Lance Gooden

Republican · U.S. House, Texas District 5

In July 2024 Gooden wrote that the United States will continue to stand with Israel. A year later he said standing with Israel also means rejecting the starvation of children in Gaza, and that aid must enter. His bill would end U.S. funding for the UN's Palestinian refugee agency.

Lance Gooden is a Republican who has represented Texas's 5th District, the East Texas seat that runs from the edge of Dallas out to Athens and Palestine, since January 3, 2019. He sits on the House Judiciary Committee and the House Armed Services Committee. He faces Democrat Chelsey Hockett on November 3, 2026.

What he says about American support for the government of Israel is broad rather than specific about weapons or dollars. Welcoming Prime Minister Netanyahu to Congress in July 2024, he wrote that the United States will continue to stand with Israel and offer strong support to our closest ally in the Middle East. After the House passed the bill sanctioning International Criminal Court officials in January 2025, under a heading reading Supporting Our Ally Israel, he wrote that he would continue supporting our ally Israel as they work to root out terrorism in Gaza and Lebanon. In August 2024 he was an original cosponsor of the Stand with Israel Act, which would withhold United States funding from any United Nations agency that restricts or downgrades Israel's participation. During the April 2024 fight over the four foreign aid bills he went on Fox Business to discuss the proposed Israel aid package and wrote in his newsletter that he refused to spend another tax dollar on Ukraine until the border was secured; the objection he put in writing is to the Ukraine money, not the Israel money. The recorded votes on this card are shown as they were cast. Nothing in his press releases, his newsletters or his campaign site mentions the 2026 amendments, and no statement from him on them was found.

In the summer of 2025 he said something his party's other Texas members did not. As the argument over hunger in Gaza reached Congress, the Jerusalem Post reported him saying that standing with Israel means eliminating every Hamas terrorist and also means rejecting the killing and starvation of children in Gaza, that aid must be allowed to enter, and that ending the hunger crisis would strip Hamas of its ability to use children as pawns. Anadolu Agency reported the same words and dates them to a post he made on July 28, 2025. The post itself is on a platform that cannot be read here; both news organizations were read directly, and the words above are theirs as printed.

On American money to Palestinians his record is long and runs one way. He has introduced the No Tax Dollars for the United Nation's Immigration Invasion Act in three Congresses, in December 2021, in January 2023 and in March 2025; each version would halt State Department contributions to three bodies, one of them the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the agency that runs schools, clinics and food distribution for registered Palestinian refugees. He also cosponsored Rep. Chip Roy's UNRWA Accountability and Transparency Act, which would bar United States funding for the same agency unless the State Department certifies a list of conditions. Going further back, in May 2021 he said Democrats would rather defend radical Islamic terrorists in Palestine than support our allies in Israel, and in May 2020 he was one of four members who introduced a bill authorizing a United States and Israel medical research partnership. His cosponsorships on antisemitism, his remarks about Iran, and the rest of what was read are 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 site was read in full for this card: all 216 press releases listed in his newsroom, from 2019 to August 2026, and all 145 newsletters listed in his newsletter archive, from 2021 to August 2026, were opened and searched. Bands: Position (2024-01-26 onward), Reaction window (2023-10-07 to 2024-01-25), Earlier record (before 2023-10-07). Gooden has represented TX-05 since January 3, 2019, 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: Chelsey Hockett (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.