But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and funding for the government of Israel. How we check
Ty Pinkins
Independent · U.S. Senate, Mississippi
✓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.
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Pinkins is an Army veteran running as an independent for the U.S. Senate in Mississippi. He holds no federal office, so none of the congressional votes this site tracks are his.
He set out his position in full in a published candidate questionnaire in March 2026, answering a question about foreign aid to Ukraine and to the government of Israel. On the second half of it he wrote: "I stand with the basic human rights and dignity of the Palestinian people, and I believe the most recent war in Gaza has amounted to a genocide. The United States has provided far too much money and military support while Gaza has been destroyed, and Palestinian civilians have been killed at a catastrophic scale. For that reason, the U.S. should immediately discontinue sending American taxpayer dollars to Israel."
He then set out what would have to be true before money resumed. Any future U.S. support, he wrote, should be "contingent on verifiable compliance with international law, an immediate and sustained ceasefire, and a serious, credible push toward a two-state solution that guarantees Palestinian self-determination and Israeli security". On the other side of the ledger he wants more, not less: the United States, he wrote, "should expand humanitarian relief, insist on accountability, and pursue a long-term political settlement that ends occupation". He also said new Israeli settlement building should stop.
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 2026-07-13) 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
“The United States has provided far too much money and military support while Gaza has been destroyed, and Palestinian civilians have been killed at a catastrophic scale. For that reason, the U.S. should immediately discontinue sending American taxpayer dollars to Israel.”
“Any future U.S. financial support should be contingent on verifiable compliance with international law, an immediate and sustained ceasefire, and a serious, credible push toward a two-state solution that guarantees Palestinian self-determination and Israeli security, with equal rights and equal dignity.”
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, 2026-03-06] Mississippi Free Press candidate questionnaire, answering "What are your views on foreign aid to Ukraine and Israel?" in his own first-person prose. Read in full and verified verbatim: "On Israel and the broader region, my view is tougher and clearer. Civilian protection and international humanitarian law must be the standard, not a talking point. I stand with the basic human rights and dignity of the Palestinian people, and I believe the most recent war in Gaza has amounted to a genocide. The United States has provided far too much money and military support while Gaza has been destroyed, and Palestinian civilians have been killed at a catastrophic scale. For that reason, the U.S. should immediately discontinue sending American taxpayer dollars to Israel." And: "Israel should also stop building new settlements, because settlements make peace harder and undermine a just resolution. Any future U.S. financial support should be contingent on verifiable compliance with international law, an immediate and sustained ceasefire, and a serious, credible push toward a two-state solution that guarantees Palestinian self-determination and Israeli security, with equal rights and equal dignity."
⚠ **Questionnaire test passed.** He answers at length across the whole form, on the economy, energy, war powers, Venezuela and more. This is not a wall of non-answers with one entry filled in.
[Prior, 2024-10-23] Mississippi Free Press interview during an earlier run: the government of Israel has a right to defend itself and a responsibility to obey international law and minimize harm to civilians in Gaza. Two years before the questionnaire above, and noticeably milder.
U.S. aid to Palestinians
[Position, 2026-03-06] From the same questionnaire, verified verbatim: the United States "should expand humanitarian relief, insist on accountability, and pursue a long-term political settlement that ends occupation and ensures Palestinians have freedom, safety, and a viable future." His position runs in two directions at once: stop the money to the government of Israel, expand the relief to Palestinians.
Characterization of the conflict
[Position, 2026-03-06] From the questionnaire, verified verbatim: "I believe the most recent war in Gaza has amounted to a genocide." And: "a country cannot credibly argue its own existence is at risk while simultaneously destroying another people's existence."
[Position, 2025-02-05] A campaign statement calling the president's proposal for Gaza reckless and criticizing the incumbent senator for supporting it.
[Position, 2026-05-07] He used the same word on a podcast interview. Audio with no transcript, so nothing is quoted from it.
[Prior, 2024-10-23] In the earlier interview he urged the Israeli government to distinguish between Hamas and Palestinian civilians.
Related rhetoric and lobbying
[Position, 2026-06-15] Magnolia Tribune interview, verified verbatim: "I'm the only candidate in this race that is not affiliated with pro-Israel lobbies like J Street and especially AIPAC." The report adds that he pointed to donations received by his two opponents. The surrounding argument is about money in politics generally.
[Position, 2026-06-24] At the Neshoba County Fair (Mississippi Today, read and verified verbatim 2026-08-17): the report has him saying his agenda in Congress would be focused on getting big money out of politics and, to that end, calling himself the only candidate who is not "beholden to the pro-Israel lobby." The phrase inside quotation marks is his; the sentence carrying it is the reporter's.
⚠ **Shared carrier.** That fair report covers three candidates in this race and appears on the Democratic nominee's page too, where it is used as an attribution correction because the same line was misattributed to him. Only sentences naming Pinkins are used here.
Both items are about lobbying and campaign money. Neither is a position on U.S. weapons or funding, and the deep dive says so.
Safety and antisemitism (context)
Nothing located.
Race and status context
Independent candidate for the U.S. Senate in Mississippi, running against the Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith and the Democratic nominee Scott Colom, per Ballotpedia's race page and his Ballotpedia profile, which carries no issue content on this subject.
He did not serve in Congress during any of the tracked votes.
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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