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

Jim Schwartzel

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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 Schwartzel taking a position on U.S. weapons or money for the government of Israel, or on U.S. aid to Palestinians. A February 2026 report on that question, put to his primary field carries no answer from him. His platform is entirely domestic.

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Deep Dive

Jim Schwartzel is the Republican 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. Schwartzel grew up in Fort Myers, and he owns Sun Broadcasting, whose stations include 92.5 FOX News, and Gulfshore Life Media, which publishes Gulfshore Life, Gulfshore Business and The Naples Press. He won a ten-candidate Republican primary on August 18, 2026 with 29.1 percent of the vote and faces Victor Arias and Seth Haskin, who has no party affiliation, on November 3.

The closest the record comes to an answer is a report by The Floridian, a Florida political news outlet, published on February 23, 2026. It says that at a fundraising event in Naples “the issue of funding Israel was posed” to the Republican candidates for the district, and that all of them were in attendance. It then prints answers from four of them. Schwartzel is named in the report as one of the candidates running, and no answer from him appears in it. What the four other candidates said belongs on their own cards.

His own material does not reach the subject. His campaign platform sets out eight priorities and none of them is about foreign policy, and neither is the biography page beside it. He filled in Ballotpedia's candidate questionnaire on June 18, 2025 and answered every question on it, including one that invited him to name the policy areas he cares about most. Under a heading on border security, law and order and foreign policy he wrote that there should be no more endless wars and that American troops should not be deployed to fight pointless wars, and, in a sentence naming China, Russia and Iran, that Biden's foreign policy was weak. Israel is named nowhere in any of it, and neither is Gaza, an arms transfer, a dollar figure or a bill. An empty record on this question carries no implication either way.

He has never held office, so none of the congressional votes this site tracks are his. He was not on stage at the July 7, 2026 primary debate in Fort Myers, where the questions put to the six candidates who did attend were about immigration, federal spending, infrastructure, water quality and government transparency. The debate the state party held on June 27, 2026 named him among candidates invited rather than confirmed. His campaign's accounts on Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube could not be read here, and a radio interview he gave exists only as audio; those addresses are on his research page.

You are better placed to change this than we are. Ask Schwartzel 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 whole campaign site was read: its home, Meet Jim and Issues pages, which are all the pages it lists. Bands: Position (2024-01-26 onward), Reaction window (2023-10-07 to 2024-01-25), Earlier record (before 2023-10-07), Undated. Schwartzel 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

[Position, 2026-02-23] The Floridian's report headed “Do Republicans Running to Replace Byron Donalds Support Continued U.S. Military Aid to Israel?”, by Javier Manjarres, published on February 23, 2026 on the page's own record. It says: “During a recent fundraising event in Naples, Florida, where all of the Republican candidates running to replace Rep. Byron Donalds (R) in congressional district 19 were in attendance, the issue of funding Israel was posed to them during the 'meet and greet' segment of the event.” It then names eight candidates as running for the seat, Schwartzel among them, and says “Here is what the candidates we spoke to said about continuing to fund Israel with military aid”. Four sets of answers follow: Ola Hawatmeh, Catalina Lauf, Jim Oberweis and Madison Cawthorn. There is no answer from Schwartzel anywhere in the report, and his name appears in it only in the list of candidates. Their answers are not reproduced here; they belong on those candidates' own cards.
Nothing else located, at any date. No statement by him about an arms transfer, a weapons shipment, Foreign Military Financing, security assistance, a dollar figure, a condition on aid or any bill on those subjects appears on his campaign site, in his Ballotpedia questionnaire answers, in his BallotReady issue statements, or in any report 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 or in any coverage of him read for this card.

Characterization of the conflict

Nothing located, at any date. The words Israel, Gaza, Palestinian and Hamas appear nowhere on his campaign site, in his questionnaire answers or in his issue statements, and nowhere in the words attributed to him in any report read for this card.

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, and no pledge about their donations was found under his name.
[Position, read 2026-09-08] One phrase in his own material could be mistaken for one. His biography page says he will “fight back against outside political interest groups that threaten our environment, suppress free speech, and drive up healthcare costs”, and his questionnaire answer says “I will fight back against outside political interest groups”. Neither passage names any organization, and both are about the environment, speech and health costs.

Safety and antisemitism

Nothing located, at any date. Nothing in his published material addresses antisemitism or the safety of any religious community. The Floridian's report opens with the outlet's own paragraph about the rise of what it calls anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric in American politics; that is the outlet's sentence and not his.

What his own material says

[Position, read 2026-09-08] His issues page sets out eight priorities: putting America First and supporting President Trump; term limits; Southwest Florida's water quality; the economy and jobs; infrastructure and traffic; constitutional liberties; the border and illegal immigration; and family values. Not one is about foreign policy, foreign aid or the Middle East. The home page is a letter to supporters about his radio station, President Trump, federal spending, the border wall and deportation, and the Meet Jim page is a biography naming the same domestic subjects. Those three pages, a donate page and four legal pages are every page the site lists. The pages carry no date and are recorded on the date we read them.
[Position, submitted 2025-06-18; read 2026-09-08] Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey. He answered every question on the form. Under the second of his three key messages, headed “Border Security, Law and Order & Strong Foreign Policy”, he wrote: “Biden's foreign policy was weak, and the world knew—that’s why China, Russia, and Iran were getting bolder.” and “No more endless wars—I will make sure our troops are defended, not deployed to fight pointless wars that benefit no one but the Washington war machine.” The first key message includes “I will fight to drain the swamp by putting America First—not China, not Ukraine, not the corrupt Washington elite.” Israel is not named in the survey, and neither is Gaza, foreign aid or any weapons transfer. Asked “What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?”, he answered on red tape, term limits, government spending, schools and veterans. The same page reproduces his campaign website text as of June 23, 2026, which matches the site read for this card.
[Position, read 2026-09-08] BallotReady's profile carries five issue stances in his campaign's words, under Economy, Environment and Energy, Government Reform, Immigration, and Infrastructure and Transportation. None mentions foreign policy. It gives his employment as Gulfshore Life Media and 92.5 FOX News.

The primary, and the two debates

[Position, 2026-07-08] Florida's Voice's report of the July 7, 2026 debate at The Ranch Concert Hall and Saloon in Fort Myers, hosted by the East Lee County Republican Club. It records the subjects as immigration, federal spending, infrastructure, water quality and government transparency, names the six candidates who took part, and says in its own words: “Schwartzel was not on stage for the debate.” Israel, Gaza and foreign aid appear nowhere in it.
[Position, 2026-06-16] The Floridian's notice of the Republican Party of Florida's Sunshine State Showdown debate on June 27, 2026 lists Ola Hawatmeh and Madison Cawthorn as confirmed for the District 19 debate and says Chris Collins, Catalina Lauf, Jim Oberweis and Jim Schwartzel “have also been invited to participate”. The Floridian's report of that debate, published June 29, 2026, is about an exchange between two other candidates and does not mention Schwartzel or this subject.
[Position, 2026-08-20] The North Fort Myers Neighbor's account of the primary result, by Nathan Mayberg, quotes him at length on the community, on his media holdings, on the Save America Act and deportation, on a septic-to-sewer conversion, on a proposed interstate bypass through Immokalee and on development. Foreign policy does not come up. The same report appears in four other Breeze newspapers.

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 Schwartzel took 26,117 votes, 29.1 percent, in a ten-candidate Republican primary on August 18, 2026. Byron Donalds, the sitting member, withdrew from the primary and is running for governor.
[Read 2026-09-08] His Ballotpedia page records a 2026 contribution total of $2,065,485 and lists one endorsement, from President Donald Trump. 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, which are listed as his by Ballotpedia and BallotReady: https://x.com/jimschwartzel , https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61574602522480 , https://www.instagram.com/jimschwartzelforcongress and https://www.youtube.com/@JimSchwartzelforCongress . The X profile page loads far enough to show that the account is his, describing itself as “Family Man. Business Owner. Proud Floridian. America First Patriot Running to Fight for FL-19!”, but the posts themselves need a signed-in reader; the other three returned nothing readable. Their addresses are printed rather than linked because they do not open here.
A recorded interview with him, “Candidate Interview | Guest: Jim Schwartzel (CD-19)”, published on the Daybreak with Jason Jones podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/01R4Lekl2FBUsVvijxYzAO . It is audio, and no transcript was found.
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://floridapolitics.com/archives/815127-jim-schwartzel-wins-costly-and-heated-gop-primary-over-catalina-lauf-for-byron-donalds-cd-19-seat/ , which refuses to open.
https://www.localcandidates.org/politicians/jim-schwartzel/about/6f0710ce-7095-4053-8222-9d3dede0bdb1 , a host that does not render for us and that this project does not use.

Not on the card, and why

The answers Ola Hawatmeh, Catalina Lauf, Jim Oberweis and Madison Cawthorn gave in The Floridian's February 2026 report. They are other candidates' words and belong on their own cards. What matters here is only that the report carries no answer from Schwartzel.
The Floridian's opening paragraphs, which set out the outlet's own view of anti-Israel rhetoric in American politics and the State Department's account of where military aid money is spent. Neither is Schwartzel speaking.
His questionnaire line about putting America First and not China, not Ukraine. It is about other countries and about federal spending, and it is quoted in full above. The two lines beside it, on endless wars and on Biden's foreign policy, are on the card because they are the nearest thing in his own words to this subject; neither names Israel.
The whole of his platform and his questionnaire answers on Trump, term limits, water, the economy, infrastructure, constitutional liberties, immigration and family values: 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.
President Trump's endorsement of him, and the endorsements and attacks by others in the primary. Other people's words.
A Legis1 summary of the general election was read and is not used: it reports the Republican primary as an eight-candidate field and gives primary vote totals that do not match the county results Ballotpedia carries, and it contains nothing on this subject.

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

https://www.jimforcongress.com/ (opened; 2026-09-08)
https://www.jimforcongress.com/meet-jim (opened; 2026-09-08)
https://www.jimforcongress.com/issues (opened; 2026-09-08)
https://floridianpress.com/2026/02/do-republicans-running-to-replace-byron-donalds-support-continued-u-s-military-aid-to-israel/ (opened; 2026-09-08; published 2026-02-23)
https://ballotpedia.org/Jim_Schwartzel (opened; 2026-09-08; survey submitted 2025-06-18)
https://ballotpedia.org/Florida%27s_19th_Congressional_District_election,_2026 (opened; 2026-09-08)
https://www.ballotready.org/people/jim-schwartzel (opened; 2026-09-08)
https://flvoicenews.com/republicans-seeking-floridas-19th-congressional-district-seat-debate-key-issues-ahead-of-primary/ (opened; 2026-09-08; published 2026-07-08)
https://floridianpress.com/2026/06/florida-gop-to-host-district-19-district-25-congressional-debates-at-sunshine-state-showdown/ (opened; 2026-09-08; published 2026-06-16)
https://floridianpress.com/2026/06/catalina-lauf-attacks-madison-cawthorn-says-hes-not-serious-during-testy-cd-19-debate/ (opened; 2026-09-08; published 2026-06-29)
https://floridianpress.com/2026/08/jim-schwartzel-wins-19th-congressional-district-republican-primary/ (opened; 2026-09-08; published 2026-08-18)
https://floridianpress.com/tag/jim-schwartzel/ (opened; 2026-09-08)
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)
https://www.npr.org/2026/08/18/nx-s1-5930699/florida-republican-19th-district-carpetbaggers (opened; 2026-09-08; published 2026-08-18)
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/congressional/4687660/florida-19th-congressional-district-candidates-carpetbagger-primary/ (opened; 2026-09-08)
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://legis1.com/news/florida-19th-district-election-floridas-general (opened; 2026-09-08; not used)
https://www.facebook.com/EmmaHeatonWINK/videos/while-jim-schwartzel-won-the-republican-primary-in-floridas-19th-congressional-d/1911744873120110/ (the caption opened, the video did not; 2026-09-08)
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://floridapolitics.com/archives/815127-jim-schwartzel-wins-costly-and-heated-gop-primary-over-catalina-lauf-for-byron-donalds-cd-19-seat/ (could not open; 2026-09-08)
https://www.localcandidates.org/politicians/jim-schwartzel/about/6f0710ce-7095-4053-8222-9d3dede0bdb1 (not used; 2026-09-08)
https://x.com/jimschwartzel (the profile opened, the posts did not; 2026-09-08)
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61574602522480 (could not open; 2026-09-08)
https://www.instagram.com/jimschwartzelforcongress (could not open; 2026-09-08)
https://www.youtube.com/@JimSchwartzelforCongress (could not open; 2026-09-08)
https://open.spotify.com/episode/01R4Lekl2FBUsVvijxYzAO (audio only; 2026-09-08)
This is a record of what was checked on 2026-09-08, not a claim that no other statement exists anywhere.

Also in this race

– Victor Arias (Democrat)
? Seth Haskin (Other)

All Florida candidates.