But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and funding for the government of Israel. How we check
Nicole Locklin
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: Her campaign calls the war in Gaza a genocide in its own words and says the U.S. cannot keep sending weapons while claiming clean hands; her call for strict conditions never says the weapons should keep flowing. Reviewed by hand on 2026-09-28. This candidate has no recorded tracked floor votes.
Locklin's campaign platform says the United States cannot keep sending weapons, ammunition, and diplomatic cover to the government of Israel while claiming clean hands. It asks for transparency about what weapons are transferred, strict human rights conditions on that aid, and full enforcement of existing U.S. law.
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Deep Dive
Nicole Locklin is the Democratic nominee in Florida's 26th District, which takes in part of Miami-Dade County, including Hialeah, Miami Lakes and Doral, and part of Collier County. She is a lawyer who grew up in a farming town of fewer than a thousand people in Oklahoma, was the first in her family to finish college, and has worked since 2016 in litigation and then as in-house counsel for technology companies. She has not held office before. The Democratic primary scheduled for August 18, 2026 was cancelled because she was the only Democrat to qualify, and she advanced without appearing on a primary ballot. She faces Representative Mario Díaz-Balart and Deborah Meidinger Hosey on November 3.
Her campaign site gives the Palestine question a page of its own, and it is the most detailed thing she has published on any foreign subject. It sets out the case first, citing findings by the United Nations, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, and then states what she would do. Her own summary of it reads: “Nicole Locklin’s position is simple and lawful: no blank checks for war crimes, no military aid used in violation of human rights, no immunity for officials because they are allied with Washington, and no pretending that this is too complicated to name.” The page says that where there is credible evidence of genocide, apartheid, collective punishment, forced displacement or starvation of civilians, the United States has a duty under domestic and international law to stop facilitating it, and that this means transparency about transfers, strict conditions on aid, full enforcement of existing law, and support for independent investigations. She names the war in Gaza a genocide in her own voice, writing that her campaign is not afraid to condemn the horrific actions of October 7th and also the subsequent genocide, and adding: “We do not support killing civilians anywhere, by anyone, for any reason. An act of terrorism is not a pardon for future crimes against humanity.” She closes the page by saying it is not about being anti-Israeli or anti-anyone.
The rest of what she has published on the subject is about money in politics rather than about weapons, and she keeps the two separate herself. Her anti-corruption page names the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a lobbying organization that works for close United States and Israel ties, and its affiliated political action committees, and argues that their spending shapes how Congress votes. She writes: “This isn’t about Israel. This is about whether foreign policy decisions are shaped by the will of voters, or by campaign money. No organization, foreign or domestic, should be able to buy influence over Congress.” What she pledges there is about her own fundraising: she refuses corporate political action committee money and would ban such contributions, require full donor disclosure and move toward publicly financed elections. A refusal to take money from a lobby is not by itself a position on what the United States sends, and the position above is where hers is stated.
The front page of her campaign site puts the same question in general terms. Under the heading Ending Endless Wars she writes that she will not support another unnecessary or unauthorized war and will put diplomacy first, oppose blank checks for governments that violate human rights, and demand transparency about where our money and weapons go. Her Ballotpedia questionnaire, submitted in July 2026, answers at length on affordability and corruption and names “democracy, peace, fundamental human rights, and defensible foreign policy” among the nine areas she says she is most interested in, without going further. Her separate page on the war with Iran, what an organization that tracks the pro-Israel lobby said when it endorsed her, and the rest of what our research found are on her research page.
The money
Checked the five lobbying groups we track; no direct 2026 support found
In their words
Track AIPAC (2026 endorsement)
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 2026-09-08. Her whole campaign site was read, page by page: the front page, her mission and biography, all ten issue pages, her endorsements page, her news page and her page about her opponent. Her Ballotpedia page and her Candidate Connection answers were read in full, along with the outside reports our research pointed at. She 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.
U.S. military aid and weapons to the government of Israel
- [Position; the page is undated and was read 2026-09-08] Her campaign site's page headed “PALESTINE”. Its central passage reads: “A serious American response has to begin with one basic principle: we must not be complicit. That means the United States cannot keep sending weapons, ammunition, and diplomatic cover while claiming clean hands.” The page then cites a Reuters report that in February 2025 the administration approved about $7.4 billion in military sales to Israel, and continues: “When American weapons, American money, and American political protection continue flowing amid overwhelming evidence of mass civilian harm, the United States is not a bystander. It is choosing involvement.” Her stated position follows: “Nicole Locklin’s position is simple and lawful: no blank checks for war crimes, no military aid used in violation of human rights, no immunity for officials because they are allied with Washington, and no pretending that this is too complicated to name. If there is credible evidence of genocide, apartheid, extermination, collective punishment, forced displacement, or starvation of civilians, then the United States has a duty under both domestic law and international law to stop facilitating it. That means immediate transparency on what weapons are being transferred, strict human-rights conditions on aid, full enforcement of existing U.S. law, and support for independent investigations and accountability mechanisms.”
- [Position; the page is undated and was read 2026-09-08] Her campaign site's front page, under the heading “Ending Endless Wars”: “I will not support another unnecessary or unauthorized war. I will put diplomacy first, oppose blank checks for governments that violate human rights, and demand transparency about where our money and weapons go. Your tax dollars should improve life here at home, not enrich weapons manufacturers.” No country is named in that passage.
- [Position; the page is undated and was read 2026-09-08] Her anti-corruption page states, as background to its argument about lobbying money: “The U.S. has pledged to provide approximately $38 billion in military assistance to Israel. The current administration proudly committed to $12 billion more this year alone.” Those are figures she cites rather than a position on them; her position is on the page above.
- Nothing located from her about any specific bill, amendment or arms sale by name, and nothing about the memorandum of understanding or the Foreign Military Financing Program by name.
U.S. aid to Palestinians
- Nothing located, at any date. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, humanitarian funding for Gaza and the aid pipeline appear nowhere on her campaign site, in her Ballotpedia answers, or in anything else of hers that was read. The nearest is the sentence on the Palestine page listing “aid is obstructed” among the conditions she describes.
Characterization of the conflict
- [Position; the page is undated and was read 2026-09-08] The Palestine page opens: “What is happening to Palestinians is not something the United States should be explaining away, minimizing, or funding. Our campaign is not afraid to condemn the horrific actions of October 7th and also the subsequent genocide. We do not support killing civilians anywhere, by anyone, for any reason. An act of terrorism is not a pardon for future crimes against humanity.” It then sets out the findings it relies on: that Amnesty International concluded in December 2024 that Israel “has committed and is continuing to commit genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza; that Human Rights Watch found Israeli authorities responsible for the crime against humanity of extermination and for acts of genocide through deliberate deprivation of water; and that United Nations experts have warned repeatedly of ongoing genocide. It cites Reuters and United Nations agencies for the death toll and displacement, and reports of settler attacks and forced displacement in the occupied West Bank continuing into 2026. The card does not reproduce those figures. The page closes: “This is not about being anti-Israeli or anti-anyone. It is about being pro-law, pro-humanity, and unwilling to accept a world in which children are buried under rubble, hospitals are destroyed, aid is obstructed, and entire families are erased while the most powerful country on earth looks the other way.”
- [Position; the page is undated and was read 2026-09-08] Her page on the war with Iran is a separate argument about an American war she calls illegal, and about a February 2026 strike on a school in Minab. It does not concern what the United States sends to the government of Israel and is recorded here for completeness. Her page about her opponent says he votes to extend funding for that war; its listed items are about a building project and are not about this subject.
Israel-related rhetoric and lobbying
- [Position; the page is undated and was read 2026-09-08] Her anti-corruption page, under the heading “Foreign Influence + Big Money = No Accountability”. She writes that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and its affiliated political action committees “have funded hundreds of candidates, with billions of dollars, across both parties”, and: “This isn’t about Israel. This is about whether foreign policy decisions are shaped by the will of voters, or by campaign money. No organization, foreign or domestic, should be able to buy influence over Congress.” The committee is a lobbying organization that works for close United States and Israel ties. Her four pledges on the page are to refuse corporate political action committee money, to support a full ban on such contributions, to require complete donor transparency, and to push for publicly financed elections. The page ends: “Nicole Locklin isn’t running against a country. She’s running against corruption.”
- [Position, 2026-07; the endorsement page is undated and was read 2026-09-08] Her endorsements page lists Track AIPAC first among her national endorsements, alongside the National Women's Political Caucus and Engage Y'all, with eight Florida organizations. Track AIPAC is a group that reports on the political spending of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and campaigns against candidates it supports. Its endorsement page on Facebook opened and carries the group's own wording: “We are proud to endorse Nicole Locklin for Congress in #FL26! Nicole Locklin is running to clean up corruption and upend the status quo. She recognizes the genocide in Gaza, supports an immediate arms embargo, and believes our tax dollars should invest in our communities, not fund war crimes overseas.” The same text says of her opponent that he “has collected more than $1 million from pro-Israel PACs” and “fights to send billions in unconditional military aid to the Israeli government”. All of that is the group's description of the two candidates, not words of hers, and none of it is on this card. The phrase “supports an immediate arms embargo” appears nowhere in anything she has published. The fundraising page the endorsement links to is the group's own rather than her campaign's, and says she is “standing against genocide and REJECTING support from AIPAC and the Israel lobby”; that too is the group's wording. Its address, printed rather than linked because it is a donation form, is https://secure.actblue.com/donate/nicole-rejects-aipac She names the group among her endorsements on Ballotpedia as well.
- [Position, 2026-08-18; the photograph is dated 2026-08-14] A photo essay by Owl Media and the photojournalist Jose Mejia about an invitation-only gathering in Fort Lauderdale four days before the primary, organised by Gen Z for Change, at which Rep. Rashida Tlaib spoke. She appears in one of the photographs, captioned with her name and office. The report says two Fort Lauderdale venues withdrew beforehand “following a campaign targeted the gathering and accused organizers and participants of antisemitism”, in the reporter's own words and without naming who made the accusation. No statement of hers about the gathering or the accusation appears in the piece, and none is written on this card. Our research described her as participating alongside named candidates; the piece places her there in a photograph and quotes nobody.
Safety and antisemitism (context, not an answer to what America sends)
- Nothing located from her, at any date. She has published no statement about antisemitism, about the safety of Jewish communities, or about the accusation reported around the August 2026 gathering. The single adjacent line is the closing sentence of the Palestine page, that her position is “not about being anti-Israeli or anti-anyone”.
The race and her own account of herself
- [Undated; read 2026-09-08] Ballotpedia: “Incumbent Mario Diaz-Balart, Nicole Locklin, and Deborah Meidinger Hosey are running in the general election for U.S. House Florida District 26 on November 3, 2026.” The primary expected for August 18, 2026 was not held, because only one candidate from each party qualified. The filing deadline was June 12, 2026. Deborah Meidinger Hosey has no party affiliation.
- [Position, 2026-07-20] Her Ballotpedia Candidate Connection answers, submitted on July 20, 2026 and carried in full. Her three key messages are affordability, holding power accountable, and taxing wealth and corporations. Asked which areas of public policy she is most interested in, she listed nine, of which the seventh is “democracy, peace, fundamental human rights, and defensible foreign policy”. Nothing in the answers names Israel, Gaza, Palestinians, weapons or foreign aid. She lists TrackAIPAC first among her endorsements there. Under the questionnaire test this is a fact about her answers rather than about the form, because the form gave her open questions and she used them at length on other subjects; her position on this question is published on her own site instead.
- [Position, 2026-05-04] Her campaign's launch announcement, republished on her news page and distributed as a press release, describes a campaign “centered on affordability, anti-corruption, economic justice, and ending endless wars”. The full release names no country and does not mention Israel, Gaza or military aid.
- [Undated; read 2026-09-08] Her biography page sets out her upbringing in Oklahoma, her law degree from Santa Clara University in 2015, her admission to the California Bar the same year, her work in litigation from 2016 and then as counsel to technology companies, and her move to Miami in April 2024. It mentions no foreign policy experience and names no country other than the United States, Germany and Malaysia in her husband's family history.
- [Undated; read 2026-09-08] A long profile interview published by Shannon Watts, and a report by Crooks and Liars about her campaign against what she calls the Epstein class, were both opened. Neither mentions Israel, Gaza, Palestinians, weapons or foreign aid.
Places that were not read, so nothing is claimed from them
- Her campaign's accounts on X, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, all linked from her own site. None was read here. Their addresses are https://x.com/locklin2026 , https://www.facebook.com/Locklin2026/ , https://www.instagram.com/locklin2026 and https://www.youtube.com/@Locklin2026
- The campaign video embedded on her front page, which was not watched.
- No iVoterGuide profile, League of Women Voters questionnaire or local voter guide entry was located for her in this race.
Not on the card, and why
- The claim that she supports an immediate arms embargo on weapons transfers to the government of Israel: it is the wording of the group that endorsed her, on the group's own page, and it appears nowhere in anything she has published. Her own position, which is conditions and enforcement rather than an embargo, is on the card in her own words. The group's wording is above under its own name.
- The group's statements about her opponent, including what it says he has received from political committees and what it says he votes for: another candidate's record, described by a third party, and it belongs on neither card in that form.
- The death tolls, air strike counts and displacement figures her Palestine page cites from Reuters, United Nations agencies and human rights organizations: cards do not reproduce casualty numbers. The card carries what she says the United States should do; the page it comes from is linked so a reader can see the whole of it.
- Her page on the war with Iran and her opponent's votes on it: Iran is a different question from what the United States sends to the government of Israel. The page is recorded above.
- The accusation of antisemitism reported around the August 2026 gathering: the report attributes it to no named person and attributes no response to her. It is recorded above with its date and its source.
- The housing, insurance, healthcare, Medicare, education, tax, immigration, reproductive rights, public safety, Cuba and Epstein material on her campaign site and in her Ballotpedia answers: out of scope. It is listed above so the absence is checkable.
- Mario Díaz-Balart's and Deborah Meidinger Hosey's records: they belong on their own cards.
Sources read for this card (address; opened or could not open; date read)
- https://locklinforcongress.com/ , https://locklinforcongress.com/issues-palestine , https://locklinforcongress.com/corruption , https://locklinforcongress.com/issues-iran-war , https://locklinforcongress.com/issues-affordability , https://locklinforcongress.com/issues-healthcare , https://locklinforcongress.com/issues-immigration , https://locklinforcongress.com/issues-social-security , https://locklinforcongress.com/issues-cuba , https://locklinforcongress.com/issues-epstein-files , https://locklinforcongress.com/mario-diaz-balart , https://locklinforcongress.com/about-nicole-locklin , https://locklinforcongress.com/nicole-bio , https://locklinforcongress.com/endorsements and https://locklinforcongress.com/news (opened; 2026-09-08)
- https://ballotpedia.org/Nicole_Locklin (opened; 2026-09-08; her survey was submitted 2026-07-20)
- https://ballotpedia.org/Florida%27s_26th_Congressional_District_election,_2026 (opened; 2026-09-08)
- https://www.facebook.com/trackaipac/photos/we-are-proud-to-endorse-nicole-locklin-for-congress-in-fl26nicole-locklin-is-run/122273105066252847/ (the page opened and carries the group's own endorsement wording; the post itself was not read in the site's own reader; 2026-09-08)
- https://secure.actblue.com/donate/nicole-rejects-aipac (opened; 2026-09-08; printed rather than linked above because it is a donation form)
- https://www.owlmedia.us/p/chump-the-oligarchy (opened; 2026-09-08; published 2026-08-18)
- https://natlawreview.com/press-releases/nicole-locklin-launches-campaign-us-congress-fl-cd-26-focused-affordability (opened; 2026-09-08; dated 2026-05-04)
- https://shannonwatts.substack.com/p/nicole-locklin-on-turning-outrage and https://www.opencampaign.com/politicians-in-united-states/203473/nicole-locklin (opened; 2026-09-08; neither mentions this subject)
- https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/live-updates/2026-florida-primary-live-updates-results/ (could not open; 2026-09-08; the primary it would report was cancelled in this district)
- This is a record of what was checked on 2026-09-07 and 2026-09-08, not a claim that no other statement exists.
Also in this race
- ✗Supports Mario Diaz-Balart (Republican)
- –No Position Found Deborah Ann Meidinger Hosey (Other)
All Florida candidates.
See everyone on the Florida ballot →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.