But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and funding for the government of Israel. How we check
Larry Rhoden
Republican · Governor, South Dakota
?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 June 2025 statement on a state trade mission to Israel he said "Israel has been a key partner in our state's economic success", without saying where he 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.
Rhoden became governor of South Dakota partway through the term and is the Republican nominee to keep the job, having won the state's first gubernatorial primary runoff. He has never held federal office, so none of the congressional votes this site tracks are his.
The trade mission this site had been carrying as an undated rumor is real and dated. In June 2025 he took a business delegation of defense and agriculture companies looking for sales in the Israeli market and met the president, the speaker of the Knesset and the foreign minister. His statement on it: "South Dakota continues to be an economic leader – both nationally and internationally. Israel has been a key partner in our state's economic success, and I was honored to meet with the Israeli leaders to strengthen our relationship." On the same trip he laid a wreath at the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, at a section about the camp his father helped liberate, and visited a rehabilitation center to meet soldiers wounded since the war began. That is state commerce and ceremony, not a decision about what the United States sends.
On the federal question, nothing was located: no statement of his on U.S. weapons, on U.S. money, on conditioning either, or on aid to Palestinians. If you want his position on what the United States sends, you are better placed to get it than we are: ask Rhoden directly and send us the reply. It goes on this page in his own words.
In their words
“South Dakota continues to be an economic leader – both nationally and internationally. Israel has been a key partner in our state's economic success, and I was honored to meet with the Israeli leaders to strengthen our relationship”
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
Nothing located. A governor has no authority over it, and neither this record nor a fresh search of the open record in August 2026 holds any statement from him about it. The fresh search reached the same conclusion in its own words.
Note on the trade mission below: the delegation was made up of defense and agriculture businesses seeking commercial sales in the Israeli market. That is private commerce, not an American transfer, and it is not treated as a position on one.
U.S. aid to Palestinians
Nothing located.
Characterization of the conflict
Nothing located in his own words that can be opened and read.
[Wrong person, 2025-10-07] A fresh search attributed to him a statement marking two years since the attacks, including the phrases "barbaric attack" and "the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust", along with a line about the surge in antisemitism. The address it cites is the official account of a member of Congress from Nevada, not this governor. Not his on the evidence offered; excluded and recorded here so it is not repeated.
State action
[Position, 2025-06-09] Trade mission to Israel, reported by SiouxFalls.Business and dated on the page. He met President Isaac Herzog, Speaker of the Knesset Amir Ohana and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar. His own statement, read and confirmed word for word: "South Dakota continues to be an economic leader – both nationally and internationally. Israel has been a key partner in our state's economic success, and I was honored to meet with the Israeli leaders to strengthen our relationship." The report also records the wreath-laying at Yad Vashem, at the section on the Mauthausen camp his father helped liberate, and a visit to the Gandel Rehabilitation Center at the Hadassah hospital on Mount Scopus to meet soldiers wounded since the start of the war. The state's own news portal carries an item on the mission at https://news.sd.gov/news?id=news_kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0044335 , which opens but serves its article body through a script the reader's page assembles, so the outlet's report is what is linked here.
This is the trip this record's summary referred to without a date, an itinerary or a source. It is now documented.
Related rhetoric and lobbying
[Position, 2026-05-11] One of twenty-seven Republican governors signing a statement marking Jewish American Heritage Month, which condemns antisemitism and religious bigotry and pledges to protect the right of Jewish people to live in peace and safety. His name is in the signatory list, read and confirmed. A collective statement, so none of its wording is attributed to him personally. A fresh search reports he signed a similar statement in May 2025; Montana's version of that release opens and carries the text.
No endorsement located on either side; this record's endorsement check resolved empty against the state portal.
[Position, read 2026-08-17] Campaign site: biography, accomplishments, news. The issues section is unbuilt, carrying four repetitions of placeholder text about the space program where policy would go, so it establishes nothing either way.
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
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