Michael Cloud

Republican · U.S. House, Texas District 27

In April 2024 Cloud said the Senate should take up the Israel aid package the House had passed, with offsets. Two days later his office objected to the $9 billion in Gaza aid inside the next Israel bill. His campaign site says Congress should continue to support Israel.

Michael Cloud is a Republican who has represented Texas's 27th District, the fourteen-county Coastal Bend seat with offices in Corpus Christi and Victoria, since 2018. He sits on the House Appropriations Committee and belongs to the House Freedom Caucus. He faces Democrat Tanya Lloyd and write-in independent Wayne Raasch on November 3, 2026.

He supports United States military aid to the government of Israel and attaches two conditions to it: that the money be offset by cuts elsewhere, and that it not travel with aid to Ukraine. After the Iranian missile and drone attack of April 2024 he said the Senate and the president should immediately take up the Israel aid package the House had already passed, with offsets, and told them not to play Ukrainian politics with it. Two days later, explaining a vote against the procedural rule for the four foreign aid bills, his office said he had long supported military aid to Israel but that the same bill carried $9 billion in aid to Gaza with little oversight, and that he had offered an amendment giving Israel coordination control over aid entering Gaza which House leadership rejected. His newsletter of April 29, 2024 called the weekend approval of the combined package disappointing and named Ukraine and the southern border, not the Israel money, as the reasons. In May 2024 he went the other way on speed, writing that the administration should be blocked from further funding because it had ignored clear congressional direction to speedily deliver military aid to Israel, and in July 2024, after Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed Congress, he wrote that America must ensure that our ally has the means to defend its sovereignty and secure peace for its citizens. His campaign platform page, which is live now, says Congress should continue to support Israel in ways that promote the security of both countries. The recorded votes shown on this card are shown as they were cast; nothing in his newsroom or his newsletters mentions the 2026 amendments, and no statement from him on them was found.

On the war he puts the responsibility on Hamas and Iran. He called the October 7 attack brutal and unprovoked and described the Iranian strikes of April 2024 as unprecedented after years of waging war on the Israeli people through proxies, and on the first anniversary he wrote that Israel has every right to defend itself against terrorism and that he firmly stands with our ally. He described the Netanyahu address to Congress as a leader speaking boldly with moral clarity. In August 2025 he travelled to Israel and the West Bank on a privately sponsored congressional tour led by Speaker Mike Johnson; the Times of Israel names him at the dinner with Prime Minister Netanyahu in the settlement of Shiloh, and the Jewish News Syndicate names him in the delegation that met the Israeli foreign and defense ministers. He published nothing of his own about the trip. In October 2025 he wrote that President Trump's peace plan had delivered a remarkable and historic achievement on behalf of Israel, the Middle East and the world.

On American money to Palestinians his record runs one direction. He cosponsored the UNRWA Accountability and Transparency Act, which would bar United States funding for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees unless the State Department certifies a list of conditions, in July 2021 and again in February 2023; both releases list him by name. In July 2025 his newsletter listed among the highlights of the defense spending bill that it prohibits funding for UN agencies acting against U.S. interests, including UNRWA. In May 2024 he voted against the Antisemitism Awareness Act and explained that the bill's references to hate speech were too broad and could reach someone citing Biblical passages, while saying that what is happening towards our Jewish brothers and sisters is awful and should be dealt with. The full text of everything read for this card, including the material that is not on it, is on the research page.

Tracked votes: backed sending U.S. weapons or funding to the government of Israel in 6 of 6 recorded votes.

Research

Research on this card began on 2026-08-21 with a search for sources, whose results were treated as leads rather than as evidence. Every page cited below was opened and read on 2026-09-07 unless the entry says otherwise. His own newsroom and newsletter archive were searched term by term (Israel, Gaza, Hamas, Netanyahu, UNRWA, antisemitism, foreign aid, Iran, Middle East, Jewish, hostages, ceasefire, West Bank, Jerusalem, delegation) and every result was read. Bands: Position (2024-01-26 onward), Reaction window (2023-10-07 to 2024-01-25), Earlier record (before 2023-10-07). Cloud has represented TX-27 since June 2018, so his tracked votes appear as badges on this card and are not re-counted here.

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

U.S. aid to Palestinians

Characterization of the conflict

Related rhetoric and lobbying

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

The race

Not on the card, and why

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

Also in this race: Tanya Lloyd (Democrat) · All Texas candidates.

See the full record →

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 the interactive card for votes, funding and contact details.