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

Victor Arias

Democrat · U.S. House, Florida District 19
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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.

No recorded votes on the bills we track. We found nothing in their own words about Israel, Gaza or the war.

Nothing located as of September 2026 has Arias taking a position on U.S. weapons or money for the government of Israel, or on U.S. aid to Palestinians. His campaign platform sets out five priorities, all of them domestic.

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Deep Dive

Victor Arias is the Democratic nominee in Florida's 19th District, the Southwest Florida seat covering most of Lee and Collier counties, which Byron Donalds is leaving to run for governor. He is a Cape Coral attorney and has owned Arias Law Firm since the early 1990s, taking personal injury, workers' compensation and school law cases, and he was once a staff attorney for the Lee County schools. He won the Democratic primary on August 18, 2026 with 45.5 percent of the vote and faces Jim Schwartzel and Seth Haskin, who has no party affiliation, on November 3.

This is an empty record on these questions rather than a thin one. His platform is five pillars whose initials spell UNITY: unifying the community, negotiating bipartisan reform, improving the environment and the economy, transforming health care, and yielding results for veterans. Every one of them is about Southwest Florida, and the veterans pillar is entirely about the Department of Veterans Affairs, its waiting times and its paperwork. He filled in Ballotpedia's candidate questionnaire on June 25, 2026 and answered every question on it, naming the economy, clean water and anti-corruption as his three messages and immigration as the policy area he cares about most; no question on that form is about foreign policy, and he raised none. The nineteen issue statements his campaign has written for BallotReady, grouped under nine headings including one called Defense and Veterans, are about veterans' benefits and domestic policy throughout. An empty record carries no implication either way.

His campaign's press room has published three statements, in May and July 2026, and all three are about qualifying for the ballot and about two endorsements. The reports of his primary win quote him on the economy, on grocery and fuel prices and on water quality. A guide published in July 2026 that set out the platforms of all thirteen candidates who qualified in this district does not record a foreign policy position from him either, and the words Israel, Gaza and Palestinian appear nowhere in it, for him or for anyone else in the field.

His campaign's accounts on Facebook, Instagram and X, and his own Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, could not be read here. The X account was opened in April 2026 and has almost no following, and the earlier campaign address votearias.us no longer resolves. All of those addresses are on his research page so that anyone who can open them may look.

You are better placed to change this than we are. Ask Arias 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 2026-09-08 unless the entry says otherwise. His campaign site was read in full, in both the English and the Spanish version it carries: the home page, the about page, the events page, the press room, the five issue pages and a page on grocery prices, which are all the pages it has. Bands: Position (2024-01-26 onward), Reaction window (2023-10-07 to 2024-01-25), Earlier record (before 2023-10-07), Undated. Arias has never held office, so none of the congressional votes this site tracks is his, and no funding from the committees this site tracks is recorded on this record.

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

  • Nothing located, at any date. No statement by him about arms transfers, weapons shipments, Foreign Military Financing, security assistance or any bill on those subjects appears on his campaign site in either language, in his Ballotpedia questionnaire answers, in his campaign's nineteen BallotReady issue statements, in his campaign's three published press statements, or in any news report or voter guide about his campaign read for this card.

U.S. aid to Palestinians

  • Nothing located, at any date. Neither UNRWA, nor Gaza humanitarian funding, nor the aid pipeline appears anywhere in his published material.

Characterization of the conflict

  • Nothing located, at any date. The words Israel, Gaza, Palestinian, Hamas, Middle East and foreign policy appear nowhere in the whole of his campaign site, in his questionnaire answers or in his issue statements. The word war occurs twice in his own material, both times as a figure of speech about the Department of Veterans Affairs: veterans "shouldn't have to fight a bureaucratic war at home to access what they've been promised".

Israel-related rhetoric and lobbying

  • Nothing located, at any date. No statement by him about the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, about any other advocacy organization on this subject, or about money connected to any of them was found.
  • [Position, read 2026-09-08] His campaign site does carry a general pledge about campaign money: "This campaign is fueled by people power. No PAC money. No corporate influence. Just neighbors talking to neighbors about what they need from their representative in Congress." It names no organization and says nothing about weapons, aid or any foreign government, and it is recorded here as what it is: a statement about how he is funding his campaign.
  • [Position, 2026-07-31] His campaign's two endorsement announcements name Progressives of the Islands, a local political group covering Sanibel and Captiva, and the Democratic Environmental Caucus of Florida, a caucus of the state Democratic Party that endorses on environmental grounds. Neither is an organization on this subject, and the letter announcing the first describes his campaign as focused on economic opportunity, Everglades restoration and anti-corruption reform.

Safety and antisemitism

  • Nothing located, at any date. Nothing in his published material addresses antisemitism or the safety of any religious community. His own material describes him as a member of Covenant Presbyterian Church since 1999, where he has served as an Elder and on the Board of Trustees.

What his platform actually says

  • [Position, read 2026-09-08] His campaign site sets out what it calls five pillars and one mission, and their initials spell UNITY: Unifying Our Community; Negotiating Bipartisan Reform; Improving Our Environment and Economy; Transforming Healthcare; Yielding Results for Veterans. The five commitments listed on the home page are lowering grocery prices and creating affordable housing; working across the aisle on infrastructure, broadband and hurricane preparedness; federal funding for Everglades restoration and red tide; expanding Medicare drug price negotiation and ending surprise medical billing; and cutting VA red tape for the district's veterans. Not one of them is about foreign policy or foreign aid of any kind. The pages carry no date and are recorded on the date we read them.
  • [Position, read 2026-09-08] The same site's press room carries three statements and no others: "Progressives of the Islands Endorses Victor Arias for Congress" and "Democratic Environmental Caucus Endorses Victor Arias for Congress", both dated July 31, 2026, and "Victor Arias Qualifies for the August 18 Ballot via Petition", dated May 14, 2026, which records 2,714 verified petition signatures. The events page says events will be posted and lists none.
  • [Position, submitted 2026-06-25; read 2026-09-08] Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey. He answered every question on the form. His three key messages are headed American Prosperity, Clean Water and Environment, and Anti-Corruption; his answer on the policy area he is personally passionate about is entirely about immigration and a pathway to citizenship; his answer on endorsements reads "n/a". No question on the form asks about foreign policy, and he raised none. The form's silence on this subject is a fact about the form; his silence, on a form that invited him to name what he cares about most, is recorded here for what it is worth.
  • [Position, read 2026-09-08] BallotReady's profile carries nineteen issue statements from his campaign, grouped under nine headings: Criminal Justice and Public Safety, Defense and Veterans, Economy, Education, Healthcare, Housing, Infrastructure and Transportation, Social Services, and Taxes and Budget. The four statements under Defense and Veterans are about VA claims, VA healthcare, veteran housing benefits and federal contracting for veteran-owned businesses. None of the nineteen mentions foreign policy. The same page records that he ran for Lee County School Superintendent in 2024.
  • [Position, 2026-07-12] Sparker's Soapbox, a Southwest Florida newsletter, published a guide to all thirteen candidates who qualified in this district, sixteen pages setting out each one's biography, platform headings, endorsements and press coverage. Its entry for Arias records the five-part UNITY platform and notes that his earlier campaign address, votearias.us, had been suspended over an unpaid balance by July 10, 2026. The words Israel, Gaza, Palestinian, Hamas and antisemitism appear nowhere in the whole guide, for any of the thirteen. Foreign aid appears twice, both times as an issue heading belonging to a Republican primary candidate.

The race

  • [Read 2026-09-08] Ballotpedia's page for the 2026 election in Florida's 19th District records that Victor Arias, Jim Schwartzel, Seth Haskin and a write-in candidate are running in the general election on November 3, 2026, and that Arias took 15,387 votes, 45.5 percent, defeating Howard Sapp and Robert Neeld in the Democratic primary on August 18, 2026. Byron Donalds, the sitting member, withdrew from the Republican primary and is running for governor.
  • [Position, 2026-08-20] The North Fort Myers Neighbor's account of the primary result, by Nathan Mayberg, quotes him several times. On the task ahead he said the campaign has "a lot of work to do", and then: "The most important thing is for this county to unite. We are not getting the job done." On his top issue he said the economy is "not helping everybody", and then: "There is too much suffering. That is going to impact this area because we rely on tourism." On the environment he said the region has "to be better stewards", and then: "Clean water is a huge issue for us." It adds that he would support legislation to put more money in workers' pockets and would work on bringing down grocery and fuel prices. It records that he was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New York and moved to Southwest Florida in 1999 to work for the Lee County schools; his own site says he made Florida his home in 1991 and his firm has operated in Cape Coral since the early 1990s. Foreign policy does not come up. The same report appears in four other Breeze newspapers.
  • [Read 2026-09-08] His Ballotpedia page records a 2026 contribution total of $45,356 and lists one endorsement, from the Democratic Environmental Caucus of Florida. No committee this site tracks appears on his record.

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

  • His campaign's own accounts and his personal accounts, all listed as his by Ballotpedia and the first three verified as his by BallotReady: https://x.com/VoteAriasF19 , https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61586430400331 , https://www.instagram.com/votearias , https://www.facebook.com/victor.arias.1023 and https://www.linkedin.com/in/victor-arias-79a826185/ . The X profile page loads far enough to show the account is his campaign's, headed "Arias For Congress (@VoteAriasF19)", opened in April 2026 with 3 followers; the posts themselves need a signed-in reader. The Facebook pages returned nothing readable and the Instagram page returned a page with no readable content. Their addresses are printed rather than linked because they do not open here.
  • https://votearias.us/ , the campaign's earlier address, which no longer resolves. The address on his current site and in his press statements is ariasforcongress.us.
  • WINK News, the Fort Myers station, published a set of interviews in which every District 19 candidate was asked the same questions, at https://www.winknews.com/news/politics/meet-the-candidates-vying-to-represent-florida-s-19th-congressional-district/article_6aa87ba6-cfa6-4db4-bdd9-9f9398b0ac51.html . It did not open here, and its questions and his answers are therefore unknown.
  • https://www.localcandidates.org/politicians/victor-arias/about/4df07390-ead3-4105-ad37-2858ca53d035 , a host that does not render for us and that this project does not use.

Not on the card, and why

  • The whole of his platform and all of his questionnaire answers on grocery prices, housing, infrastructure, broadband, hurricane preparedness, Everglades restoration, red tide, Medicare, prescription costs, surprise medical billing, the VA, criminal justice, education, immigration and anti-corruption: real positions, but not about U.S. weapons or money for the government of Israel, or about U.S. aid to Palestinians. They are listed above so the absence can be checked.
  • His pledge to take no money from political action committees. It names no organization and is not a statement about weapons or funding for any government; it is recorded above as a statement about his own campaign finances.
  • His two endorsements, and the endorsing organizations' descriptions of him. Other people's recommendations, and no position is inferred from one.
  • Howard Sapp's and Robert Neeld's records, and the answers of the Republican candidates in the same guide. Other candidates' material belongs on their own cards.

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

  • https://ariasforcongress.us/ (opened; 2026-09-08; all thirteen of its pages read, in English and Spanish)
  • https://ballotpedia.org/Victor_Arias (opened; 2026-09-08; survey submitted 2026-06-25)
  • https://ballotpedia.org/Florida%27s_19th_Congressional_District_election,_2026 (opened; 2026-09-08)
  • https://www.ballotready.org/people/victor-arias-092f0a5b-9692-4108-ad31-f157db6bc99d (opened; 2026-09-08)
  • https://www.sparkers-soapbox.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/florida-19th-congressional-district-candidates-2026.pdf (opened; 2026-09-08; published 2026-07-12)
  • https://www.northfortmyersneighbor.com/news/swfl-news/2026/08/arias-cape-coral-attorney-wins-democratic-congressional-primary/ (opened; 2026-09-08; published 2026-08-20)
  • https://www.fortmyersbeachtalk.com/news/community-news/2026/08/arias-schwartzel-win-party-primaries-to-advance-in-district-19-congressional-race/ (opened; 2026-09-08; the same report on the Fort Myers Beach paper)
  • https://www.captivasanibel.com/opinion/2026/07/poi-endorses-candidates-in-primary-election/ (opened; 2026-09-08; published 2026-07-20)
  • https://bluevoterguide.org/district/FL/Florida_District_19/35066/532 (opened; 2026-09-08; a list of endorsements with no candidate answers)
  • https://ivoterguide.com/voter-guide/state/fl (opened; 2026-09-08; it lists him with his campaign address and carries no answers from him)
  • https://www.winknews.com/news/politics/meet-the-candidates-vying-to-represent-florida-s-19th-congressional-district/article_6aa87ba6-cfa6-4db4-bdd9-9f9398b0ac51.html (could not open; 2026-09-08)
  • https://votearias.us/ (could not open; 2026-09-08)
  • https://x.com/VoteAriasF19 (the profile opened, the posts did not; 2026-09-08)
  • https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61586430400331 (could not open; 2026-09-08)
  • https://www.instagram.com/votearias (could not open; 2026-09-08)
  • https://www.facebook.com/victor.arias.1023 (could not open; 2026-09-08)
  • https://www.linkedin.com/in/victor-arias-79a826185/ (could not open; 2026-09-08)
  • https://www.localcandidates.org/politicians/victor-arias/about/4df07390-ead3-4105-ad37-2858ca53d035 (not used; 2026-09-08)
  • This is a record of what was checked on 2026-09-08, not a claim that no statement exists anywhere.

Also in this race

  1. – Jim Schwartzel (Republican)
  2. ? Seth Haskin (Other)

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.