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 Morgan

Independent · Governor, Tennessee
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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.

No recorded votes on the bills we track. We found nothing in their own words about Israel, Gaza or the war.

Nothing from Morgan on U.S. weapons or money for the government of Israel, or on aid to Palestinians, could be found or opened. He has published no campaign platform for this run. One unverified claim about the conflict is on his research page.

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Deep Dive

Morgan is an independent candidate for governor of Tennessee, a Knoxville business owner and a former police officer and state trooper. He has never held federal office, so none of the congressional votes this site tracks are his.

The single sentence this record holds on the subject is not on this card. It says he opposes condemning Israel for its conduct in Gaza unless the attacks that began the war are addressed alongside it, and that he regards one-sided criticism as unfair. That is a view about how the conflict should be discussed rather than a statement about U.S. weapons, U.S. money or aid to Palestinians, and it would not have answered the question this site asks even if it had held up.

It does not hold up. We could not verify this claim against any source we could open. This record cites no source for the sentence, gives no date and quotes no words of his; the only outside page it holds is an item from the Knoxville Focus whose address returns nothing, in the live web or in an archive; and three separate searches, the last on August 19, 2026, have now failed to find any carrier for it. A candidate directory's summary of a questionnaire is not a substitute, because the wording that comes back on those forms is the form's own prompt. The sentence is set out on his research page as an unverified claim and it is used nowhere else. A candidate directory that tracks the race describes his campaign as a ballot-only candidacy with no detailed platform published, and he has no campaign website recorded.

If you want his position on what the United States sends, you are better placed to get it than we are: ask Morgan directly and send us the reply. It goes on this page in his own words.

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

  • Nothing located, in this record or in a fresh search of the open record in August 2026. The fresh search reached the same conclusion in its own words.

U.S. aid to Palestinians

  • Nothing located.

Characterization of the conflict

  • [UNVERIFIED CLAIM, undated and unsourced, research page only] The summary says he opposes condemning Israel for its actions in Gaza without also addressing the attacks that began the war, and characterizes such criticism as one-sided. No date, no occasion, no quoted words and no source URL. Carried in this record's own terms, unlinked. A later search did not find this statement either, which is worth knowing: two separate rounds have now failed to locate any carrier for it.
  • [Unconfirmed, reported as 2023-10-09] That search did report a short post of his expressing solidarity after the attacks. The address it cites belongs to a newspaper's own social media page rather than to him, and it returns an error to us. Nothing from it is used, and it would be dated inside the reaction window in any case.

Related rhetoric and lobbying

  • Source problem, stated plainly: the only outside page anywhere on this record is https://www.knoxfocus.com/archives/this-weeks-focus/charles-van-morgan-responds/ , a Knoxville Focus item whose address returns nothing. We tried it directly and through a web archive, and neither serves a copy. It is not linked on the card and nothing is attributed to it. It is filed on this record under an empty endorsements check, which is a filing error rather than a statement about its contents.

Safety and antisemitism (context)

  • Nothing located.

Race and status context

  • Independent candidate for governor of Tennessee, per Ballotpedia's race page and his Ballotpedia profile.
  • [Position, read 2026-08-18] A candidate directory tracking the race, Civoren, records that no detailed public campaign platform is available for this run and describes the campaign as a ballot-only candidacy. That is the directory's characterization, and it matches the absence of any campaign website on this record.
  • He did not serve in Congress during any of the tracked votes.

Also in this race

  1. ✗ Marsha Blackburn (Republican)
  2. – Jerri Green (Democrat)
  3. – Dave Seeman (Independent)
  4. – David Hatley (Independent)
  5. – Dean Brewer (Independent)
  6. – Eddie Lee Murphy (Independent)
  7. – Karl Smithson (Independent)
  8. – L. Webb Taylor (Independent)
  9. – Lauren Pinkston (Independent)
  10. – Misam Abidi (Independent)
  11. – Ray Brown (Independent)
  12. – Robert Vick (Independent)
  13. – Victor Scoggin (Independent)
  14. – Wendell Jackson (Independent)

All Tennessee 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.