his campaign site in September 2026 he says America must require Israel to irreversibly implement a two-state solution on a relatively short timetable and that Israel "suffers from an acute lack of strategic depth", which points both ways. Reviewed by hand on 2026-10-09. This candidate has no recorded tracked floor votes.

Arminio's platform would require the government of Israel to carry out a two-state solution on a short timetable, with Arab states normalizing relations in step. Nothing located has him taking a position on U.S. weapons or money for the government of Israel, or on U.S. aid to Palestinians.

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Deep Dive

Joseph Arminio is the Republican nominee in Delaware's at-large district, which covers the whole state. He is a Wilmington native with a doctorate in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has taught at American University and Lincoln University, and he campaigns as Dr. Joe. He ran for Congress in Maryland in 2008 and sought this seat in 2024 without reaching the ballot. He won the Republican primary on September 15, 2026 with 47.9 percent of the vote over John Whalen III and Earl Cooper, and Delaware's results have been called but not certified. On November 3, 2026 the ballot carries Sarah McBride, the Democratic incumbent, and Joseph Arminio, the Republican nominee.

His campaign has six planks, one of them headed Stopping Endless Wars, and it opens onto a longer proposal he calls The Grand Bargain. He writes that “I am for steering Israel toward the Two-State Solution.” The longer document says how he would do it. America, he writes, “must require that Israel irreversibly implement the "Two-State" solution according to a relatively short timetable”, while Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the other Sunni Arab states normalize relations with it on a matching schedule. He wants the United States, Israel and the Sunni Arab states to form a joint Middle East air defense system, with the Arab states taking the lead in preventing the buildup of a Palestinian offensive military capability, and he says a sovereign Palestinian state next door is risky for Israelis because the country lacks strategic depth.

What the platform does not do is say what the United States should send. It names no program and no sum: nothing on American military aid to the government of Israel, nothing on arms sales or conditions attached to them, and nothing on humanitarian aid for Palestinians. What it offers instead is economic. He blames the petrodollar system for tempting the country into “endless wars,” and his answer is the American Prosperity Plan, which he says would cut public and private debt and end that dependence. Ballotpedia reproduces the same platform text and records that he has not completed its candidate questionnaire. A public broadcaster's profile of the three Republican candidates in August 2026 set out his priorities as the economy, endless wars, immigration and the Constitution, and none of what it records from him reaches this question.

There is one place an answer may exist. A Delaware newspaper put questions to all three Republican candidates and published his answers on September 1, 2026, and that page opens here only as far as its first paragraph; the rest is for subscribers. Our research reports that he criticized a provision of this year's defense bill that would knit American and Israeli military technology together, and that he faulted his opponent for not opposing it. None of that could be checked against the page, so none of it is used here, and the address is on his research page for anyone who can open it.

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

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.

In their words

“I am for steering Israel toward the Two-State Solution.”
Source ↗, 2026-09-20
“America must require that Israel irreversibly implement the "Two-State" solution according to a relatively short timetable and that the Sunni Arab States, especially Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, normalize relations with Israel according to a corresponding schedule.”
Source ↗, 2026-09-20
“Israel suffers from an acute lack of strategic depth; to live side by side with an essentially sovereign Palestinian state is risky for the Israelis.”
Source ↗, 2026-09-20
“Thus, the US, Israel and Sunni Arabs should form a Middle East Air Defense system and the Sunni Arabs should take the lead in preventing the buildup of a Palestinian offensive military capability.”
Source ↗, 2026-09-20

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 2026-09-20 unless the entry says otherwise. Bands: Position (2024-01-26 onward), Reaction window (2023-10-07 to 2024-01-25), Earlier record (before 2023-10-07), Undated. A live campaign page is recorded on the date we read it. He has never served in Congress, so there are no roll calls on this record, and the committees this site tracks record no funding on it.

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

  • Nothing located at any date. His campaign site was read in full, all nine of the pages its own index lists, and it carries no statement on American military aid, arms sales, conditions on either, or an embargo. Ballotpedia reproduces the same text and adds nothing. The one item that would bear on this question, reported from a newspaper interview, could not be read; it is described below.
  • [Position, read 2026-09-20] The nearest thing on the site is a proposal about a defense arrangement rather than about American money. On the Grand Bargain page: "Israel suffers from an acute lack of strategic depth; to live side by side with an essentially sovereign Palestinian state is risky for the Israelis. Israel and the Sunni Arabs are fearful of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its proxies. Thus, the US, Israel and Sunni Arabs should form a Middle East Air Defense system and the Sunni Arabs should take the lead in preventing the buildup of a Palestinian offensive military capability." The page says nothing about who would pay for such a system.
  • [Reported 2026-09-01, not confirmed] Our research reports that in a question-and-answer piece published by the Daily State News on September 1, 2026 he objected to Section 219 of the National Defense Authorization Act, which it quotes him as saying "calls for the fusion of U.S. and Israeli top secret military technologies", and that he faulted his general election opponent for not denouncing it. The page serves its headline, its byline of September 1, 2026 by Kaitlyn Cupelli, and one opening paragraph saying that the paper surveyed the three candidates in Delaware's Republican primary; everything after that is behind a membership wall. The wording has not been checked against the page and nothing from it is on the card. Section 219 is a real provision of this year's defense authorization bill, which would set up a United States and Israel defense technology cooperation initiative; that much is a matter of public record, but his words about it are not confirmed here.
  • [Reaction window] Nothing located. He held no office and was not a candidate in those weeks, and nothing of his is dated between October 7, 2023 and January 25, 2024 at any address that opened.

U.S. aid to Palestinians

  • Nothing located at any date. No statement of his was found on humanitarian aid to Gaza, on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or on any appropriation for Palestinian civilians. His platform's only mention of Palestinians as a people is in the two-state passages recorded here.

Characterization of the conflict

  • [Position, read 2026-09-20] His issues page on stopping endless wars: "Most important of all, America needs to be as benevolent a power as it can be. Nowhere does America need to adjust its foreign policy more than in the Middle East. I am for steering Israel toward the Two-State Solution. I have publicly opposed the Iran War, even prior to February 28, 2026. Let us revert to containing, better yet, rolling back financially, the Iranian revolutionaries while peaceably supporting the Iranian people as a whole — who are by nature and history our friends and protective of Jews and Christians."
  • [Position, read 2026-09-20] The Grand Bargain page, the fuller version: "Benevolence is a crucial ingredient in achieving a worthwhile peace. Thus, the very first thing to do is to end the Iran War right now. That done, the rollout of The Grand Bargain can begin. America must require that Israel irreversibly implement the "Two-State" solution according to a relatively short timetable and that the Sunni Arab States, especially Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, normalize relations with Israel according to a corresponding schedule." The double space before "America" is the page's own. Further down: "The IRGC is a state within a state. Just as the Israelis should be required to abandon their pursuit of a Greater Israel, so too should the IRGC be required to abandon any designs to destroy Israel." The page also proposes an India, Middle East and Europe economic corridor, concessions by Ukraine to Russia, and an approach to China, none of which is about this question.
  • [Reported 2026-09-01, not confirmed] Our research reports that in the same newspaper interview he said he is "fully aware that war crimes have been committed by Hamas and some other Arab forces", invoked George Washington on avoiding foreign entanglements, and criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's "appalling conduct in Gaza and elsewhere". The page does not open past its first paragraph and none of this has been checked.

Related rhetoric and lobbying

  • [Position, read 2026-09-20] His campaign describes itself as America First and non-interventionist. His home page says of the incumbent that "the incumbent is a perpetuator of our two biggest problems – our failing economy and endless wars", and sets his own position as "I am America First and stand for Main Street Rising!" The site names no advocacy organization anywhere.
  • [Reported 2026-09-01, not confirmed] Our research reports that on his campaign website and in the newspaper interview he said his opponent's foreign policy "tilts Israel First" and criticized her for taking money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and for belonging to pro-Israel caucuses. A search of every page of his site for aipac, israel first, lobby and his opponent's name returns nothing of the kind, so if he said it, he said it in the interview that cannot be read. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is a lobbying organization that works to strengthen the United States relationship with the government of Israel and, since 2021, runs political committees that give directly to candidates. Nothing of this is on the card, and no claim about another candidate's funding is made here.
  • The committees this site tracks record no funding on this record.

Safety and antisemitism (context, not a position on what America sends)

  • [Position, read 2026-09-20] One reference, and it is about Iran: on the Grand Bargain page he writes that the American public must be shown "how the Iranian people as a whole have been the protectors of the Jews and Christians and how they have sought good relations with the West". Nothing else was located on domestic antisemitism or on the safety of Jewish communities.

What the campaign site and his own pages say

  • [Position, read 2026-09-20] drjoeforcongress.com in full, all nine pages its own index lists: home, about, issues, the six issue pages, the Grand Bargain and the American Prosperity Plan. The six planks are the economy, stopping endless wars, reforming education, the Constitution, immigration and a pledge he calls Time to Pivot. A case-insensitive search of every page for aipac, unrwa, foreign aid, weapon, arms, military aid, ndaa and antisemit returns nothing; israel, gaza, palestin and middle east appear only in the passages set out above.
  • [Position, read 2026-09-20] Ballotpedia's page for him reproduces his campaign website's text in full under campaign themes, including the passage about steering Israel toward the two-state solution, and records that he "has not yet completed Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey". Our research described that passage as coming from a September 2026 questionnaire of his; it does not. The page also records that he was a withdrawn or disqualified candidate for this seat in 2024.
  • [Position, 2026-08-22, updated 2026-08-26] WHYY, "Delaware election 2026: Meet the 3 Republicans hoping to unseat Sarah McBride in Congress", by Johnny Perez-Gonzalez. Its section on him records his biography, his doctorate, his 2008 primary run in Maryland against Andy Harris, and his priorities: the American Prosperity Plan, inflation and private debt, stopping what he calls endless wars, immigration enforcement and a revival of the Constitution. It quotes him on the economy and on the rule of law and on nothing else. Nothing in his section of that article is about this conflict.
  • [Position, 2026-09-15] WHYY's report of his primary win, by the same reporter: it records that he campaigned on the economy, on reducing United States involvement in foreign conflicts and on immigration enforcement, and it carries nothing on this conflict.

The race

  • [Read 2026-09-20] Ballotpedia's page for Delaware's at-large district: "Incumbent Sarah McBride (D) and Joseph Arminio (R) are running in the general election for U.S. House Delaware At-large District on November 3, 2026." Those two names are the whole field, and the page carries its own standing caution that a candidate list may not be complete. The Democratic primary scheduled for September 15, 2026 was canceled and the incumbent advanced without appearing on the ballot. In the Republican primary of the same day he defeated John Whalen III and Earl Cooper. Donyale Hall and Lee Murphy are listed as withdrawn or disqualified Republican candidates.
  • [Read 2026-09-20] NBC News's results page for the Delaware House primary, fed by the Associated Press and last updated September 16, 2026 at 4:35 p.m. Eastern with 98.9 percent of the expected vote in: Arminio 18,629 votes and 47.9 percent, Whalen 12,523 and 32.2 percent, Cooper 7,772 and 20.0 percent. Ballotpedia prints smaller totals for the same three candidates, 17,924, 12,068 and 7,499, and 47.8 percent for him, under its own caution that totals may change until certification. This agrees with the record, which holds the same two candidates in the November race and the same primary figures.

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

  • https://baytobaynews.com/stories/qa-with-joe-arminio-delaware-republican-candidate-for-us-congress,343003 , the September 1, 2026 question-and-answer piece that is the source of everything our research reports of his own words on this conflict. It opens as far as its first paragraph on one attempt and returns a refusal on the other. The address is printed here so that a subscriber may read it.
  • https://njjewishnews.timesofisrael.com/in-whippany-christians-rally-for-israel/ , offered by our research about a different man. It refuses. It concerns Pastor Joseph Arminio Jr. of the Abundant Life Worship Center in New Jersey, an evangelical minister, who is not this candidate; our research flagged the confusion itself and nothing from that page is used.

Not on the card, and why

  • Everything reported from the September 1, 2026 newspaper interview: the objection to Section 219 of the defense authorization bill, the sentence about war crimes by Hamas and other Arab forces, the criticism of Prime Minister Netanyahu's conduct in Gaza, and the criticism of his opponent over the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The page does not open past its first paragraph, so the wording has not been checked. All of it is set out above as reported rather than as his words.
  • The proposal for a joint Middle East air defense system, as card-front material. Defensive systems do not go in the 50-word summary; the deep dive and this page carry it.
  • Everything about Iran: ending the Iran War, containing and rolling back the Iranian revolutionaries, the passage about the IRGC and a Greater Israel, and the passage about the Iranian people as protectors of Jews and Christians. Iran is a different question from what the United States sends to the government of Israel or to Palestinians. All of it is quoted above.
  • The rest of the Grand Bargain: Ukraine, Russia, China, Taiwan and the economic corridor. Not this question.
  • The sentence in the WHYY article about supporting material assistance to Israel. It belongs to another candidate.
  • Sarah McBride's record. No one else's record is narrated on this card.

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

  • https://drjoeforcongress.com/issues/grand-bargain (opened; 2026-09-20)
  • https://drjoeforcongress.com/issues/issue-2 (opened; 2026-09-20)
  • https://drjoeforcongress.com/issues (opened; 2026-09-20)
  • https://drjoeforcongress.com/ (opened; 2026-09-20)
  • https://drjoeforcongress.com/about , /american-prosperity-plan and the five other issue pages (opened; 2026-09-20)
  • https://drjoeforcongress.com/sitemap.xml (opened; 2026-09-20; used to confirm the site has no other pages)
  • https://ballotpedia.org/Joseph_Arminio (opened; 2026-09-20)
  • https://ballotpedia.org/Delaware%27s_At-Large_Congressional_District (opened; 2026-09-20)
  • https://whyy.org/articles/election-2026-delaware-primary-congress-republican-candidates/ (opened; 2026-09-20; published 2026-08-22, updated 2026-08-26)
  • https://whyy.org/articles/election-2026-delaware-primary-us-house-republican-winner/ (opened; 2026-09-20; published 2026-09-15)
  • https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-primary-elections/delaware-house-results (opened; 2026-09-20)
  • https://baytobaynews.com/stories/qa-with-joe-arminio-delaware-republican-candidate-for-us-congress,343003 (opened to its first paragraph only; 2026-09-20; published 2026-09-01)
  • https://njjewishnews.timesofisrael.com/in-whippany-christians-rally-for-israel/ (could not open; 2026-09-20; about a different man of the same name)
  • This is a record of what was checked on 2026-09-20, not a claim that no other statement exists.

Also in this race

  1. ? Sarah McBride (Democrat)

All Delaware 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.