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

Rachel Grage

Democrat · U.S. House, Florida District 5
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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.

Two reviewers, reading the public record as a whole, agree: In a March 2026 campaign newsletter she backs "an immediate vote on the War Powers Act to restrain President Trump" after joint U.S.-Israel military strikes on Iran, without saying where she stands on U.S. weapons and funding for the government of Israel. Reviewed by hand on 2026-10-09. This candidate has no recorded tracked floor votes.

Nothing located as of September 2026 has Grage taking a position on U.S. weapons or money for the government of Israel, or on U.S. aid to Palestinians. Her campaign platform sets out six priorities, every one of them domestic.

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Deep Dive

Rachel Grage is the Democratic nominee in Florida's 5th District, which covers Duval County south and east of the St. Johns River and northern St. Johns County. She is a biomedical engineer who worked on cardiac interventions and on therapies for children with cerebral palsy, and she was the elected president of a 3,500-home community association before she stood for office. She ran for the Florida House in 2024 and lost. She won the Democratic primary on August 18, 2026 with 65.1 percent of the vote and faces Representative John Rutherford on November 3.

This is an empty record on these questions rather than a thin one. Her campaign site is a single page, and its six headings run from healthcare and insurance costs through Medicare and Social Security, campaign finance, border security, individual rights and Florida's environment. None of them is about foreign policy. She has filled in Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey three times, most recently on January 30, 2026, answering every question at length, including the one that asks what she is personally passionate about; her answers name health care affordability, housing, disaster resilience, environmental protection, government accountability and constitutional oversight, and nothing beyond America's borders. She answered the News4Jax voter's guide questionnaire for this district in July 2026, and that form asks nothing about foreign policy. On her iVoterGuide profile every question is marked "Did not answer", including the one about the United States relationship with the government of Israel, so that form says nothing about her either way. An empty record carries no implication either way.

The nearest thing to it in her own words is about Iran. Her campaign newsletter for March 1, 2026, signed in her name, was written in the days after American and Israeli forces struck Iranian targets. It backed the bipartisan call by Rep. Ro Khanna and Rep. Thomas Massie for an immediate vote on the War Powers Act to restrain President Trump, and set that against the Constitution's grant to Congress of the power to declare war. It names no arms transfer, no aid figure and no piece of legislation about the government of Israel. Of the twenty-three posts published in that newsletter between March and September 2026, this is the only one that touches the subject at all, and one other mentions Israel once, in a count of where civilians have died in the war with Iran.

You are better placed to close this than we are. Ask Grage directly, or at a candidate forum, and send us the reply: it goes on this page in her own words, which is worth more than anything we could write about her.

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.

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 campaign site was read in full, all three of her Ballotpedia questionnaire submissions, both candidate guides for this race, and all twenty-three posts in the newsletter her campaign publishes. Bands: Position (2024-01-26 onward), Reaction window (2023-10-07 to 2024-01-25), Earlier record (before 2023-10-07), Undated. She has held no office, so there are no recorded votes on this record.

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

  • Nothing located, at any date. The word Israel does not appear on her campaign site, in any of her three Ballotpedia questionnaire submissions, in her News4Jax answers, or in her own profile on the Local Candidates guide. Nothing was found about arms transfers, Foreign Military Financing, the memorandum of understanding, or any bill or amendment on this subject.
  • [Undated; read 2026-09-08] Her campaign site, a single page. The section headed "What I Stand For" carries six items: lower costs and a stronger middle class; protecting Medicare and Social Security; accountability and trust in government; secure borders and fair immigration; protecting individual rights and freedoms; and protecting Florida's environment. The site's other pages redirect to this one. Nothing on it concerns foreign policy of any kind.

U.S. aid to Palestinians

  • Nothing located, at any date. Gaza, the West Bank, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and humanitarian funding appear nowhere in anything she has published or answered.

Characterization of the conflict

  • Nothing located, at any date.
  • [Position, 2026-03-01] The nearest adjacent item, from her campaign newsletter, "We are at war.", signed "In Solidarity, Rachel Grage": "We stand firmly behind the bipartisan call by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) for an immediate vote on the War Powers Act to restrain President Trump following joint U.S.-Israel military strikes on Iran." The next paragraph reads: "Congress must take up this debate before more U.S. service members lose their lives not knowing what we are fighting for." The same post records that "Over 1,400 air strikes were carried out by Israeli and U.S. forces over a 12-hour period", counts American and Iranian dead, and quotes Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution on the power "to declare War". Its subject is the war with Iran and the war powers of Congress, not what the United States sends to the government of Israel.
  • [Position, 2026-03-25] A later post, "mind-blowing corruption", mentions Israel once, in a sentence counting casualties: "13 U.S. service members have been killed… over 200 wounded… thousands of civilians in Iran, Israel, Lebanon and the Gulf have died." The ellipses are hers. Recorded for completeness.
  • The other twenty-one posts in that newsletter, from March 1 to September 4, 2026, are about the war with Iran, immigration enforcement, stock trading by members of Congress, technology policy, endorsements and her opponent's record. None mentions Israel, Gaza, Palestinians, antisemitism or foreign aid.

Israel-related rhetoric and lobbying

  • Nothing located from her, at any date. Her campaign platform's line on money in politics is "Increase transparency in campaign finance, reduce the influence of big money in politics, and hold public officials to the same standards expected of every citizen." It names no organization.
  • Our research reported a pledge in her name not to accept money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, citing a position page on the Local Candidates guide. That page was opened and read. The pledge is on it, but it is printed under the name of Alexander Hazen, in a panel of other candidates' positions on the same subject, and it links to his own page for it. Alexander Hazen was one of the two candidates she defeated in the August 2026 Democratic primary. It is his statement, not hers, and it is recorded here so that the mistake is visible rather than repeated. Her own entry on that guide reproduces the six headings from her campaign site and adds nothing.

Safety and antisemitism (context, not an answer to what America sends)

  • Nothing located, at any date.

The race

  • [Undated; read 2026-09-08] Ballotpedia: "Incumbent John Rutherford, Rachel Grage, and William Upham are running in the general election for U.S. House Florida District 5 on November 3, 2026." She took 27,165 votes, 65.1 percent, in the August 18, 2026 Democratic primary, ahead of Alexander Hazen and Mark Heggestad. William Upham is a write-in candidate with no party affiliation.
  • [Position, 2026-01-09 and 2026-01-30; earlier submission 2024-09-08] Her Ballotpedia page carries all three of her Candidate Connection submissions in full. The 2026 pair name affordability for families, accountability in government, and protecting democracy and individual rights; asked what areas of public policy she is personally passionate about, she answered health care affordability, Medicare and Social Security, housing and insurance affordability, disaster resilience, environmental protection, government accountability, constitutional oversight and individual rights. The 2024 submission, made when she was running for the Florida House, sets out insurance costs, education funding and economic growth, and lists her endorsements. None of the three mentions Israel, Gaza, foreign aid, the military or foreign policy.
  • [Position, 2026-07-29; updated 2026-08-25] News4Jax's voter's guide for this district, which prints each candidate's answers as submitted. She was asked for the top three issues in the race, what she offers that others do not, and what she would want to be remembered for. She answered housing and insurance costs, public education funding, economic development, and restoring trust in government. The guide asks nothing about foreign policy, so its silence on this subject is a fact about the form.
  • [Undated; read 2026-09-08] Her iVoterGuide profile records "Candidate did not provide" against every biographical field and "Did not answer" against every question on the questionnaire, including "Is the United States' relationship with Israel important, and if so why?" A wall of unanswered questions is a fact about the guide, not about her. The profile lists fourteen endorsements received after the guide's deadline, among them the National Organization for Women PAC, the United Auto Workers, the Florida AFL-CIO, the Democratic Women's Club of Florida and the Florida Education Association.

Places that were not read, so nothing is claimed from them

  • Her campaign's accounts on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, and her personal Facebook page, all linked from her campaign site and from Ballotpedia. None was read here.
  • The campaign video linked from her newsletter of August 7, 2026, which was not watched.

Not on the card, and why

  • The pledge about the American Israel Public Affairs Committee: it belongs to another candidate, printed on a page about her. It is set out above under its own author's name.
  • The housing, insurance, healthcare, Medicare, education, campaign finance, immigration, privacy and environmental material on her campaign site, in her three Ballotpedia submissions and in her News4Jax answers: out of scope, none of it is about U.S. weapons or money for the government of Israel or about U.S. aid to Palestinians. It is listed above so that the absence is checkable.
  • Her newsletter's posts on immigration enforcement, stock trading by members of Congress, technology policy and her opponent's record: out of scope.
  • The March 2026 statement on the war powers of Congress: it is named on the card as the nearest thing in her record, and it is set out above in her own words, but its subject is Iran and the Constitution rather than what the United States sends to the government of Israel, so it is not treated as an answer to this question.
  • John Rutherford's record: it belongs on his own card.

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

  • https://rachelgrage.com/ , https://rachelgrage.com/issues and https://rachelgrage.com/view-endorsements (opened; 2026-09-08; the second and third redirect to the first)
  • https://ballotpedia.org/Rachel_Grage (opened; 2026-09-08; carries submissions dated 2024-09-08, 2026-01-09 and 2026-01-30)
  • https://ballotpedia.org/Florida%27s_5th_Congressional_District_election,_2026 (opened; 2026-09-08)
  • https://www.news4jax.com/voters-guide/2026/07/29/2026-voters-guide-floridas-5th-congressional-district/ (opened; 2026-09-08; published 2026-07-29, updated 2026-08-25)
  • https://ivoterguide.com/candidate/77733/race/4482/election/1254?culture=en-us (opened; 2026-09-08)
  • https://rachelgrage4fl.substack.com/archive?sort=new and all twenty-three posts listed there (opened; 2026-09-08; published 2026-03-01 to 2026-09-04)
  • https://rachelgrage4fl.substack.com/p/we-are-at-war (opened; 2026-09-08; published 2026-03-01)
  • https://rachelgrage4fl.substack.com/p/mind-blowing-corruption (opened; 2026-09-08; published 2026-03-25)
  • https://www.localcandidates.org/politicians/rachel-grage and https://www.localcandidates.org/politicians/rachel-grage/positions/a7d10c06-eb55-4d75-a335-399a387f8173 (opened; 2026-09-08)
  • https://www.localcandidates.org/politicians/alexander-hazen/positions/240a5f82-3778-405e-bf04-c0a2be8fbc3f (opened; 2026-09-08; the page that carries the pledge, under Alexander Hazen's name)
  • https://www.fec.gov/data/candidate/H6FL05250/ (opened; 2026-09-08; identity and filings only)
  • This is a record of what was checked on 2026-09-08, not a claim that no other statement exists.

Also in this race

  1. ✗ John H. Rutherford (Republican)

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.