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

Mark Davis

Other · U.S. House, Florida District 16
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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.

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Two reviewers, reading the public record as a whole, agree: In a September 2026 policy platform he says "I do not support permanent U.S. financial or military aid to Israel", while saying Israel can receive "temporary defensive protection during a genuine emergency", with nothing pointing the other way. Reviewed by hand on 2026-10-09. This candidate has no recorded tracked floor votes.

Davis's platform says he does “not support permanent U.S. financial or military aid to Israel” and that the United States “should oppose collective punishment and human-rights violations.” In May 2026 he wrote that opposing what the government of Israel is doing in Gaza is “not antisemitic” but “anti genocide”.

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Deep Dive

Mark Davis is running for Congress in Florida’s 16th District with no party affiliation, for the open seat Vern Buchanan is leaving. He served in the U.S. Air Force from 2005 to 2013 and owns a small business, and he has not held elected office. He describes his campaign as a movement built online, and he is a co-creator of a political podcast. He is on the November 3 ballot with Sydney Gruters, the Republican nominee, and Kelly Kirschner, the Democratic nominee; there is no incumbent.

His answer to this question is in writing. The two-page policy platform his campaign’s issues page links to, created on September 14, 2026, asks “What is your position on Israel and Gaza?” and answers: “Israel can receive temporary defensive protection during a genuine emergency, but I do not support permanent U.S. financial or military aid to Israel. Palestinian and Israeli civilian lives have equal value, and the United States should oppose collective punishment and human-rights violations.” His one exception is in the first sentence: protection that is defensive, temporary and limited to a genuine emergency. The platform names no bill, no dollar figure and no weapons system, and it does not say how or when the aid now flowing would end. The same document says the country should shift money away from unnecessary military spending and toward veterans, a plank that names no country.

He has also written about the war in his own voice. On May 19, 2026, in a thread on Threads urging votes for Angie Nixon in Florida’s Democratic Senate primary, he added: “Saying you do not support what Israel is doing right now is not racist. It’s not antisemitic.” He continued that he knows many Jewish people who are disgusted by what is happening in Gaza, and wrote: “The issue is not Jewish people. The issue is Netanyahu and the extremist government carrying this out. The issue is billions of dollars flowing into politicians.” He closed by saying that being against that is “anti genocide and foreign control”. On September 20, 2026 his campaign’s Facebook page posted a video he called old, captioned in part “Free Palestine.”

The rest of what he has published on this subject is about political money, and it is a pledge about his own fundraising rather than a position on what the United States sends. His platform’s banner reads “NO AIPAC MONEY”, meaning the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a lobbying organization that works for close ties between the United States and Israel. Its answer on who funds the campaign says: “I do not take corporate, Democratic Party, Republican Party, or AIPAC money.” His Threads profile says “No to AIPAC: don’t even ask”. In a short interview clip published on May 31, 2026 by the YouTube channel WeAreBlackIndependents, asked whether money from pro-Israel political committees was a problem in Congress, he said people on the left and the right were tired of the United States sending billions of dollars a year and then seeing millions come back to politicians to keep it coming.

Nothing located from him addresses U.S. aid to Palestinians, such as funding for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees or humanitarian aid for Gaza. The nearest is his platform’s sentence that Palestinian and Israeli civilian lives have equal value. Everything else that was found, including what could not be confirmed, is on his research page.

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

“Israel can receive temporary defensive protection during a genuine emergency, but I do not support permanent U.S. financial or military aid to Israel. Palestinian and Israeli civilian lives have equal value, and the United States should oppose collective punishment and human-rights violations.”
Source ↗, 2026-09-14
“Saying you do not support what Israel is doing right now is not racist. It’s not antisemitic. I know many Jewish people who are disgusted by what’s happening in Gaza right now.”
Source ↗, 2026-05-19
“The issue is not Jewish people. The issue is Netanyahu and the extremist government carrying this out. The issue is billions of dollars flowing into politicians.”
Source ↗, 2026-05-19
“Being against THAT is not anti-you….it’s anti genocide and foreign control”
Source ↗, 2026-05-19
“People - not corporations, political parties, billionaires, or lobbying organizations. I do not take corporate, Democratic Party, Republican Party, or AIPAC money.”
Source ↗, 2026-09-14

Research log

The notes behind this card: what we looked at, what we found, and where each item came from.

Our research for this card began with a search run on 2026-09-07, and every page below was opened and read on 2026-09-25 unless the entry says otherwise. His campaign site was read in full: its home page, its issues page, its page headed More About Why, its organizing page, and the two-page policy platform the issues page links to. His Ballotpedia page and his Candidate Connection answers were read in full, along with posts on his Threads account and his campaign’s Facebook page, the interview clip and the news pages our research pointed at. He has held no office, so there are no recorded votes on this record, and no tracked funding. Bands: Position (2024-01-26 onward), Reaction window (2023-10-07 to 2024-01-25), Earlier record (before 2023-10-07), Undated. Nothing located falls in the reaction window or earlier.

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

  • [Position, 2026-09-14; the date is the document’s own creation date] His campaign’s policy platform, two pages, linked from his issues page under the words View My Policy Positions. Under the heading Military, Veterans & Foreign Policy it asks “What is your position on Israel and Gaza?” and answers: “Israel can receive temporary defensive protection during a genuine emergency, but I do not support permanent U.S. financial or military aid to Israel. Palestinian and Israeli civilian lives have equal value, and the United States should oppose collective punishment and human-rights violations.” The address his issues page gives for the document is https://markdavisforcongress.com/s/MarkDavisFL16PolicyPlatform.pdf , which forwards to the file address linked here.
  • [Position, 2026-09-14] The same platform, answering “What should happen with military spending?”: “Shift money away from unnecessary military spending and toward veterans. We should not spend endlessly sending people to war and then underfund their healthcare, mental health, housing, and transition home.” No country is named in that answer.
  • [2026-05-05 by our research’s account; not found] Our research reported a post on his campaign’s Facebook page, dated May 5, 2026, as saying that he would be open to a temporary defensive arrangement while the United States moves the government of Israel off U.S. funding, that the United States should not fund offensive wars, and that American taxpayers should not give up programs at home so that another country can keep benefits for its citizens. The two addresses it gave for the post both belong to his campaign’s page, and neither shows those words. One is a video posted on August 30, 2026 with no caption, which was not watched. The other, https://www.facebook.com/61577092521616/photos/122178979442903084/ , is a photograph posted on the evening of May 5, 2026, the date our research gave; its caption did not load for us, and the comments that did load are about pizza. The reported words were not found, so none of them is his verified words, and none of them is used on the card. The position it is reported to state is close to the one his platform states in writing above.
  • [Position, 2026-05-31] A short interview clip published by the YouTube channel WeAreBlackIndependents, titled “FL-16 Candidate Mark Davis on What AIPAC money reveals about Congress”, 83 seconds long. The interviewer asks him, as a candidate with no party, whether money from pro-Israel political committees and the refusal to condition military aid to the government of Israel are a problem. In reply, as the clip’s automatic captions render it, he says he thinks people on the left and the right are turning against Israel and are tired of the corruption, of the United States sending billions of dollars a year and then seeing millions sent back to politicians so that the money keeps coming, and of people in Israel having free health care and education while Americans do not. Because automatic captions are not a transcript, nothing from the clip is placed in quotation marks here or on the card, and the dollar figure he uses is not repeated.
  • Nothing located from him about any specific bill, amendment or arms sale by name, about the memorandum of understanding, or about the Foreign Military Financing Program by name.

U.S. aid to Palestinians

  • Nothing located, at any date. The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, humanitarian aid for Gaza and the aid pipeline appear nowhere on his campaign site, in his platform, in his Ballotpedia answers or in anything else of his that was read. The nearest is the platform’s sentence that “Palestinian and Israeli civilian lives have equal value”.

Characterization of the conflict

  • [Position, 2026-09-14] His platform: “Palestinian and Israeli civilian lives have equal value, and the United States should oppose collective punishment and human-rights violations.”
  • [Position, 2026-05-19] A post on his Threads account urging votes for Angie Nixon over Alexander Vindman in Florida’s Democratic Senate primary. The passage on this subject reads: “Vindman is 100% pro Israel. He does not believe what’s happening in Gaza is genocide.” It is his description of another candidate’s views, not a statement of his own position, and it is recorded here rather than on the card.
  • [Position, 2026-05-19] His own follow-up in the same thread, posted the same morning. It opens “Apparently it needs to be said….” and continues in three paragraphs. The second: “Saying you do not support what Israel is doing right now is not racist. It’s not antisemitic. I know many Jewish people who are disgusted by what’s happening in Gaza right now.” The third: “The issue is not Jewish people. The issue is Netanyahu and the extremist government carrying this out. The issue is billions of dollars flowing into politicians.” The fourth: “Being against THAT is not anti-you….it’s anti genocide and foreign control”, followed by an attached image that was not read. The card quotes from this post.
  • [Position, 2026-09-20] A video posted on his campaign’s Facebook page, which was not watched. Its caption reads: “I kinda look like Ed Sheeran…definitely not as talented, but if this will do for now, I’ll be your Temu Ed Sheeran.” It continues: “And this Temu Ed Sheeran says: Free Palestine.”, followed by the Palestinian flag, and ends: “Old video haha…Enjoy!”

Israel-related rhetoric and lobbying

  • [Position, 2026-09-14] His platform carries a banner line that reads, among other things, “NO AIPAC MONEY”, and answers “Who funds this campaign?”: “People - not corporations, political parties, billionaires, or lobbying organizations. I do not take corporate, Democratic Party, Republican Party, or AIPAC money.” The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is a lobbying organization that works for close ties between the United States and Israel. This is a pledge about his own fundraising and is not a position on what the United States sends.
  • [Position; the profile is undated and was read 2026-09-25] His Threads profile, under the name Mark Davis for Congress (FL-16), says: “No to AIPAC: don’t even ask”.
  • [Position, 2026-05-19] The follow-up post above: “The issue is billions of dollars flowing into politicians.”
  • [Position, 2026-05-31] The interview clip above, on money from pro-Israel committees in Congress, described in reported speech under the first heading.
  • [2026-04-07; a third party’s account of him] A post on the campaign page of Jan Schneider, a Democratic primary candidate in this district who lost the primary on August 18, 2026. It says he had written on his Facebook page, on Threads and elsewhere that she “takes AIPAC money”, and disputes that. It is her campaign’s account of what he said, not his own words, and his posts it answers were not found, so nothing about the exchange is claimed on the card. The same post was shared on the Facebook page of a Democratic women’s club in southeast Hillsborough County.
  • [2026-04, by our research’s account; not found] Our research reported a comment of his on the club’s shared post asking why Israel is special, and itself described it as uncorroborated. The shared post opened, but no such comment was among what could be read, so the report is recorded as unconfirmed and nothing of it is his verified words.

Safety and antisemitism (context, not an answer to what America sends)

  • [Position, 2026-05-19] The follow-up post above, in which he writes: “Saying you do not support what Israel is doing right now is not racist. It’s not antisemitic.” He adds that he knows many Jewish people who are disgusted by what is happening in Gaza, and writes: “The issue is not Jewish people.” It is the only statement of his on this subject that was found.

The race and his own account of himself

  • [Undated; read 2026-09-25] Ballotpedia’s page for the race: “Kelly Kirschner, Sydney Gruters, and Mark Davis are running in the general election for U.S. House Florida District 16 on November 3, 2026.” There is no incumbent. Kirschner won the Democratic primary on August 18, 2026 with 43.3 percent and Gruters the Republican primary with 63.6 percent; Vern Buchanan is listed among the candidates who withdrew. WUSF’s report on the primary, published August 18, 2026, says Buchanan is retiring and names Davis as the independent in the race.
  • [Position, 2026-01-06] His Ballotpedia page lists him as No Party Affiliation, a U.S. Air Force veteran from 2005 to 2013 and a business owner, and carries his Candidate Connection answers, submitted on January 6, 2026. He answered at length: his three key messages are about telling the truth, being backed by everyday people rather than billionaires, and a fight bigger than politics, and the policy areas he names are single-payer health care, gun laws, equal rights, voting rights, bodily autonomy and corruption. Nothing in the answers names Israel, Gaza, Palestinians, weapons or foreign aid. Because he used the open questions at length on other subjects, that silence is a fact about his answers there; his position is published in his platform instead.
  • [Undated; read 2026-09-25] His campaign site’s home page, issues page, More About Why page and organizing page. The issues page covers working families, immigration and crime, health care, democracy, and abortion and guns; the More About Why page is his account of why he is running and lists what he stands on, including single-payer health care, gun laws, equal rights, reproductive freedom, free public college and taxing billionaires. None of these pages mentions Israel, Gaza, Palestinians or foreign aid, and none names the committee. The platform document is the only place on the site where the subject appears.
  • [2026-08-28] WSLR’s page for a Bradenton Times episode with him, broadcast August 30, 2026, about why he thinks Floridians are ready to vote outside the two parties. The page opened; the broadcast itself was not heard.

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

  • The caption of the May 5, 2026 photograph on his campaign’s Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/61577092521616/photos/122178979442903084/ , which did not load, and the video of August 30, 2026, https://www.facebook.com/reel/1788840062463441/ , which was not watched. Beyond the three posts named on this page, his campaign’s Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61577092521616 , was not read; his campaign site and his Ballotpedia page both link it.
  • A Facebook post of a national television network our research cited for the Senate primary, https://www.facebook.com/FoxNews/posts/breaking-first-polls-in-florida-have-closed-as-a-high-stakes-race-between-a-dsa-/1528880609101796/ . It did not open, and the Threads post above makes it unnecessary.
  • His accounts on X, https://x.com/MarkMadDogDavis , and Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/markdavisforcongress/ , both linked from his campaign site. Only a handful of the posts on his Threads account were read, not its whole history.
  • The episodes of the podcast he co-created, published on the YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@DadBodsBadAttitudes , which his Ballotpedia page lists as his campaign YouTube. Several hosts and guests speak on it, and no episode was heard.

Not on the card, and why

  • The Facebook post of May 2026 our research reported on moving the government of Israel off U.S. funding: its words were not found at the addresses given, so they cannot be quoted. His written platform states his position in his own words and is on the card instead.
  • His sentences about Alexander Vindman’s views: they describe another candidate, in another race, and are recorded above.
  • The dollar figure and the lines about health care and education in Israel in the May 31 interview clip: they come from automatic captions, which are not a transcript. The clip is described on the card in reported speech without them.
  • The April 2026 exchange with Jan Schneider: her post is a third party’s account of what he said, and his own posts on it were not found. The reported comment asking why Israel is special was not found.
  • Posts on X about Israel by a conservative radio host who is also named Mark Davis: he is a different person. This candidate’s account on X is @MarkMadDogDavis.
  • The health care, wages, taxes, Social Security, education, immigration, Ukraine, artificial intelligence, housing, insurance, climate, guns, abortion, cannabis and voting material in his platform, and the rest of his campaign site: out of scope. It is listed above so the absence is checkable.
  • Sydney Gruters’s and Kelly Kirschner’s records: they belong on their own cards.

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

  • https://static1.squarespace.com/static/68e2ebacb1264b1df27fe772/t/6aa81388b0e1103e87963f2b/1789399944194/MarkDavisFL16PolicyPlatform.pdf (opened; 2026-09-25; the document’s own creation date is 2026-09-14), reached from https://markdavisforcongress.com/s/MarkDavisFL16PolicyPlatform.pdf
  • https://markdavisforcongress.com/ , https://markdavisforcongress.com/issues , https://markdavisforcongress.com/more-about-why and https://markdavisforcongress.com/organize (opened; 2026-09-25)
  • https://www.threads.com/@markdavisforcongress/post/DYhJiJSkX-r and https://www.threads.com/@markdavisforcongress/post/DYhblp3ERuf (opened; 2026-09-25; both posted 2026-05-19) and https://www.threads.com/@markdavisforcongress (opened; 2026-09-25)
  • https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4r1xqkNCJno (opened; 2026-09-25; published 2026-05-31; heard through its automatic captions)
  • https://ballotpedia.org/Mark_Davis_%28Florida%29 and https://ballotpedia.org/Florida%27s_16th_Congressional_District_election,_2026 (opened; 2026-09-25)
  • https://www.wusf.org/politics-issues/2026-08-18/manatee-primary-results-2026-trump-endorsed-sydney-gruters-wins-gop-nod-for-buchanans-seat-us-congress (opened; 2026-09-25; published 2026-08-18)
  • https://wslr.org/bradenton-times-podcast-mark-davis-florida-congressional-candidate/ (opened; 2026-09-25; published 2026-08-28)
  • https://www.youtube.com/@DadBodsBadAttitudes (its list of episodes opened; 2026-09-25; no episode heard)
  • https://www.facebook.com/reel/1581337033481556/ (opened; 2026-09-25; posted 2026-09-20), https://www.facebook.com/61577092521616/posts/122198814962903084/ (opened; it resolves to https://www.facebook.com/reel/1788840062463441/ , posted 2026-08-30; 2026-09-25), https://www.facebook.com/61577092521616/photos/122178979442903084/ (opened, caption did not load; posted 2026-05-06 UTC, the evening of May 5 in Florida; 2026-09-25)
  • https://www.facebook.com/VoteJan/posts/mark-davis-npa-cd16-liesmark-davis-tells-and-posts-lies-about-his-and-our-campai/1467981948673034/ (opened; 2026-09-25; posted 2026-04-07) and https://www.facebook.com/DemWomenSEHillsCo/posts/1250979120546254/ (opened; 2026-09-25)
  • https://www.facebook.com/FoxNews/posts/breaking-first-polls-in-florida-have-closed-as-a-high-stakes-race-between-a-dsa-/1528880609101796/ (could not open; 2026-09-25)
  • This is a record of what was checked on 2026-09-07 and 2026-09-25, not a claim that no other statement exists.

Also in this race

  1. – Sydney Gruters (Republican)
  2. – Kelly Kirschner (Democrat)

All Florida 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.