But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and funding for the government of Israel. How we check
Todd Schaefer
Other · U.S. House, Florida District 4
✓OpposesFrom their own words
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.
Schaefer is a no-party-affiliation candidate in Florida’s 4th District, a retired Navy veteran and Fernandina Beach real estate agent who ran a write-in challenge to the sitting member in 2024.
His platform is a clear restraint-side answer, in his own written words to the News4JAX voter guide: under a top-three-issues heading he titled “End the Iran War & Israel’s Genocide in Gaza”, he would “Reclaim Congress’s power to instigate military action; Reduce military budget, force DOD to pass their audit to limit military industrial complex, & end American imperialism; Stop sending all aid to Israel & label AIPAC as a foreign agent unable to donate in American elections.”
His broader frame is on the record from 2024, when he told Florida Politics that a presidential candidate’s “position on Israel and Palestine is horrendous”. Platform pages expanding his foreign-policy critique, including a free-speech argument that tying federal funding to antisemitism definitions that reach criticism of Israel risks chilling protected speech, are reported from a host that cannot be rendered; the reported material is on the research page with its addresses.
Nothing located has him addressing U.S. aid to Palestinians as a distinct question; his platform speaks to ending the war and the aid rather than to the humanitarian pipeline.
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
“Stop sending all aid to Israel & label AIPAC as a foreign agent unable to donate in American elections.”
The notes behind this card: what we looked at, what we found, and where each item came from.
U.S. military aid and weapons to Israel
[Position, 2026-07-31] His written answers to the News4JAX 2026 voter guide. Confirmed word for word under his own heading, per the multi-candidate rule: the full item reads “Reclaim Congress’s power to instigate military action; Reduce military budget, force DOD to pass their audit to limit military industrial complex, & end American imperialism; Stop sending all aid to Israel & label AIPAC as a foreign agent unable to donate in American elections.” under his heading “3) End the Iran War & Israel’s Genocide in Gaza”. The Iran half of the heading stays off the front of the card under the standing rule; the quoted fragment on the front is contiguous.
U.S. aid to Palestinians
Nothing located as a distinct question.
Characterization of the conflict
[Position, 2026-07-31] The heading’s characterization, “Israel’s Genocide in Gaza”, quoted on the card as his platform’s own words.
[Position, 2024-04-24] Florida Politics on his 2024 write-in launch: a presidential candidate’s “position on Israel and Palestine is horrendous”, while crediting him on corruption. Opens and names him.
Related rhetoric and lobbying
[Position, 2026-07-31] The foreign-agent item above is his lobbying position, in his own words.
[Reported, barred host] Platform pages are reported to argue that U.S. foreign policy since World War II has relied on “demonization over diplomacy”, regime-change wars and weaponized sanctions. Every address is on localcandidates.org (about and three positions pages), a host that could not be opened, answering 429 here. Written out and linked so a reader can try them; nothing claimed from them.
Safety and antisemitism (context)
[Reported, barred host] A free-speech platform statement is reported addressing the Antisemitism Awareness Act and IHRA-definition proposals: that “combating true antisemitism is crucial” but tying federal funding to definitions labeling criticism of Israel as hate speech risks chilling protected speech, and that Americans can distinguish anti-Jewish tropes from protests against a foreign government. Same barred host; our search also attributes it to his campaign site, for which no address was supplied and none was located by search. Reported here with that double limit; nothing on the card rests on it.
Where else the record was checked
[Consulted, read 2026-08-21] His entries in the guide above are his own written answers; the questionnaire test is satisfied across his top-three-issues list. No campaign website was located by search on 2026-08-21 despite a reference to one in our earlier search; if his site surfaces, the free-speech statement should be read there first.
A no-party-affiliation candidate in one of this cycle’s priority districts, facing the sitting member whose card carries an emphatic support record: the sharpest single-district contrast in this panel. He has held no federal office, so there are no recorded votes on this card.
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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