But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and funding for the government of Israel. How we check
Charles Booker
At a March 2026 debate Booker called the government of Israel's actions in Gaza a genocide and said the United States should not fund it, Louisville Public Media reported. He pledged to take no American Israel Public Affairs Committee money, which is about his own fundraising.
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You asked Charles Booker where they stand.
Deep Dive
Booker is a former Kentucky state representative and the Democratic nominee for the state's open Senate seat. He has never held federal office, so none of the congressional votes this site tracks are his.
At a televised primary debate in March 2026 he called the actions of the government of Israel in Gaza a genocide. Louisville Public Media reported that he and another candidate said the country should not fund "what they called the genocide of Palestinians". He also pledged to take no money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee: "not take a cent of AIPAC money, and I’m urging all of my colleagues here today to do the same thing. We need to stand for humanity right now." That pledge is about campaign fundraising, not about what the United States sends abroad, and one rival on the stage replied that the committee was not offering him money in any case.
His campaign's issues page carried a section on Gaza saying, in the campaign's own third-person wording, that the Israeli government's actions there constitute a genocide, that the United States is funding it despite American law barring weapons for war crimes, and that he supports a free Palestine, the release of all hostages, and an end to the violence. That page returns a not-found error now. A Capitol Hill Citizen profile published September 10, 2026 quotes his campaign website as saying: "The actions of the Israeli government against the Palestinian people in Gaza constitutes a genocide. And right now, the U.S. is funding that genocide." What can be read is the endorsement page of the antiwar group Peace Action, which says he "opposes continued U.S. funding for Israel's military actions and believes Palestinians have a right to freedom, safety, and self-determination". Those are the group's words about him, on a page his campaign raises money through, and they say the same thing the dead plank said.
His earlier record ran differently and it is worth setting beside this one. In October 2021, during a previous Senate run, he backed the billion-dollar supplemental for the Iron Dome missile-defence system and attacked Senator Rand Paul for holding it up, saying Paul "made a dishonest, empty excuse to singularly oppose funding for Israel’s ability to defend itself and keep families safe." In the same statement he said American support should "ensure both Israeli and Palestinian people can disarm deadly threats on innocent lives". Five years separate that from the platform above, and both are on the research page with their dates.
The record
• 2026-03-17: At the Spectrum News 1 Democratic primary debate, called Israel's actions in Gaza a 'genocide' and pledged to take no money from AIPAC, urging his primary rivals to do the same; rival Dale Romans pushed back on the pledge.
• 2026 cycle (platform live as of 2026-07-23): His campaign issues page carries a 'Gaza' plank stating the Israeli government's actions against Palestinians in Gaza 'constitute a genocide,' that 'the U.S. is funding that genocide, despite it being against U.S. law to provide weapons for countless war crimes,' and that he 'unequivocally supports a free Palestine, the release of all hostages, and a real and lasting end to the violence.' (Campaign's third-person platform text, not a first-person quote.)
• October 2021 (2022 cycle): In a statement to Jewish Insider, backed the House-passed $1 billion supplemental for Israel's Iron Dome missile-defense system and criticized Sen. Rand Paul, then the only senator blocking its quick passage.
• 2021-05-20: Posted on X welcoming the announced Israel-Hamas ceasefire as 'the right move' while calling a 'temporary break on bombing' the 'minimum' and urging 'true, lasting peace and justice in Israel and Palestine.'
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: His campaign platform calls Gaza a genocide that the U.S. is funding, two outlets independently report him calling it a genocide at the 2026 debate, and his only words backing Israel's defence funding date from 2021, before the window. Reviewed by hand on 2026-10-01. This candidate has no recorded tracked floor votes.
The money
Checked the five lobbying groups we track; no direct 2026 support found
In their words
Track AIPAC (2026 cycle) · Peace Action (2026 endorsement)
Research log
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 cycle, read 2026-08-18] The Peace Action endorsement page, through which his campaign raises money, states in the group's own words: "Charles believes that what is happening in Gaza constitutes a genocide. He opposes continued U.S. funding for Israel’s military actions and believes Palestinians have a right to freedom, safety, and self-determination." And: "He supports significantly reducing military spending and the ever-growing military industrial complex, raising the standard to ensure American tax dollars are no longer used to fund genocide, reasserting congressional oversight over foreign policy". Verified verbatim. These are the endorsing organization's characterizations of his position, not his own sentences, and they are attributed that way everywhere they appear.
- [Position, 2026 cycle, platform live as of 2026-07-23] His campaign issues page carried a Gaza plank stating that the Israeli government's actions against Palestinians in Gaza constitute a genocide, that the United States is funding that genocide despite American law barring weapons for war crimes, and that he unequivocally supports a free Palestine, the release of all hostages, and a real and lasting end to the violence. This is the campaign's third-person platform text, not a first-person quotation, and it is set out in plain words rather than in quotation marks because the page can no longer be opened and read. Source problem, stated plainly: that page, https://charlesbooker.org/issues/, was no longer online when we tried it on 2026-08-17, so we could not open it and it is not linked. His campaign site itself still opens, but now carries only home, biography, endorsements and donation pages, with nothing on this subject. An archived copy of the issues page (web.archive.org, snapshot of 2026-05-20) exists, but the archive refused every request on 2026-10-01, so it could not be opened and nothing is quoted from it.
- [Position, quoted 2026-09-10] Capitol Hill Citizen, under "CHARLES BOOKER (Kentucky)": "Booker’s campaign website states plainly: “The actions of the Israeli government against the Palestinian people in Gaza constitutes a genocide. And right now, the U.S. is funding that genocide.”" This is the publication's quotation of the plank; the original page could not be opened to compare its exact wording.
- [Position, 2026-03] Our search reports that at a primary debate he said he would not support further U.S. military funding for the government of Israel until the humanitarian situation was addressed and the fighting in Gaza ended. The only carrier offered for it is a short video with no transcript, so it is not quoted here and nothing on the card rests on it. The Peace Action wording above says the same thing on a readable page.
- [Position, 2026-03-17] Louisville Public Media's debate report, under "Democratic candidates skirmish over American aid to Israel": "The Democratic Senate hopefuls also argued over American aid to Israel, with both Booker and Stevenson saying the country should not fund what they called the genocide of Palestinians." The station's sentence, not his words; it is the readable account of the debate position the video was reported to carry.
- [Prior, 2021-10-18] Statement to Jewish Insider during an earlier Senate run, supporting the House-passed $1 billion supplemental for the Iron Dome missile-defence system and criticizing Senator Rand Paul for blocking its quick passage. Verified verbatim: "In the midst of the ongoing conflict that has cost so many Israeli and Palestinian lives, Rand chose to pit our allies against one another when he made a dishonest, empty excuse to singularly oppose funding for Israel’s ability to defend itself and keep families safe." And, in a separate span the report divides with its own attribution: "While we work to ensure community safety here at home, we have a role to play to that same end with foreign allies." And: "That includes support to ensure both Israeli and Palestinian people can disarm deadly threats on innocent lives." The spans are not joined here.
U.S. aid to Palestinians
- [Position, 2026 cycle] The platform plank and the Peace Action wording above, in their support for a free Palestine and for Palestinian self-determination, are the nearest thing on this record. Nothing located in which he states a position on a specific U.S. funding channel for Palestinian civilians, such as the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.
Characterization of the conflict
- [Position, 2026-03-17] At the Spectrum News 1 Democratic primary debate he called the actions of the government of Israel in Gaza a genocide, per the Kentucky Lantern and, independently, Louisville Public Media. The Lantern places the word in quotation marks inside its own sentence; the quoted span it attributes to him directly is the fundraising pledge.
- [Prior, 2021-05-20] Post on X as a ceasefire was announced, verified verbatim against the post, which carries its own date of May 20, 2021: "This is the right move, but it’s no comfort to parents who lost their children. A temporary break on bombing is the minimum. We need true, lasting peace and justice in Israel and Palestine, and that includes healing and reconciliation. Too much innocent blood has been spilled."
Related rhetoric and lobbying
- [Position, 2026-03-17] The pledge to refuse contributions from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. This is a campaign fundraising commitment and is not a position on U.S. weapons or money. A rival on the same stage replied that the committee was not offering him money in any case.
- [Position, 2026-04-13] An organization that campaigns against that committee's influence in elections endorsed him in a post carrying its own date. Its accompanying descriptions of his positions, including that he is fighting for an arms embargo, are the organization's words and not his, and they are not used anywhere on this card.
Safety and antisemitism (context)
- [Position, 2024-09-18] The Kentucky governor's office published an agenda for a meeting of a state antisemitism task force on that date, at https://governor.ky.gov/community/Documents/20240918_Antisemitism-Task-Force_Meeting-Agenda.pdf. The file opens but is a scanned document whose text we could not extract, so his part in the meeting, which our search reports in his then role running the state's faith-based initiatives office, is recorded here as unconfirmed rather than stated.
- [Position, 2025-12-14] A post attributed to his campaign account condemned an attack on a Hanukkah gathering in Sydney, using the words that the hate fuelling the violence is exhausting and heartbreaking. The address returns an error, so the words are not quoted and nothing on the card rests on them.
Race and status context
- Democratic nominee for the open Kentucky Senate seat, per Ballotpedia's race page, the state's official primary certification, and WKU Public Radio's primary report.
- He did not serve in Congress during any of the ten tracked votes.
Also in this race
- ✗Supports Andy Barr (Republican)
- ✓Opposes Christopher Campbell (Other)
All Kentucky candidates.
See everyone on the Kentucky 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.