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

Craig Honts

Other · U.S. House, New Jersey District 8
✗
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 2026 election-guide answer he backs "a defensive war by Israel" to prevent the government in Tehran from developing nuclear weapons, with nothing pointing the other way. Reviewed by hand on 2026-10-09. This candidate has no recorded tracked floor votes.

Nothing located as of September 2026 has Honts taking a position on U.S. weapons or money for the government of Israel, or on U.S. aid to Palestinians. He calls for “not one penny” for the U.S. war machine and writes “Defend Israel’s right to exist as a refuge for Jews!”

✉  Copy a message to send them

We don’t have a campaign email on file yet. Copy this message and send it through their website or a public social account.

If you send this from your own email, cc replies@butwhatcanyoudo.org so we can post their answer.

Deep Dive

Craig Honts is the Socialist Workers Party candidate in New Jersey’s 8th District, which takes in Hoboken, Union City, Bayonne, North Bergen, West New York and part of Jersey City in Hudson County, Elizabeth in Union County, and part of Newark. He is a 75-year-old factory worker and union member who lives in Union City, and he joined the party in 1971 after protesting the killing of students at Kent State University. He was the party’s candidate for lieutenant governor of New Jersey in 2025. He is on the November 3, 2026 ballot with Representative Rob Menendez, Da’Shone Hughey and Aristotle Eliopoulos.

What he has said on this question is in his answers to NJ Spotlight News’ guide to the candidates in this district. Asked whether he supports the war in Iran and federal defense spending, he wrote that there are “two sharply different wars against Iran”: one waged by “the U.S. rulers”, and “a defensive war by Israel to prevent the Jew-hating regime in Tehran from developing nuclear weapons”. He ended the answer with three lines set out separately: “U.S. troops out of the Middle East!”, “Not one man and not one penny for the U.S. government, its budget, and its war machine.” and “Defend Israel’s right to exist as a refuge for Jews!” His list of top issues in the same guide includes “defending Jews from growing attack”. None of his answers says whether he would send, cut or put conditions on U.S. weapons or money for the government of Israel, and none mentions Gaza or aid to Palestinians.

A joint statement of his campaign and his party’s candidate for the U.S. Senate, reported by Patch in June 2026, calls for “U.S. troops, warships and bases out of the Middle East.” He has never held office, so none of the congressional votes this site tracks is his, and no campaign website of his own was found. His party’s weekly newspaper, the Militant, reports on his campaign; its 2026 pages could not be opened here, and what could be read is on his research page.

You are better placed to change this than we are. Ask Honts directly, or at a candidate forum, whether he would send, cut or condition U.S. weapons and money for the government of Israel, and send us the reply: it goes on this page in his own words, which is worth more than anything we could write about him.

In their words

“Not one man and not one penny for the U.S. government, its budget, and its war machine.”
Source ↗, 2026-09-18
“Defend Israel’s right to exist as a refuge for Jews!”
Source ↗, 2026-09-18

Research log

The notes behind this card: what we looked at, what we found, and where each item came from.

Every page named below was opened and read on 2026-09-24 unless the entry says otherwise. He has no campaign website that could be found, so his own words were read where they are published: his answers in NJ Spotlight News’ guide to this district, his party’s newspaper where it could be opened, and a campaign statement reported by Patch. Bands: Position (2024-01-26 onward), Reaction window (2023-10-07 to 2024-01-25), Earlier record (before 2023-10-07), Undated. Honts has never held office, so none of the congressional votes this site tracks is his, and no funding from the committees this site tracks is recorded on this record.

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

  • Nothing located, at any date, that names U.S. weapons, arms transfers, Foreign Military Financing, security assistance or any bill on those subjects for the government of Israel. The words aid, military aid and Foreign Military Financing do not occur in his answers.
  • [Position, page updated 2026-09-18; read 2026-09-24] NJ Spotlight News’ guide to the 8th District, by Colleen O’Dea, which carries his answers in his own voice. Asked “Do you support the war in Iran and federal defense spending? If not, what would you change?”, he answered: “There are two sharply different wars against Iran. An imperialist war by the U.S. rulers to plunder the oil, gas, and labor of the region, extend their domination and deal blows to their competitors. And a defensive war by Israel to prevent the Jew-hating regime in Tehran from developing nuclear weapons and the missiles to launch them to advance the goal they share with Hamas and Hezbollah of destroying Israel and carrying out another Holocaust.” It continues on a new line: “The working class, the oppressed, and the labor movement must rally behind the fight against Jew-hatred and pogroms.” It ends with three lines, each set out separately: “U.S. troops out of the Middle East!” · “Not one man and not one penny for the U.S. government, its budget, and its war machine.” · “Defend Israel’s right to exist as a refuge for Jews!” The penny line is about money for the U.S. government and its military; it does not say whether it reaches U.S. aid to the government of Israel, and it is recorded here as what it says. The page was first published on 2026-05-05 for the primary and last updated on 2026-09-18; its text on the general-election field was written after the June 2, 2026 primary, so the answers are dated to the update rather than to the first publication.
  • [Position, 2026-06-08] Patch, in a report by Eric Kiefer, describes a joint campaign statement from Honts and Joanne Kuniansky, his party’s candidate for the U.S. Senate: “Their international stances include calling for “U.S. troops, warships and bases out of the Middle East.”” The same report says the statement calls for a break with the Democratic and Republican parties that “uphold the system of capitalist exploitation and the wars it breeds.” This is a joint statement, and it supports only the joint wording. The report quotes him alone once: “I came to realize working people need to take political power here to put an end to U.S. imperialism’s wars for all time,” he said.

U.S. aid to Palestinians

  • Nothing located, at any date. Gaza, the West Bank, Palestinians, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and humanitarian funding do not appear in his guide answers, in the Patch report, or in anything of his that could be read.

Characterization of the conflict

  • [Position, page updated 2026-09-18; read 2026-09-24] In the same guide answer quoted above he calls one of the two wars against Iran “a defensive war by Israel” and writes “Defend Israel’s right to exist as a refuge for Jews!” He does not use the words genocide, apartheid, occupation or ceasefire anywhere in his answers, and does not mention Gaza.
  • [Reaction window, 2023-10-28] The Militant, the party’s weekly newspaper, in an article by Roy Landersen in its issue dated November 13, 2023, reports a door-to-door visit that Honts and another party campaigner made in Passaic on October 28, 2023, and quotes him there: “If Hamas isn’t defeated there will be more pogroms,” Honts said. “Standing up to Jew-hatred is a necessity for all workers. To end it, our class has to take power.” The newspaper’s own site did not open; the words were read on the Internet Archive’s copy of the page, taken 2024-11-14. Recorded here and nowhere else on this card.

Israel-related rhetoric and lobbying

  • Nothing located, at any date. No statement by him about the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, about any other advocacy organization on this subject, or about money connected to any of them was found. His guide answers name only the Democratic and Republican parties, which he calls “the bosses’ parties”.

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

  • [Position, page updated 2026-09-18; read 2026-09-24] His guide answers list among his top issues “defending Jews from growing attack”, and his answer on the war with Iran says “The working class, the oppressed, and the labor movement must rally behind the fight against Jew-hatred and pogroms.”
  • [Position, 2025-02-03] The Militant’s report of his lieutenant governor campaign in Passaic on January 19, 2025, in its issue dated February 3, 2025 and read on the Internet Archive’s copy, quotes him on jobs and immigration only. Its one line on this subject is about a party supporter, not him: the supporter “welcomes the party’s defense of Israel’s right to exist as a refuge for Jews.” Nothing of his on this subject is in it.

What his own pages say

  • No campaign website of his own was found. Ballotpedia lists none, and the state’s candidate list gives only his Union City address. His party’s newspaper, the Militant, is where his campaign is reported, and its 2026 pages could not be opened (see below).
  • [Position, page updated 2026-09-18; read 2026-09-24] NJ Spotlight News’ guide carries his background and six answers. The background says he joined the Socialist Workers Party in 1971 after protesting the killing of students at Kent State University, supports Cuba’s revolution, and works in a factory as a member of the Bakery Confectionery Tobacco and Grain Millers union. His answers cover jobs and wages, a union-led public works program, cost-of-living increases, health care, amnesty for workers without papers, and ballot access. His top-issue answer: “I stand with fellow workers resisting the bosses’ attacks on our jobs, wages and working conditions; building unions; opposing the US rulers’ blockade and threats against Cuba; defending Jews from growing attack; and calling for an amnesty for workers in the US without papers.”
  • [Read 2026-09-24] His Ballotpedia page says he has not completed Ballotpedia’s 2026 Candidate Connection survey and did not complete the 2025 one.
  • [Read 2026-09-24] His 2026 iVoterGuide profile carries a questionnaire, including the question “Is the United States' relationship with Israel important, and if so why?”, on which every answer reads “Did not answer”; his 2025 profile is the same. A wall of blanks is a fact about that guide’s coverage and says nothing about him either way. The guide’s own rating of him is its label, not his words, and is not used.
  • [Read 2026-09-24] His BallotReady profile lists his 2026 and 2025 candidacies and no issue statements.

The race

  • [Read 2026-09-24] Ballotpedia’s page for the 2026 election in New Jersey’s 8th District: “Incumbent Robert Menendez Jr., Craig Honts, Da'Shone Hughey, and Aristotle Eliopoulos are running in the general election for U.S. House New Jersey District 8 on November 3, 2026.” Menendez won the Democratic primary on June 2, 2026 with 68.8 percent over Mussab Ali; the Republican primary was cancelled. Richard Barilla, an independent, is listed as withdrawn or disqualified.
  • [Read 2026-09-24] His Ballotpedia page records that in the general election for lieutenant governor of New Jersey on November 4, 2025 he took 8,164 votes, 0.2 percent. The New Jersey Division of Elections’ official candidate list for the November 3, 2026 general election, dated September 4, 2026, lists him in the 8th District with a Union City address as the Socialist Workers Party candidate.

Places that could not be read, so nothing is claimed from them

  • The League of Women Voters guide, VOTE411. Our research reported answers of his there, including a sentence beginning “There are two wars in the Mideast” that does not appear in any page that could be read. No address for his entry was supplied, and the VOTE411 candidate page offered for this district, https://onyourballot.vote411.org/m/candidate-detail.do?id=72945963 , returns an error on every attempt. The wording is unconfirmed and appears nowhere on this card.
  • The Militant’s 2026 reports of his campaign, including https://themilitant.com/2026/04/24/new-jersey-swp-campaign-nears-goal-in-ballot-drive/ , which our research described as an account of door-to-door campaigning in South Plainfield on April 18, 2026, and https://themilitant.com/2026/04/10/swp-nj-ballot-drive-advances/ . The newspaper’s site did not open for us, and the Internet Archive has no readable copy of them. Addresses printed rather than linked because they do not open.
  • https://www.localcandidates.org/politicians/craig-honts , a host that does not render for us and that this project does not use.

Not on the card, and why

  • His remarks in Passaic on October 28, 2023, reported by the Militant: dated inside the weeks after October 7, 2023, so they are recorded above and nowhere else.
  • The sentence “There are two wars in the Mideast. Washington's war is for plunder and domination. Israel's war is to prevent Tehran from carrying out another Holocaust”, which our research attributed to his guide answers: it is not in the NJ Spotlight News guide, and the VOTE411 guide could not be opened, so it is unconfirmed.
  • The rest of his answer on the war with Iran, including what he says the U.S. rulers want from the region and what he says Tehran shares with Hamas and Hezbollah: it is about Iran rather than about what the United States sends to the government of Israel. It is quoted in full above.
  • His positions on jobs, wages, health care, Cuba, immigration and ballot access: out of scope, and listed above so the absence can be checked.
  • Rob Menendez’s, Da’Shone Hughey’s and Aristotle Eliopoulos’s answers in the same guide: they belong on their own cards.

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

  • https://www.njspotlightnews.org/special-report/2026-primary-8th-congressional-district/ (opened; 2026-09-24; first published 2026-05-05, updated 2026-09-18)
  • https://ballotpedia.org/Craig_Honts (opened; 2026-09-24)
  • https://ballotpedia.org/New_Jersey%27s_8th_Congressional_District_election,_2026 (opened; 2026-09-24)
  • https://patch.com/new-jersey/newarknj/2-socialists-launch-congress-bids-nj-kuniansky-honts-hit-campaign-trail (opened; 2026-09-24; published 2026-06-08)
  • https://web.archive.org/web/20241114184335/https://themilitant.com/2023/11/04/swp-campaigns-against-jew-hatred-for-working-class-to-strive-for-power/ (opened; 2026-09-24; the Internet Archive’s copy of the Militant issue dated 2023-11-13)
  • https://web.archive.org/web/20250624221600/https://themilitant.com/2025/01/24/socialist-workers-party-candidates-advance-working-class-road-forward/ (opened; 2026-09-24; the Internet Archive’s copy of the Militant issue dated 2025-02-03)
  • https://ivoterguide.com/candidate/88683/race/33271/election/1478 (opened; 2026-09-24)
  • https://ivoterguide.com/candidate/88683/race/23274/election/1308 (opened; 2026-09-24)
  • https://www.ballotready.org/people/craig-honts (opened; 2026-09-24)
  • https://themilitant.com/2023/11/04/swp-campaigns-against-jew-hatred-for-working-class-to-strive-for-power/ (could not open; 2026-09-24)
  • https://themilitant.com/2026/04/24/new-jersey-swp-campaign-nears-goal-in-ballot-drive/ (could not open; 2026-09-24; no archived copy)
  • https://themilitant.com/2026/04/10/swp-nj-ballot-drive-advances/ (could not open; 2026-09-24; no readable archived copy)
  • https://onyourballot.vote411.org/m/candidate-detail.do?id=72945963 (could not open; 2026-09-24)
  • https://www.localcandidates.org/politicians/craig-honts (not used; 2026-09-24)
  • This is a record of what was checked on 2026-09-24, not a claim that no statement exists anywhere.

Also in this race

  1. ✗ Rob Menendez (Democrat)
  2. ? Aristotle Eliopoulos (Independent)
  3. ? Da'Shone Hughey (Other)

All New Jersey 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.