Sarah McBride

Deep Dive

Sarah McBride has represented Delaware's at-large district since January 2025 and sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. She was a state senator before that. Delaware's primary was held on September 15, 2026 and its results have been called but not certified; she had no opponent on the Democratic line. On November 3, 2026 the ballot carries Sarah McBride, the Democratic incumbent, and Joseph Arminio, the Republican nominee.

She has been fullest on this question as a candidate rather than as a member. At the Delaware Debates at the University of Delaware's Mitchell Hall on October 16, 2024, an event her opponent declined to attend, she was asked about the war. She supported continued American security assistance to the government of Israel as well as to Ukraine, and said, as the University of Delaware's student newspaper reported her words, that “Without question, Israel has the right to defend itself against terrorist attacks and protect its citizens, but it also has the responsibility to do that within all applicable laws,”. She said she had supported the American government's efforts to secure a ceasefire, free the hostages and build toward a more durable peace, and that in Congress she would speak not only for the United States relationship with Israel but for a two-state solution in which Palestinians have safety, security and the right to self-determination.

In office she has said less. In her first weeks in the House, on January 15, 2025, she welcomed the reports of a ceasefire and hostage agreement, said the loss of lives, homes and communities in Israel and Gaza since October 7, 2023 had been heartbreaking, and called the agreement an important step toward securing safety for Israelis and Palestinians alike. In May 2025 she was one of 41 House Democrats who signed a statement organized by Representative Dan Goldman and the Democratic Majority for Israel, an advocacy organization that works within the Democratic Party in support of the United States relationship with the government of Israel. It said the resumption of humanitarian aid to Gaza was essential to alleviate the humanitarian crisis there, and that the aid must be disbursed swiftly and safely to Palestinian civilians and not Hamas. That wording is the group's rather than hers alone. Those are the only two things her office has published on this conflict since she took her seat, and she has issued no statement explaining either of her recorded votes on it.

Before the war she said more about American money than she has since. Running for this seat, she told Jewish Insider in an interview published on August 2, 2023 that she would not support legislation like Representative Betty McCollum's, which would put restrictions on American aid to the government of Israel. Federal law, she said, already makes sure such aid “shouldn't be used in ways that contradict our values,” and she had “serious concerns about any policy that would single out Israel and treat it differently than other countries that we support through foreign aid”. Disputes between allies, she said, “are best handled within our existing relationship.” In the same interview she backed keeping to the 2016 agreement that provides American military aid to the government of Israel, and a two-state solution reached through direct talks.

In August 2025 she traveled to Israel with a group of House Democrats on an eight-day seminar paid for by the American Israel Education Foundation, a charitable organization that pays for members of Congress to visit the country. Her campaign site sets out nine priorities and none of them is foreign policy. Her statements on Iran, her work against antisemitism and everything else our research found are on her research page.

The record

Supported sending weapons or funding in 1 of 2 tracked votes

House Committee on Foreign Affairs

The money

$11K in lifetime support from the five lobbying groups we track

In their words

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. Her congressional press-release archive was read in full: 17 listing pages, 165 items with their opening paragraphs, September 2026 back to January 2025, plus the 101 items in her office's news listing. Bands: Position (2024-01-26 onward), Reaction window (2023-10-07 to 2024-01-25), Earlier record (before 2023-10-07), Undated. Her recorded House votes and the bills she has cosponsored are shown as badges on the card and are not restated here; the committees this site tracks record no funding on this record.

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

• [Position, 2024-10-16] The Delaware Debates at the University of Delaware's Mitchell Hall. Medill on the Hill's report, by Coby Potischman, published October 17, 2024: "Asked about the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, McBride voiced support for continued security assistance to Ukraine and Israel, calling for a ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and a two-state solution with a Palestinian state long-term." That sentence is the reporter's summary and not a quotation. The same report records that the event was meant to be a debate with the Republican nominee John Whalen, who declined to attend, and that it was held on the Wednesday before publication, which was October 16, 2024.
• [Position, 2024-10-16] The University of Delaware student newspaper's report of the same event, by Meghan Freeze, published December 12, 2024, which prints the date of the event on its face: she "hit the debate stage at Mitchell Hall on Oct. 16" with the moderator Ralph Begleiter. Her words there: "Without question, Israel has the right to defend itself against terrorist attacks and protect its citizens, but it also has the responsibility to do that within all applicable laws," and "I am desperate to see an end to violence and peace," and "I have been supportive of the U.S. government-led efforts to secure a ceasefire to stop the violence, release the hostages and create a bridge to more durable peace." And: "Any ceasefire is temporary until we have a more permanent and holistic solution. As a member of Congress, I will continue to speak, not only for the U.S.-Israel relationship but for a two-state solution that guarantees a safe and secure Israel and a safe and secure Palestine, where Palestinians have safety, security and the right to self-determination." The last two sentences are printed as two quotations separated by "McBride said" and are kept apart in the quotes published from this card.
• [Position, 2024-10-17] Delaware Public Media's report of the same debates, by Sarah Petrowich: "McBride also made it clear she supports Israel's right to defend itself following the attacks of terrorist group Hamas just over a year ago, but would support U.S.-led efforts for a ceasefire and a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." Reporter's summary, no quotation of her.
• [Position, 2026] Her two recorded votes on this question are on the card as badges. Nothing she has published explains either. Four places were checked: her own press releases and news listings, read in full; the Foundation for Middle East Peace's compilation of members who put a statement on the record about the House vote of July 15, 2026, 22,000 words, which does not name her; the joint statement of 27 members issued the same day, which she did not sign; and Jewish Insider's analysis of that vote of July 15, 2026, which does not mention her or Delaware.
• [Earlier record, 2023-08-02] Jewish Insider, "Delaware Congressional candidate Sarah McBride casts herself as a staunch supporter of Israel", by Marc Rod, an interview given while she was a state senator running for this seat. In full, the passage on aid: "Blunt Rochester has previously been supportive of legislation by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) in favor of placing restrictions on U.S. aid to Israel, one of a series of policy positions that have sometimes placed Blunt Rochester at odds with members of the state's pro-Israel community, even as they've maintained a relationship. McBride, however, told JI she wouldn't be supportive of legislation like the McCollum bill." / "McBride emphasized that federal law already contains protections to ensure that U.S. aid 'shouldn't be used in ways that contradict our values,' and voiced 'serious concerns about any policy that would single out Israel and treat it differently than other countries that we support through foreign aid' or hold it 'to a different standard.'" / "Disputes between allies, she continued, 'are best handled within our existing relationship.' She expressed support for the continued fulfillment of the 2016 Memorandum of Understanding for U.S. military aid to Israel." The single quotation marks above are this page's rendering of the article's double ones. The 2016 memorandum provides $3.8 billion a year and runs to 2028.
• [Reaction window] Nothing located. She was not in office in those weeks; she was a state senator and a candidate. Her congressional archive begins in January 2025, her campaign site carries no material from 2023, and no dated item of hers between October 7, 2023 and January 25, 2024 was found at any address that opened. A search result claimed a post of hers from that period on X; the claim could not be traced to a page that opens, her account requires a signed-in reader, and nothing has been built on it.

U.S. aid to Palestinians

• [Position, 2025-05-28] Jewish Insider, "Pro-Israel Dems say resumption of Gaza aid will refocus attention on hostages", by Marc Rod. A statement by 41 House Democrats including her, organized by Rep. Dan Goldman and the Democratic Majority for Israel. Collective wording throughout: the renewed delivery of aid was "essential to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, so that the primary focus of the international community can return to releasing the hostages that remain in captivity"; aid "must be disbursed swiftly and safely to Palestinian civilians and not Hamas, which has been stealing aid since the start of the war"; "We strongly believe that there can be no lasting peace while Hamas remains in power"; and a call on President Trump to "do everything within their power to secure the release of the hostages, facilitate the disbursement of aid, and bring a swift end to the war." Because the wording is the group's, nothing in it is attributed to her alone. The Democratic Majority for Israel is an advocacy organization that works within the Democratic Party in support of the United States relationship with the government of Israel.
• [Position, 2025-01-15] Her statement on the ceasefire, below, which names "the ability of Palestinian civilians to return to their communities" but says nothing about American money for them.
• [Position, 2024-10-16] At the Delaware Debates, quoted above: a two-state solution "where Palestinians have safety, security and the right to self-determination". That is a political outcome rather than a position on aid.
• Nothing else located at any date. No statement of hers was found on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency or on any appropriation for Palestinian civilians.

Characterization of the conflict

• [Position, 2025-01-15] Her statement on the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, in full: "The reports of a ceasefire agreement and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas could not be more welcome. The loss of lives, homes, and communities since October 7, 2023 in Israel and Gaza has been heartbreaking — and this is an important step toward securing safety for Israelis and Palestinians alike." / "This lifesaving agreement would not have been possible without the tireless efforts of President Biden and his administration. With this ceasefire, release of the Israeli hostages, and the ability of Palestinian civilians to return to their communities, I am optimistic that we are on a path toward stability across the region." The em dash and the straight quotation marks are the page's own. The release closes by noting that she is a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
• [Position, 2024-10-16] At the Delaware Debates, quoted above.
• [Earlier record, 2023-08-02] In the Jewish Insider interview she described the "special relationship" between the two countries as "a bedrock of America's national security and our global values" and as rooted in "shared values" and "common goals of global security", and said: "I believe it's a critical relationship. It's one that I will certainly work in Congress to continue to protect. And I believe that it sits right at the heart of our values as a democratic nation." She backed a two-state solution allowing "peace and security" for Israelis and Palestinians, reached through "direct bilateral talks without preconditions or foreign interference", and said any agreement "must inherently affirm Israel's right to exist". She also supported the Abraham Accords, saying they could "underpin a future two-state solution", and called an agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia a "significant step forward". The two sentences beginning "I believe it's a critical relationship" are printed in the article as one quotation broken by "she continued", and are not joined anywhere on the card.

Related rhetoric and lobbying

• [Position, 2025-08-06 to 2025-08-14] The primary trip sponsor form filed with the House for an educational seminar in Israel, sponsored and paid for by the American Israel Education Foundation. The form names 32 House Democrats as invitees, with her as the eighteenth, and its itinerary records her flight from Boston to Tel Aviv. The seminar ran August 6 to 14, 2025, and the form's breakdown of expenses beyond transport, lodging and meals comes to $5,005.64 a participant. The American Israel Education Foundation is a charitable organization that pays for members of Congress to visit Israel. The form was filed with the Clerk of the House and is a public record; it carries no statement by her.
• The committees this site tracks record no funding on this record.
• [Position, 2024-11-26] The Algemeiner, "Left-Wing Activists Slam Incoming Trans US Lawmaker for Past Pro-Israel Comments", by Corey Walker. A third party's account of criticism of her, quoting posts by activists on X. It also reproduces the August 2023 interview accurately, and it gives her words at the October 2024 debate in a different transcription from the student newspaper's: "Israel without question has a right to defend itself against a terrorist attack like we saw on Oct. 7, to protect its citizens — and, in fact, it has a responsibility to protect its citizens — but it also has a responsibility to do that in the context of all applicable laws." The two renderings are of the same remark and neither is used to correct the other; the card quotes only the version printed by the paper that reported the event and dates it.

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

• [Position, 2025-01-27] A release by Rep. Haley Stevens on the reintroduction of the Holocaust Education and Antisemitism Lessons Act names her among the first-term lawmakers who joined as cosponsors.
• [Earlier record, 2023-08-02] In the Jewish Insider interview: "This is an issue that I am deeply passionate about. We all have a moral responsibility to call out antisemitism whenever it rears its ugly head… In Congress, I will seek to continue to use the elected position that I have to elevate the need for all of us to speak out against antisemitism, to fight against antisemitism, [and] to pass legislation." The ellipsis and the bracketed word are the article's. She also supported the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's working definition of antisemitism, and described her work in the Delaware Senate on religious pluralism.
• [Position, 2026-03-12] Our research reports a post on her official Facebook account condemning an attack on the Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan. The address it gives returns an error and the post could not be read; nothing is claimed from it.

What the campaign site and her own pages say

• [Position, read 2026-09-20] Her campaign site's priorities page. Nine priorities: a working families economy, climate change and sustainability, criminal justice reform, universal health care expansion, gun violence, a modern economy, protecting and expanding access to voting, protecting reproductive health care, and workers' rights and strong unions. None is about foreign policy. A search of the priorities, home, about and news pages for israel, gaza, palestin, hamas, antisemit, jewish, aipac, unrwa, weapon, foreign aid, middle east and foreign policy returns nothing on any of them.
• [Position, read 2026-09-20] Her congressional site's own issue sections are Congress, Economy, Education, Energy, Health and Veterans. There is no foreign policy section. Her office's newsletter listing carries nothing on this subject either.
• [Position, 2026-02-28 and 2026-03-05] Two statements on the conflict with Iran: on the Trump administration's strikes on Iran, in which she said the president "appears determined to drag our country into yet another regime change war overseas rather than addressing problems here at home", and ahead of a war powers resolution vote, in which she said the president "has pushed our country into a war of choice in the Middle East based on misrepresented intelligence, changing objectives, and no clear exit strategy". Both passages are quoted here as her office's listing prints them. Iran is a different question from what the United States sends to the government of Israel or to Palestinians, and neither is on the card.

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 she advanced without appearing on the ballot. In the Republican primary of September 15, 2026 Joseph Arminio defeated John Whalen III and Earl Cooper. The page adds that vote totals may change until the results are certified, and lists Donyale Hall and Lee Murphy as withdrawn or disqualified Republican candidates. This agrees with the record, which holds the same two candidates in this race.
• [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. It also records that she was unopposed in her own primary. Ballotpedia prints smaller totals for the same three candidates, 17,924, 12,068 and 7,499, and 47.8 percent for Arminio.

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

• https://www.facebook.com/CongresswomanSarahMcBride/posts/i-am-grateful-to-hear-that-there-were-no-injuries-after-an-attack-on-temple-isra/1356447653010789/ , the address our research gives for her March 2026 post about the attack on a Michigan synagogue. It returns an error.
• https://www.wboc.com/news/delmarva-lawmakers-react-to-united-states-and-israel-attacking-iran/article_405d6c63-9e2f-4d82-8187-8bc441e450be.html , the report her office links for lawmakers' reactions to the strikes on Iran of early 2026. It refuses readers outside the United States, and her office's own page for it carries no text beyond the headline.
• https://cpa.org.au/guardian/issue-2125/letters/ and https://en.geneastar.org/genealogy/mcbridetim/sarah-mcbride , two addresses our research offered. Both refuse. Neither would have been used: the first is a letters page in an Australian political paper and the second a genealogy listing.
• https://www.reddit.com/r/MtF/comments/1gq1bzo/sarah_mcbride/ , also offered by our research. Reddit serves a challenge page to every route available here. It is a discussion thread about her rather than anything she wrote, so nothing turns on it.
• Her account on X, which needs a signed-in reader.

Not on the card, and why

• Her two statements on the conflict with Iran, of February 28 and March 5, 2026. Iran is a different question from what the United States sends to the government of Israel or to Palestinians. Both are quoted above.
• Everything about antisemitism: her cosponsorship of the Holocaust education bill, her support for the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition, her work in the Delaware Senate on religious pluralism, and the Facebook post about the Michigan synagogue. Context, and none of it answers what America sends.
• The Algemeiner's article of November 26, 2024, including the activists' posts it quotes and its own transcription of her debate remark. A third party's account of her; her own words are read at the pages that carry them.
• The tally and direction of her recorded votes, and the bills she has cosponsored. They are badges on this card, and she has published nothing about any of them, so nothing here characterizes them.
• The reference to Ukraine in the October 2024 debate reporting. Ukraine is a different question.
• Joseph Arminio'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://mcbride.house.gov/media/press-releases/congresswoman-mcbrides-statement-israel-hamas-ceasefire (opened; 2026-09-20; published 2025-01-15)
• https://mcbride.house.gov/media/press-releases and its 17 listing pages, 165 items (opened; 2026-09-20; January 2025 to September 2026, all read)
• https://mcbride.house.gov/media/in-the-news and its listing, 101 items (opened; 2026-09-20)
• https://mcbride.house.gov/media/mcbride-memo (opened; 2026-09-20)
• https://mcbride.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-mcbride-statement-trump-administrations-strikes-iran (opened; 2026-09-20; published 2026-02-28)
• https://mcbride.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-mcbride-supports-war-powers-resolution (opened; 2026-09-20; published 2026-03-05)
• https://medillonthehill.medill.northwestern.edu/2024/10/delaware-us-house-candidate-mcbride-holds-moderated-discussion-after-opponent-declines-debate/ (opened; 2026-09-20; published 2024-10-17)
• https://udreview.com/sarah-mcbride-attends-delaware-debates/ (opened; 2026-09-20; published 2024-12-12, reporting an event of 2024-10-16)
• https://www.delawarepublic.org/politics-government/2024-10-17/mcbride-and-hansen-take-the-stage-for-the-2024-delaware-debates (opened; 2026-09-20; published 2024-10-17)
• https://jewishinsider.com/2023/08/delaware-state-sen-sarah-mcbride-congressional-candidate-israel-transgender/ (opened; 2026-09-20; published 2023-08-02)
• https://jewishinsider.com/2025/05/pro-israel-democrats-letter-hostages-gaza-humanitarian-aid-resume/ (opened; 2026-09-20; published 2025-05-28)
• https://jewishinsider.com/2026/07/house-democrats-attempt-to-appease-party-base-in-voting-for-resolution-cutting-off-aid-to-israel/ (opened; 2026-09-20; published 2026-07-16; does not name her)
• https://fmep.org/resource/members-on-the-record-re-ending-aid-to-israel-re-7-15-26-house-vote-on-massie-amendment/ (opened; 2026-09-20; does not name her)
• https://mcgovern.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=400386 (opened; 2026-09-20; published 2026-07-15; she is not a signer)
• https://www.advocate.com/politics/lgbtq-congress-members-ceasefire-gaza (opened; 2026-09-20; published 2025-01-16; reproduces her ceasefire statement)
• https://www.algemeiner.com/2024/11/26/left-wing-activists-slam-incoming-trans-us-lawmaker-past-pro-israel-comments/ (opened; 2026-09-20; published 2024-11-26)
• https://stevens.house.gov/media/in-the-news/more-60-lawmakers-reintroduce-bipartisan-holocaust-education-bill (opened; 2026-09-20; published 2025-01-27)
• https://disclosures-clerk.house.gov/gtimages/MT/2025/500032895.pdf (opened; 2026-09-20; trip of 2025-08-06 to 2025-08-14)
• https://sarahmcbride.com/ , /priorities/, /about/ and /news/ (opened; 2026-09-20)
• https://ballotpedia.org/Delaware%27s_At-Large_Congressional_District (opened; 2026-09-20)
• https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-primary-elections/delaware-house-results (opened; 2026-09-20)
• https://www.facebook.com/CongresswomanSarahMcBride/posts/i-am-grateful-to-hear-that-there-were-no-injuries-after-an-attack-on-temple-isra/1356447653010789/ (could not open; 2026-09-20)
• https://www.wboc.com/news/delmarva-lawmakers-react-to-united-states-and-israel-attacking-iran/article_405d6c63-9e2f-4d82-8187-8bc441e450be.html (could not open; 2026-09-20)
• https://cpa.org.au/guardian/issue-2125/letters/ (could not open; 2026-09-20)
• https://en.geneastar.org/genealogy/mcbridetim/sarah-mcbride (could not open; 2026-09-20)
• https://www.reddit.com/r/MtF/comments/1gq1bzo/sarah_mcbride/ (could not open; 2026-09-20)
• This is a record of what was checked on 2026-09-20, not a claim that no other statement exists.