But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and funding for the government of Israel. How we check
Alexander Cooke
Other · U.S. House, Florida District 21
–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.
Alexander Cooke is running in Florida's 21st District with no party affiliation, and he is on the November 3, 2026 ballot against Representative Brian Mast and the Democrat James Martin; David Fabrikant is a write-in candidate. Born in Greenwich, Connecticut, he has lived in Palm Beach County since 2017 and founded Optimist Capital, an investment adviser in Palm Beach Gardens. He was elected to the Juno Beach Town Council in 2022 and served as the town's mayor until 2024. He has never held federal office, so none of the congressional votes this site tracks are his.
The one place his campaign reaches foreign aid is a platform page headed Foreign Aid vs. Domestic Investment, updated in April 2026. It opens: "Billions in taxpayer dollars continue to flow overseas while domestic communities face crumbling infrastructure, rising costs, and shrinking public services." Its plan says that every foreign-aid supplemental "should sunset automatically and require a fresh up-or-down vote — no rolling authorities." It would also exempt domestic infrastructure and disaster mitigation from pay-as-you-go offsets, so that roads and bridges do not compete with foreign supplementals on the same scoreboard. The page is explicit that its quarrel is with the tradeoffs, not with aid itself: "The question is not whether foreign aid is bad — it's whether Congress is making honest tradeoffs." The plan names no country. The only mention of Israel anywhere on his site is on this page, in a list of the incumbent's votes it uses to make its case, and the page does not say how Cooke would have voted on that bill or what he would send the government of Israel.
Everything else on this question is empty. The words Israel, Gaza, Palestinian, Hamas and antisemitism appear nowhere else on his campaign site. He answered every question in Ballotpedia's candidate survey in April 2026, naming clean water, housing and insurance costs, and wasteful spending as his three messages, and overspending and debt as the country's greatest challenge; foreign policy does not come up. In a thirty-minute interview with the American Small Business League on June 22, 2026 he talked about property insurance, Lake Okeechobee, small business and federal contracting, and was not asked about foreign policy. An empty record carries no implication either way.
His campaign's accounts on X, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn could not be read here. The X account alone carries several hundred posts. The 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 Cooke 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 2026-09-28 unless the entry says otherwise. His campaign site was read in full: the home page, the about page, the district page, the voting page, the get-involved and contact pages, the issues index and all seven issue pages. Bands: Position (2024-01-26 onward), Reaction window (2023-10-07 to 2024-01-25), Earlier record (before 2023-10-07), Undated. Cooke has never held federal 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, that states what he would send the government of Israel or how he would vote on a bill that does.
[Position, page marked "Updated April 2026"; read 2026-09-28] His platform page headed Foreign Aid vs. Domestic Investment is the nearest thing. It says: "Billions in taxpayer dollars continue to flow overseas while domestic communities face crumbling infrastructure, rising costs, and shrinking public services." Its three-point plan is to vote yes on the next infrastructure bill "if it's substantive"; that "Every foreign-aid supplemental should sunset automatically and require a fresh up-or-down vote — no rolling authorities. Forces Congress to keep making real tradeoffs."; and pay-as-you-go rules "that exempt domestic infrastructure and disaster mitigation from offsets requirements. We should not be forcing roads-and-bridges spending to compete with foreign supplementals on the same scoreboard." It adds: "The question is not whether foreign aid is bad — it's whether Congress is making honest tradeoffs." The plan names no country. The rest of the page sets out the incumbent's record, including his April 2024 votes on the Israel and Ukraine supplementals and his votes on the 2021 infrastructure law and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, under the heading "Pattern: foreign supplementals YES, domestic supplementals NO." That list is the page's argument about the incumbent; it does not say how Cooke would have voted on the Israel supplemental.
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 Gaza, Palestinian and Hamas appear nowhere on his campaign site, in his Ballotpedia answers or in the June 2026 interview.
Israel-related rhetoric and lobbying
Nothing located, at any date. No statement by him about the American Israel Public Affairs Committee or any other advocacy organization on this subject was found.
[Position, read 2026-09-28] His campaign site is built around a pledge about campaign money: "No Party. No Corporate PACs. No Excuses." Its accountability plank says he refuses corporate PAC money and party-leadership funding. 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 funds his campaign.
Safety and antisemitism
Nothing located, at any date. Nothing in his published material addresses antisemitism or the safety of any religious community.
[Position, 2024-11-26] A Stet News report republished by WLRN describes a Juno Beach council dispute in November 2024 that led to accusations of antisemitism and a council member's resignation. It mentions Cooke once, as a mayoral candidate at a campaign event in January 2024, in an unrelated matter, and attributes no remark on antisemitism, or on the dispute, to him.
What the campaign site and own pages say
[Position, read 2026-09-28] His campaign site sets out five pillars: Florida homeowner affordability, protecting wild Florida, opportunities for entrepreneurs, cost of living for working families, and holding Washington accountable. Its issue pages cover Lake Okeechobee discharges, the Florida insurance crisis, the expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies, the state's Live Local Act, foreign aid against domestic investment, free speech online, the free market, and artificial reefs in place of beach renourishment. Only the foreign aid page, set out above, reaches any foreign subject. The pages are dated only by month and are recorded on the date we read them. The address cooke2026.com serves the same site, and alexander-cooke.com forwards to it.
[Position, submitted 2026-04-02; read 2026-09-28] Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey. He answered every question on the form. His three key messages are clean water and Lake Okeechobee discharges; housing costs, property insurance and cost of living; and an end to what he calls vanity projects paid for with taxpayer money. Asked about the country's greatest challenges over the next decade, he answered "Overspending, debt eventually comes due and you can't artificially control interest rates." No question on the form asks about foreign policy, and he raised none.
[Position, 2026-06-22] The American Small Business League's podcast interview, about thirty minutes, published on the league's YouTube channel. Read from the video's own caption track. He talks about his record in Juno Beach, property insurance, health care costs, Lake Okeechobee, term limits and conflicts of interest, and federal contracting for small businesses. The words Israel, Gaza, foreign, overseas and Ukraine do not occur in it. The league says in the video that it had already endorsed Bernard Taylor, a Democratic primary candidate in the district, before meeting him.
The race
[Read 2026-09-28] His Ballotpedia page records that Brian Mast, the incumbent Republican, James Martin, the Democrat, Alexander Cooke, with no party affiliation, and David Fabrikant, a write-in candidate with no party affiliation, are running in the general election on November 3, 2026. Martin defeated Bernard Taylor in the Democratic primary on August 18, 2026 and Mast advanced without a primary. It records 2026 contributions of $19,543 to Cooke's campaign. Candidates with no party affiliation do not run in Florida's closed primaries.
[Read 2026-09-28] His BallotReady profile lists him as chief executive of Optimist Capital since 2017 and mayor of Juno Beach from 2022 to 2024, and verifies his campaign site and social accounts. It carries no issue statements.
Places that could not be read, so nothing is claimed from them
His campaign's accounts, all linked from his own site and verified as his by BallotReady: https://x.com/alexanderRcooke , https://www.facebook.com/Cookeforflorida , https://www.instagram.com/alexanderrcooke and https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexanderrcooke . The X profile loads far enough to show the account is his campaign's, headed "Alexander Cooke for Congress", with 752 posts; the posts themselves need a signed-in reader. The Facebook page returned an error to one reader and only its heading to the other. Their addresses are printed rather than linked because they do not open here.
Not on the card, and why
The whole of his platform on insurance, housing, zoning, health care, Lake Okeechobee, small business, free speech, beaches and spending: real positions, but not about U.S. weapons or money for the government of Israel, or about U.S. aid to Palestinians. Listed above so the absence can be checked.
The foreign aid page's list of the incumbent's votes. It is Cooke's argument about his opponent, not a statement of what Cooke would send, and the incumbent's votes are on his own card.
His pledge to take no corporate PAC money. It names no organization and is not a statement about weapons or funding for any government.
The November 2024 Juno Beach council dispute. It is not about what the United States sends, and the report attributes nothing on the subject to him.
Sources retrieved for this card (address; opened or could not open; date)
https://alexcookeforcongress.com/ and its twelve other pages, including https://alexcookeforcongress.com/issues/foreign-spending (opened; 2026-09-28)
https://cooke2026.com/ (opened; 2026-09-28; serves the same site)
https://alexander-cooke.com/ (opened; 2026-09-28; forwards to the same site)
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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