But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and funding for the government of Israel. How we check
Joe Strada
Republican · U.S. House, Florida District 11
–No Position Found
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.
Joe Strada is the Republican nominee in Florida’s 11th District. Daniel Webster, who has represented the district since 2011, announced in April 2026 that he would not run again, so the seat is open. Strada owns Strada Services, a Central Florida air conditioning, electrical and plumbing company, and has held no public office. He won a five-candidate Republican primary on August 18, 2026 by fewer than four hundred votes, and a machine recount a week later confirmed the result. On November 3, 2026 the ballot carries James Pericola, the Democratic nominee, Joe Strada, the Republican nominee, and Ralph Groves, the Libertarian.
Nothing he has published reaches this question. His priorities page sets out three reforms, on congressional insider trading, term limits and a balanced budget, and twenty-four further priorities running from the border and federal spending to energy, schools and veterans. The closest any of them comes is a single line under the heading Peace Through Strength: “Rebuild military strength, deter enemies, support allies, and avoid weakness that invites conflict.” It names no country and no program.
He completed a candidate survey in July 2026, giving immigration, government accountability and the shortage of skilled workers as the three things he wants voters to remember; no question on that form asks about foreign policy and he raised none. He gave the same three answers, at more length, to his local newspaper’s questionnaire the same month. A second voter guide does ask candidates whether the relationship between the United States and Israel matters, and he answered none of its questions, so the blank beside that one says nothing about him in particular.
There are two places that might hold an answer, and neither could be read. A Florida political news site published pieces about his primary and about his advance to the general election, and both refuse to open here. Nothing from either is quoted or claimed anywhere on this card, and both addresses are printed on his research page so that anyone who can open them may check. His campaign accounts on Facebook and X could not be read either, and those addresses are there too.
An empty record carries no implication either way. You are better placed to change this than we are. Ask Strada 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.
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 2026-09-19 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. 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. Nothing dated in the reaction window was found for him anywhere; he was not a candidate then, and his campaign began in 2026.
U.S. military aid and weapons to the government of Israel
Nothing located at any date. No statement, vote, signature, pledge or interview answer of his on American weapons or American money for the government of Israel was found on his campaign site, in his own voter guide answers, in his local newspaper's questionnaire, on his campaign's social accounts or in a search of the open web.
[Position, read 2026-09-19] The nearest thing on his own site is one line in his priorities page, under the heading “Peace Through Strength”: “Rebuild military strength, deter enemies, support allies, and avoid weakness that invites conflict.” That is the whole of it. The page names China once, under “Stand Up to China”, and names no other country.
[Position, read 2026-09-19] His iVoterGuide profile carries a questionnaire of 32 items including “Is the United States' relationship with Israel important, and if so why?” and “With regard to America's foreign policy, which view most closely resembles yours”. His answer to every one of the 32, and to every biography prompt on the same page, is “Did not answer”. A wall of blanks on a form nobody filled in is a fact about the form and not about the candidate, so nothing is drawn from it. The page does record three endorsements and two political contributions he has made, and a grade of AQ from the National Rifle Association's political committee, none of which is in scope.
U.S. aid to Palestinians
Nothing located at any date. No statement of his was found on humanitarian assistance to Gaza, on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or on any appropriation for Palestinian civilians.
Characterization of the conflict
Nothing located at any date.
Related rhetoric and lobbying
Nothing located at any date. No statement of his about the American Israel Public Affairs Committee or any other advocacy organization in this area, and no money from any political committee this site tracks is recorded on this record. His voter guide profile lists nineteen endorsements, all of them Republican officeholders in Congress and in Florida, and no advocacy organization among them.
Safety and antisemitism (context, not a position on what America sends)
Nothing located at any date.
What his campaign site and his own pages say
[Position, read 2026-09-19] His priorities page. Three headline reforms, which the page calls his plan to clean up the Washington swamp: investigating congressional insider trading, enacting term limits and a balanced budget amendment. Then twenty-four further priorities: secure the border; stop the cartels and fentanyl; restore law and order; slash government spending; support term limits; line-item veto power; equal laws for Congress; unleash American energy; cut burdensome regulations; protect Social Security and Medicare; rebuild American manufacturing; buy American, hire American; stand up to China; defend the Constitution; protect religious liberty; restore parental rights; keep politics out of the classroom; protect women's sports; secure our elections; peace through strength; expand school choice; prioritize veterans; build roads and reduce traffic; and make America healthy again. A case-insensitive search of the page for israel, gaza, palestin, hamas, antisemit, jewish, aipac, unrwa, foreign aid and middle east returns nothing.
[Position, read 2026-09-19] His campaign home page at https://votestrada.com/ and his biography page at https://votestrada.com/meet-joe. Both open. Neither mentions foreign policy at all; the home page's leadership statement is about having signed the front of a paycheck, and the biography is about the skilled trades. The same search returns nothing on either.
[Position, 2026-07-22] His Ballotpedia candidate survey, which the page records as submitted on July 22, 2026. Four answers. Asked for three key messages he gave immigration, government accountability and the skilled worker shortage. Asked what areas of public policy he is personally passionate about he repeated the same three. Asked who has endorsed him he listed nineteen Republican officeholders. No question on the form asks about foreign policy and he raised none. The word Israel does not appear anywhere on the page.
[Position, 2026-07-24] The Apopka Chief's questionnaire of the five Republican candidates, by Sarah Merly, published July 24, 2026. His five answers cover why he is running, his business experience, his top three issues, which are the same three, what he would keep from Daniel Webster's priorities, and where to find him. The words israel, gaza, hamas, palestin, foreign aid and middle east appear nowhere in the whole piece, for him or for any of the five.
[Read 2026-09-19] His BallotReady profile opens and carries no issue statements of any kind.
[Read 2026-09-19] His X account at https://x.com/VoteStrada opens far enough to show it is his, headed “Joe Strada (@VoteStrada) on X” and described as “America First conservative. Businessman, not a career politician. Running for Congress to secure the border, cut spending, and defend Florida values.” The posts themselves need a signed-in reader and none is used. His campaign's Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/votestrada returned an error and could not be read.
The race
[Read 2026-09-19] Ballotpedia's page for this election: “James Pericola, Joe Strada, and Ralph Groves are running in the general election for U.S. House Florida District 11 on November 3, 2026”, and “There are no incumbents in this race.” The general election is November 3, 2026, the primary was August 18, 2026 and the filing deadline was June 12, 2026. In the Republican primary he took 33.5 percent and 27,389 votes to Carey Baker's 33.0 percent and 26,996, ahead of Tim Wilkins, Nizam Razack and Ivette Palomo. The Libertarian primary was cancelled and Ralph Groves advanced without appearing on a ballot. Daniel Webster is listed among the withdrawn Republican candidates. The Apopka Chief reported on August 26, 2026 that a machine recount confirmed him as the nominee. The page carries the standing caution that its candidate list may not be complete. The record and Ballotpedia agree on the whole field here.
Places that could not be read, so nothing is claimed from them
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/815112-joe-strada-cd-11-republican-primary-carey-baker/ , a Florida political news site's piece on him and the Republican primary. It returned 403 to a desktop browser identity and a payment-required response to a rendering retrieval.
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/816388-with-recount-complete-joe-strada-advances-to-general-election-in-cd-11/ , the same site on his advance to the general election after the recount. Same two refusals.
https://www.facebook.com/votestrada , his campaign's Facebook page, which returned an error.
https://x.com/VoteStrada , whose profile opens and whose posts do not.
https://www.localcandidates.org/politicians/joe-strada , cited in our research. This project does not read that site.
Not on the card, and why
The blank answers on his iVoterGuide profile, including the one beside the question about the United States relationship with Israel. He answered nothing at all on that form, so the blanks measure the form's reach and not his views. Set out above.
His grade from the National Rifle Association's political committee, his endorsements and his contributions, all on the same profile. None of them is about what the United States sends.
His priority line under “Peace Through Strength”, as an answer to this question. It names no country and no program, and reading a position into it would be inventing one. It is quoted above and in the deep dive as the nearest thing that exists.
James Pericola's record and Ralph Groves's. No one else's record is narrated on this card.
Sources retrieved for this card (address; opened or could not open; date)
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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