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 A. Goldman

Republican · U.S. House, Texas District 12
✗Supported sending weapons or funding in 2 of 2 tracked votes

Interviewed in 2024, Goldman called for “unilateral, unconditional support for Israel” and said the United States should give the government of Israel “whatever means they need” against Hamas. He said U.S. humanitarian aid for Palestinians should be sent only if the government of Israel asks for it.

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Deep Dive

Goldman set out that position in May 2024, when he was a Texas state representative running for this seat. Speaking to Jewish Insider, he said the United States has “no right as a nation to tell Israel how they should run their war” and that it should give the government of Israel “whatever means they need” to go after everyone who is part of Hamas. Of the October 7 attack he said “what Hamas did is indefensible and so I’m all for the strongest response Israel is giving to them.” On humanitarian aid for Palestinians he said the United States should take its cues from the government of Israel and send it only if asked to. He said he did not yet have the foreign policy experience to say whether a two-state solution should be part of what follows the war.

His campaign site, read in September 2026, says he will always be “a strong and unequivocal voice in support of Israel” and that the United States must continue to stand by it while it works to dismantle Hamas. The same page says he supported legislation to increase defense spending in order to maintain production of the F-35, which is built in his district, and recounts signing the fuselage of the first F-35 delivered to Israel in December 2016.

Since taking his seat in January 2025 he has not returned to the question of U.S. weapons or money for the government of Israel in his own releases. What those releases carry instead is his work on the Abraham Accords, the 2020 agreements normalizing relations between Israel and several Arab states, of which he is one of four co-chairs of a bipartisan House caucus. In October 2025 those four co-chairs welcomed the Gaza ceasefire and hostage agreement, in November 2025 he introduced a resolution supporting Kazakhstan joining the Accords, and in June 2026 he introduced a bill directing the U.S. envoy for the Accords to expand them into Central Asia and the South Caucasus. He also traveled to Israel with a congressional delegation in 2025 and described the trip on a Republican Study Committee podcast marking the second anniversary of the October 7 attacks.

The rest of the record, including his work in the Texas legislature on Holocaust and antisemitism education and his 2025 statement supporting the revocation of student visas over campus protests, is on his research page.

The record

Supported sending weapons or funding in 2 of 2 tracked votes

Floor votes
H.Amdt. 55 to H.R. 4016 - strike $500M for Israeli Cooperative Programs2025-07-18 · Failed 6-422 (only 6 voted to cut)
✗ Voted No
voted against limiting it
H.R. 8595 - Massie amendment (Part A No. 8) to bar FY27 funds for Israel and cut $3.3B in Foreign Military Financing2026-07-15 · Failed 104-314
✗ Voted No
voted against limiting it
Bill sponsorship
H.R. 3565 - Block the Bombs ActWould bar transfer of 2,000-lb/BLU-109 bunker busters, JDAMs, 120mm tank rounds, and 155mm artillery shells to Israel. Does not affect Iron
Not sponsoringhas not backed this restriction bill
H.R. 1229 - United States-Israel Defense Partnership Act of 2025Formalizes/expands bilateral defense cooperation with Israel.
Co-sponsorbacks this bill to send more support
Notable actions

• Vote record imported from official House Clerk roll calls for H.R. 6126, H.R. 8034, and H.R. 8369. Other position fields remain under investigation.

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.

Voted to send weapons or funding in more than half of their recorded tracked votes. (Supported sending weapons or funding in 2 of 2 tracked votes.)

The money

$25K in lifetime support from the five lobbying groups we track

Lifetime support from the five lobbying groups we track
AIPAC PAC: $10,000 · Republican Jewish Coalition: $15,000
Support-only OpenFEC data (as of 2026-10-03). Opposition independent expenditures are excluded.
Who these lobbying groups are
AIPAC$10,000The American Israel Public Affairs Committee; its PAC backs candidates it sees as strengthening U.S. ties with the government of Israel, including continued U.S. military aid.Republican Jewish Coalition$15,000The Republican Jewish Coalition's PAC; it financially supports Republican candidates who reflect its priorities, including strong U.S. backing of the government of Israel.Direct contributions and independent expenditures supporting this candidate from the five lobbying groups we track, every cycle each has filed, through 2026. Excludes earmarked and conduit contributions.
Endorsed by AIPAC +1 more
AIPACThe American Israel Public Affairs Committee; its PAC backs candidates it sees as strengthening U.S. ties with the government of Israel, including continued U.S. military aid.Republican Jewish CoalitionThe Republican Jewish Coalition's PAC; it financially supports Republican candidates who reflect its priorities, including strong U.S. backing of the government of Israel.These endorsements come from groups that back sending U.S. weapons and funding to the government of Israel.

In their words

“What’s going on in Ukraine, what’s going on in Israel have major implications to not only their futures, but the future of our nation,”
Source ↗, 2024-05-07
“As your Congressman, I will always be a strong and unequivocal voice in support of Israel.”
Source ↗, 2026-09-07
“There is simply no room for ambivalence or wavering on where the United States stands in this matter – the United States must continue to stand by Israel in its fight against the sheer brutality and inhumanity of Hamas.”
Source ↗, 2026-09-07
“Thanks to the strong leadership of President Trump, Kazakhstan has joined the Abraham Accords – a significant step that will strengthen regional stability and bolster support for Israel among Arab states,”
Source ↗, 2025-11-25
Endorsements

AIPAC (2026 endorsement) · Republican Jewish Coalition (2026 endorsement)

Research log

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

Research for this card began on 2026-08-21, and every page cited below was opened and read on 2026-09-07 unless marked otherwise. His congressional newsroom was read in full, all 21 releases from January 3, 2025 to September 1, 2026, and his campaign site was read. Bands: Position (2024-01-26 onward), Reaction window (2023-10-07 to 2024-01-25), Earlier record (before 2023-10-07). Craig A. Goldman, a Republican, has represented Texas’s 12th district, which takes in part of Fort Worth, since January 2025; he served twelve years in the Texas House before that and won this seat in November 2024. This card replaces an older one-sentence summary; everything below was checked again from the sources.

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

  • [Position, 2024-05-07] A profile interview in Jewish Insider, a Jewish news outlet covering Congress, published while he was in a primary runoff for this seat. The reporter writes that he vowed “unilateral, unconditional support for Israel”, “adding that the U.S. should give Israel ”“whatever means they need” to “go after every single individual who’s part of Hamas.” He also said the United States has “no right as a nation to tell Israel how they should run their war.” On Iran, which is not this card’s question, he said the United States needs to “make it very clear that an attack on Israel is an attack on the United States and we’ll do anything and everything to defend our friends.” On the war: “They certainly aren’t warmongers there. No one asked for this situation to happen… but what Hamas did is indefensible and so I’m all for the strongest response Israel is giving to them.” On what follows the war, he said he hoped Palestinians in Gaza would “live in peace and raise their families and educate their children and live normal lives” but that he did not have the foreign policy expertise yet to evaluate what that looks like, including whether a two-state solution should be part of it. The article also reports him saying he was at the air base in Israel when the country received its first F-35, an aircraft built in his district, and that his signature is on the fuselage.
  • [Position, read 2026-09-07] His campaign site’s issues page. Under “Standing by Israel”: “As your Congressman, I will always be a strong and unequivocal voice in support of Israel.” And: “There is simply no room for ambivalence or wavering on where the United States stands in this matter – the United States must continue to stand by Israel in its fight against the sheer brutality and inhumanity of Hamas.” Under national security the page says “Craig proudly supported legislation to increase defense spending to maintain production of the F-35” and recounts: “In December of 2016, I was there when the first F-35 was delivered to Israel, an aircraft manufactured here in the heart of the district.” A live issues page carries no date of its own, so it is recorded on the date we read it.
  • [Position, 2025 and 2026] Nothing located in his own congressional releases on U.S. weapons or money for the government of Israel. All 21 press releases from his swearing in on January 3, 2025 to September 1, 2026 were read: the Israel-related ones are the Abraham Accords items listed below, and the rest cover energy regulation, taxes, Medicaid, broadband, data privacy and district matters.

U.S. aid to Palestinians

  • [Position, 2024-05-07] In the same interview, the reporter writes that “Goldman said that the U.S. should take its cues from Israel on providing humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, and only do so if Israel asks it to.” This is the only statement located on U.S. aid to Palestinians at any date.
  • [Position, 2025-10-09] The Abraham Accords Caucus statement below welcomes an agreement to “surge aid into Gaza”, but it is a joint statement of four co-chairs and supports only that collective wording.

Characterization of the conflict

  • [Position, 2025-10-09] A joint statement by the four co-chairs of the bipartisan Abraham Accords Caucus, Reps. Brad Schneider, Ann Wagner, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Goldman, welcoming the Gaza peace deal: “This devastating war began just over two years ago when Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, brutally slaughtered nearly 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, including Americans.” A joint statement, so it carries only the collective wording and is not sharpened for one signer.
  • [Position, 2025-10-07] A Republican Study Committee release on a podcast episode with Rep. Randy Fine marking the second anniversary of the October 7 attacks, which says the two members discussed a recent trip to Israel where they met soldiers and visited the site of the attacks. Goldman, quoted in the release: “What almost everybody in the world wants is peace. They want to live in peace. They want to raise their children in peace, and they want their countries to have peace.” The Republican Study Committee is a caucus of House Republicans.
  • [Reaction window, 2023-10-09] As a Texas state representative he introduced House Resolution 10, expressing Texas support for Israel after the October 7 attacks. State Senator Phil King’s account of the same resolution, published November 2, 2023, says he presented the identical Senate resolution and that “my colleague, Rep. Craig Goldman, introduced the same resolution in the Texas House, where it was also passed unanimously.” The LegiScan page for the resolution, https://legiscan.com/TX/bill/HR10/2023/X3 , could not be opened. His own campaign site also refers to authoring it. Not on the card summary; recorded here.
  • [Position, read 2026-09-07] His campaign site describes the October 2023 attack and says the resolution recognized Israel’s right “to act decisively and unilaterally in self-defense to protect its citizens”. The underlying act is from October 2023, so it is recorded here rather than on the card.

Related rhetoric and lobbying

Safety and antisemitism (context, not an answer to what the United States sends)

  • [Position, 2024-05-07] In the Jewish Insider interview: “I think most antisemitism is, I would hope, is a just a lack of education and not having any knowledge why people are antisemitic,” and “We need to do a better job of educating our young on why antisemitism exists and why it shouldn’t.” He pointed to the Texas Holocaust, Genocide and Antisemitism Advisory Commission as a possible national model.
  • [Earlier record, 2021] He authored Texas House Bill 3257, which established that commission. State Senator Phil King’s post records that he himself authored HB 3257 in 2021; the bill’s authorship is attributed to King there, not to Goldman, and a reported claim attributed it to Goldman. The claim is not used on the card.
  • [Position, 2025-03-11] A Washington Reporter article, republished on Rep. Pat Harrigan’s congressional site, collecting members’ comments on revoking the visas of foreign students who support Hamas. Goldman is quoted saying he does not think the State Department is out of bounds in revoking visas from people who are breaking the law, and that coming to study in the United States is a privilege that does not license crime, support for terrorism, promotion of antisemitism or intimidation of American students. His quoted sentence carries a dash inside it, so it is reported here rather than quoted whole.

Not on the card, and why

  • The October 2023 Texas resolution falls in the weeks this site records here rather than on cards, and the LegiScan page for it could not be opened.
  • The Abraham Accords work, the Kazakhstan resolution and the Jewish Refugee Day resolution: normalization diplomacy and commemoration, not U.S. weapons or money for the government of Israel.
  • The Iran passages in the 2024 interview and the 2026 bill release: a different question from what the United States sends, and kept off the front.
  • The Republican Jewish Coalition endorsement and the Forward’s description of his fundraising: other people speaking about him.
  • The AIPAC video: only its title, channel, date and description were read, so nothing said in the video is used.
  • The Texas Holocaust, Genocide and Antisemitism Advisory Commission bill: the source that mentions it credits its authorship to State Senator Phil King, not to Goldman, so the authorship claim is not made.
  • The antisemitism and campus-visa material is context and does not answer what the United States sends.
  • The recorded vote rows and the funding total on this record: the card does not restate them in prose.

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

  • https://jewishinsider.com/2024/05/craig-goldman-jewish-republican-house-texas-12th-congressional-district/ (opened; 2026-09-07; published 2024-05-07)
  • https://www.craiggoldman.org/issues/ (opened; 2026-09-07; live issues page, no date of its own)
  • https://craiggoldman.house.gov/media/press-releases (opened; 2026-09-07; all 21 releases, January 2025 to September 2026)
  • https://craiggoldman.house.gov/media/press-releases/abraham-accords-caucus-welcomes-middle-east-peace-deal (opened; 2026-09-07; dated October 9, 2025)
  • https://craiggoldman.house.gov/media/press-releases/goldman-wagner-huizenga-lawler-wilson-and-gottheimer-introduce-resolution (opened; 2026-09-07; dated November 25, 2025)
  • https://craiggoldman.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-goldman-introduces-bill-support-abraham-accords-expansion (opened; 2026-09-07; dated June 16, 2026)
  • https://rsc-pfluger.house.gov/media/press-releases/never-forget-fine-and-goldman-commemorate-second-anniversary-october-7th (opened; 2026-09-07; dated October 7, 2025)
  • https://www.rjchq.org/rjc_endorses_craig_goldman_in_tx_12 (opened; 2026-09-07; undated endorsement page)
  • https://forward.com/fast-forward/671932/craig-goldman-jewish-texas-3rd-republican-congress/ (opened; 2026-09-07; published November 6, 2024)
  • https://forward.com/fast-forward/785977/bipartisan-bill-in-congress-would-create-jewish-refugee-day/ (opened; 2026-09-07; published November 25, 2025)
  • https://www.philking.com/2023/11/02/emergency-meeting-to-combat-growing-antisemitism-support-israel/ (opened; 2026-09-07; published November 2, 2023)
  • https://harrigan.house.gov/media/in-the-news/washington-reporter-exclusive-free-him-more-deport-him-congress-backs-trump (opened; 2026-09-07; dated March 11, 2025)
  • https://www.youtube.com/shorts/EVRg38AjHog (opened; 2026-09-07; uploaded August 6, 2025; title, channel and description read, video not watched)
  • https://www.timesofisrael.com/bipartisan-congressional-bill-aims-to-create-jewish-refugee-day/ (opened on a second attempt; 2026-09-07; published November 25, 2025)
  • https://legiscan.com/TX/bill/HR10/2023/X3 (could not open; 2026-09-07)
  • This is a record of what was checked on 2026-09-07, not a claim that no other statement exists.

Also in this race

  1. ? Angela Rodriguez Prilliman (Democrat)

All Texas 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.