But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and funding for the government of Israel. How we check
Callie Barr
Democrat · U.S. House, Michigan District 1
?Mixed
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.
Two reviewers, reading the public record as a whole, agree: In a July 2026 interview she says "I would be guided by my values" if she took a vote on military funding for Israel and, of humanitarian need among Palestinians, "I think of my own children", which points both ways. Reviewed by hand on 2026-10-09. This candidate has no recorded tracked floor votes.
The email has replies@butwhatcanyoudo.org in cc, so we can post their answer on their page in their own words; remove it if you prefer. Keep the subject line as it is, add your name, and send.
Barr is the Democratic nominee in Michigan’s 1st District, which covers the Upper Peninsula and the northern part of the Lower Peninsula. She is an attorney and a military spouse, and she is running against the sitting Republican, Jack Bergman.
Her fullest account of this question is a candidate interview published July 30, 2026 by the Glen Arbor Sun. On military funding she did not commit either way: "I would be guided by my values if I took a vote on military funding for Israel." The paper adds, in its own words rather than hers, that she clarified she would not defund Iron Dome, which it describes as Israel’s US-sourced air defense system. In the same interview she said "We need a two-state solution" and framed the humanitarian question in personal terms: "When I think of the need for humanitarian aid, clean water, food and medical care for Palestinians, I think of my own children."
Also in that interview she drew a distinction between a government and a country, saying "We need to distinguish between Netanyahu and Israel", and put the emphasis elsewhere: "I’m 110-percent focused on what’s happening here at home. Some candidates are only focused on the Middle East." The Algemeiner repeated both lines after the August primary.
Her earliest located comment on the war is from a June 2024 candidate forum in northern Michigan, where she supported diplomacy as the route to ending the fighting between Israel and Hamas. She has no voting record on any of this; she has not held federal office.
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 2026-07-23) 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
“I would be guided by my values if I took a vote on military funding for Israel.”
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
2026-07-30 [Current position]: In a candidate interview with the Glen Arbor Sun (Jacob Wheeler; published the night of July 30, 2026) she said: "I would be guided by my values if I took a vote on military funding for Israel." The paper follows with its own sentence, not a quotation: "Barr clarified that she would not de-fund Iron Dome, Israel’s US-sourced air defense system which intercepts rockets fired from Iran or other hostile neighbors." No second account of the Iron Dome answer was located; the Algemeiner's later report repeats her quoted lines from this interview and leaves Iron Dome out.
⚠ The funding answer is deliberately noncommittal and the card says so rather than resolving it in either direction. The Iron Dome answer is the only firm one, and it is the paper's summary.
Undated [Current position]: Beyond Iron Dome, no platform document setting out conditions on U.S. weapons sales or on broader military assistance was located.
U.S. aid to Palestinians
2026-07-30 [Current position]: In the same interview: "When I think of the need for humanitarian aid, clean water, food and medical care for Palestinians, I think of my own children." She names the need; she does not name a U.S. funding mechanism for it, and the card is worded to that limit.
Characterization of the conflict
2026-07-30 [Current position]: "We need a two-state solution," and "We need to work with the region to protect innocent civilian lives." (source)
2026-07-30 [Current position]: "We need to distinguish between Netanyahu and Israel" and "I’m 110-percent focused on what’s happening here at home. Some candidates are only focused on the Middle East." (source) The Algemeiner repeated both lines on 2026-08-05, after the primary, under a headline that frames the results as defeats for "anti-Israel Democrats".
2024-06 [Current position; date is the month only]: At a candidate forum in northern Michigan she supported diplomacy as the mechanism for ending the fighting between Israel and Hamas.
2026-07-30 [Current position; adjacent, not in scope]: On the war with Iran she said "Congress needs to reassert its role as a coequal branch of government", and that Defense Secretary Pete "Hegseth wants billions more without a plan. There is no way we blanket reallocate funding without a plan. No way." That is about funding for the war with Iran and war powers, not about what the United States sends to the government of Israel.
Rhetoric and lobbying
2026-07 [Claim not supported by its own source]: A claim that her campaign rejected foreign policy PAC litmus tests and "explicitly turned away AIPAC involvement" is not in the interview cited for it. Read in full, the article mentions AIPAC only in connection with Haley Stevens’ Senate campaign, not Barr. Excluded from the card and the deep dive.
Safety and antisemitism
2026-07 [Context only, never the answer to what America sends]: A report that she condemned antisemitism alongside other forms of hate in candidate profile surveys could not be tied to a page that names her. The nearest page, a faith-vote candidate questionnaire aggregator, was not found to name her. Not used.
Earlier record
Nothing located before 2023-10-07. She has not held federal office and has no recorded votes on any tracked bill.
What came back empty or unusable
No statement located on UNRWA by name, or on the Gaza aid pipeline as a U.S. funding decision.
Her campaign site was located only as a bare homepage; no page from it carrying a foreign policy platform was located.
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.