But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and funding for the government of Israel. How we check

Carmela Conroy

Democrat · U.S. House, Washington District 5
✓From their own words
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. In their own words on July 5, 2026.

Conroy says American aid to the government of Israel should be halted, because that support has become a shield for what she calls “ethnic cleansing and war crimes”. In 2024 she stopped short of withholding weapons, fearing that would destabilize the region.

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Deep Dive

Carmela Conroy is a retired Foreign Service officer. She served the State Department from 1996 to 2020, with postings in Japan, Norway, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and was a Spokane County deputy prosecutor before that. She has held no elected office. She and Michael Baumgartner met in this race in 2024, which he won. Washington runs a top-two primary, and on August 4, 2026 the two of them advanced out of a field of twelve, with 47.4 percent and 18.9 percent of the vote. The filing deadline was May 8, 2026 and the general election is November 3, 2026.

Her position now is that the money should stop. At a ten-candidate forum at Spokane’s Central Library on July 5, 2026 she said the United States must “stop providing support to a government in Israel that is violating its own laws”, and called for American recognition of a Palestinian state. The Spokesman-Review, which ran the forum, grouped her with the candidates who wanted military aid to the government of Israel ended outright rather than made conditional.

She said it again at the first debate of the general election, at the Bing Crosby Theater in Spokane on September 9, 2026. The paper reports that she supports recognition of a Palestinian state and said aid to Israel should be halted, and that what changed her mind was “facts on the ground”: American support, she now believes, has become a “shield” allowing the government of Israel to carry out “ethnic cleansing and war crimes”. She will not use the word genocide, and gave a diplomat’s reason for it: using it means laying the verbal groundwork for an invasion and for war crimes trials, which is why she avoids it, though she says she understands why campaigners reach for it.

Two years ago she would not go that far, and the change is on the record. Asked in August 2024 whether she would under any circumstances support conditions on further military aid to the government of Israel, she said she was troubled by possible war crimes committed under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but worried that removing America’s security umbrella from Israel would destabilize the Middle East, and that she would back whatever the administration of the day decided, sending or withholding the aid. Six weeks earlier the same paper reported that most of the Democrats in that primary field would withhold weapons as leverage and that she stopped short of that position. In the candidate survey she filed in June 2024 she listed among the costs of congressional deadlock that “our partners in Israel and Ukraine lack the means to defend themselves”.

On American aid to Palestinians she has said nothing our research could find. What she asks for is an end to what the United States sends the government of Israel, and recognition of a Palestinian state; humanitarian funding is not something she has addressed. Her campaign’s priorities page names no country in this conflict, and its nearest line asks Congress to defund military operations that break American law. Her campaign statement on the strikes on Iran could not be read here, and its address, with everything else our research found, is on her research page.

The money

Checked the five lobbying groups we track; no direct 2026 support found

2026 support from the five lobbying groups we track
Nothing recorded (as of 2026-09-27) from the five lobbying groups we track; earlier cycles and earmarked donations not yet tracked.
Support-only OpenFEC data. Opposition independent expenditures are excluded.

In their words

“stop providing support to a government in Israel that is violating its own laws.”
Source ↗, 2026-07-05
“ethnic cleansing and war crimes.”
Source ↗, 2026-09-09
“If I go into a room as a member of a national government and use the word ‘genocide,’ that means that I am laying the verbal groundwork for an invasion, a review and change, war crimes trials, and executions. That is the import of that specific word, and that’s why I personally avoid using it,”
Source ↗, 2026-09-09
“our partners in Israel and Ukraine lack the means to defend themselves”
Source ↗, 2024-06-17

Research log

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

Every page named below was opened and read on 2026-09-19 unless the entry says otherwise. Bands: Position (2024-01-26 onward), Reaction window (2023-10-07 to 2024-01-25), Earlier record (before 2023-10-07), Undated. She has never served in Congress, so there are no roll calls on this record, and the committees this site tracks record no funding on it. Nothing dated between October 7, 2023 and January 25, 2024 was found for her anywhere; she announced her first campaign and her public record on this subject begins in 2024.

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

  • [Position, 2026-09-09] The Spokesman-Review, “Baumgartner and Conroy face off on Iran, Israel and tariffs at Spokesman debate”, by Amanda Sullender, published September 9, 2026 and updated September 11. The debate was held on the Wednesday at the Bing Crosby Theater in Spokane, co-sponsored by the paper and KSPS and moderated by Emry Dinman. The paragraphs about her, in full: “In her previous campaign in 2024, Conroy argued against recognizing a Palestinian state. Two years later, she supports such recognition from the United States and said aid to Israel should be halted. The change in position was caused by changing ‘facts on the ground,’ she said. When the conflict first broke out in 2023, she feared that American aid to Israel was needed to prevent a broader conflict in the Middle East. As the conflict continued, she believes the United States’ support has become a ‘shield’ allowing Israel to enact ‘ethnic cleansing and war crimes.’ Conroy refused to call Israeli actions in the region a ‘genocide,’ citing her experience as a diplomat. ‘If I go into a room as a member of a national government and use the word “genocide,” that means that I am laying the verbal groundwork for an invasion, a review and change, war crimes trials, and executions. That is the import of that specific word, and that’s why I personally avoid using it,’ she said. Despite her reluctance, Conroy ‘understands’ why activists may want to use the term.” The phrase “a review and change” is printed that way in the report and is reproduced rather than repaired. Everything outside the quotation marks is the reporter’s summary.
  • [Position, 2026-07-05] The Spokesman-Review's report of the ten-candidate forum at Spokane's Central Library, by Amanda Sullender, published July 5, 2026 and updated July 6. The forum was sponsored by the paper's Northwest Passages series and moderated by Emry Dinman; ten of the twelve candidates appeared. Under the heading “Israel military” the report says that candidates “uniformly criticized Israel's conduct in Gaza against Palestinian civilians but disagreed whether America should continue sending military aid to the country”, that some argued for conditioning the aid on human rights, and that “Candidates like Danimus, Mavalwalla and Conroy argued the U.S. should unilaterally end military aid to Israel.” Her own words there: “Conroy said the United States must ‘stop providing support to a government in Israel that is violating its own laws.’ She also called for the recognition of a Palestinian state.” WRONG-PERSON NOTE: this is a ten-candidate page. The lines about issuing an ultimatum, about leverage, about putting strings on the funds, about Israel no longer being a partner and about genocide belong to David Womack, Nate Powell, Michael McGarr, Ann Marie Danimus and Bajun Mavalwalla, not to her, and none of them is used here.
  • [Position, 2024-08-30] The Spokesman-Review's side-by-side issue guide for the 2024 general election, by Emry Dinman. To the question “Would you, under any circumstances, support conditions on further military aid to Israel?” her entry reads in full: “Conroy said she is troubled by possible war crimes being committed under the watch of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but worries that removing America's security umbrella from Israel would destabilize the Middle East. She ultimately said she would support the diplomatic position of the presidential administration at the time, including sending or withholding aid.” All of it is the reporter's summary; the guide quotes her not at all on this question.
  • [Position, 2024-07-14] The Spokesman-Review, “On foreign policy, congressional candidates don't all split on party lines – except on Israel”, by Emry Dinman, published Sunday, July 14, 2024, on the eleven candidates then running. The sentences about her: “Most of the Democratic candidates said they'd be willing to withhold weapons from Israel as leverage to change their conduct. Dr. Bernadine Bank and former diplomat Carmela Conroy stopped short of this position, with Bank voicing concern that withholding aid would not effectively change that nation's behavior. Conroy worried that disrupting the American security umbrella in Israel would destabilize the Middle East, though she said she believed Israel was possibly committing war crimes.” Reporter's summary again, with no quotation from her. Our research printed “security umbrella in Israel would destabilize the Middle East” inside quotation marks; the page does not quote her there, and the card does not either.
  • [Position, 2024-06-17] Her Ballotpedia candidate survey, recorded on that page as submitted on June 17, 2024. Listing the costs of congressional deadlock over a budget she wrote: “As a result, farm families struggle without the predictability of an Agricultural Bill; children are going to bed hungry; our partners in Israel and Ukraine lack the means to defend themselves.” That is her own writing and it is the earliest thing of hers located on this subject. She has not completed the 2026 survey.
  • [Position, read 2026-09-19] Her iVoterGuide profile for this general election carries a questionnaire of 32 items including “Is the United States' relationship with Israel important, and if so why?” Her answer to every one of the 32, and to every biography prompt on the page, is “Did not answer”. A form nobody filled in is a fact about the form, so nothing is drawn from it. Her profile for the 2024 cycle is the same.
  • [Reaction window] Nothing located. She was not a candidate in those weeks and nothing of hers dated between October 7, 2023 and January 25, 2024 was found anywhere. The September 2026 report above describes what she thought when the war began; that is a 2026 statement about her own earlier reasoning, and it is her 2024 statements above that document the position she held then.

U.S. aid to Palestinians

  • Nothing located at any date. No statement of hers was found on humanitarian assistance to Gaza, on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or on any appropriation for Palestinian civilians. What she has called for is recognition of a Palestinian state and an end to American support for the government of Israel, which are different questions.
  • [Position, 2024-08-30] The nearest adjacent thing, and it is about a different country: asked in the same 2024 issue guide about the crisis in Sudan, “Conroy said the U.S. should focus on diplomatic and humanitarian efforts in the region, particularly by providing support to United Nations agencies.” Recorded because it is the only place she speaks about American humanitarian funding at all.

Characterization of the conflict

  • [Position, 2026-09-09] From the debate report: American support has become a “shield” allowing Israel to enact “ethnic cleansing and war crimes”; she refuses the word “genocide”, and her reason is quoted in full above; she “understands” why activists use it.
  • [Position, 2026-07-05] From the forum report: a government in Israel “that is violating its own laws”, and support for recognition of a Palestinian state. The report's own framing is that every candidate present criticized the conduct of the war in Gaza.
  • [Position, 2024-07-14 and 2024-08-30] In 2024 the same paper twice recorded her as saying she believed the government of Israel was possibly committing war crimes, under Prime Minister Netanyahu's watch. July 14, 2024 and August 30, 2024.

Related rhetoric and lobbying

  • [Undated, could not be read] Our research reports that on March 3, 2026 the campaign's Facebook page answered a voter who asked whether she would accept support or funding from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and that the answer was no, adding that none had been offered. Our research itself marked this uncorroborated. The campaign's Facebook page returns an error here and the exchange could not be read, so nothing is claimed from it. Two things about it would keep it out of the card summary even if it opened: a reply to a voter is not published as a quotation, and a pledge to refuse an organization's money is not a position on weapons or funding. The page address is https://www.facebook.com/CarmelaConroyforCongress/ . The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is a lobbying organization that works to strengthen the United States relationship with the government of Israel and, since 2021, runs political committees that give directly to candidates.
  • No political committee money that this site tracks is recorded on this record.

Safety and antisemitism (context, not a position on what America sends)

  • Nothing located at any date, which is also what our research found.

What her campaign site and her own pages say

  • [Position, read 2026-09-19] Her priorities page. Four headings: an economy that works for Eastern Washington, safe communities and a secure nation, dignity and care for all, and service and accountability. A case-insensitive search of the whole page for israel, gaza, palestin, hamas, antisemit, jewish, aipac, unrwa, foreign aid and middle east returns nothing. Its nearest line is “Defund aggressive and otherwise illegal military operations, support, and planning”, followed by a call to assess the damage to the diplomatic, consular and intelligence agencies and to restore congressionally required publications including the Human Rights Report. Another reads: “Hold senior members of the executive branch accountable for any military action that violated or remains in violation of the laws of the United States, including our treaty commitments to intergovernmental bodies and to our allies.” Neither names a country. Her home page at https://conroy4congress.com/ opens and carries nothing on the subject.
  • [Position, read 2026-09-19] Ballotpedia's page for her reproduces that same platform text as of July 22, 2026, and records that she has not completed its 2026 candidate survey. Its only mention of Israel anywhere is the sentence from her 2024 survey quoted above.
  • [Read 2026-09-19] Her X account at https://x.com/CarmelaConroy opens far enough to show it is hers, headed “Carmela Conroy, Congressional Candidate WA-05 (@CarmelaConroy) on X”; the posts need a signed-in reader and none is used. The Spokesman-Review's own candidate page for her carries her biography and her campaign channels and no issue answers on this subject.

The race

  • [Read 2026-09-19] Ballotpedia's page for this election: “Incumbent Michael Baumgartner and Carmela Conroy are running in the general election for U.S. House Washington District 5 on November 3, 2026.” Washington runs a top-two primary; on August 4, 2026 Baumgartner took 95,463 votes and 47.4 percent and Conroy 38,154 and 18.9 percent, in a field of twelve, and the two advanced. The filing deadline was May 8, 2026. The same page records that Baumgartner defeated Conroy in the general election of November 5, 2024, 60.6 percent to 39.3. The record and Ballotpedia give the same two-candidate field for November.
  • [Position, 2024-10-21] The Spokesman-Review's report of their second 2024 debate, in Pullman, hosted by KHQ, Washington State University and the Foley Institute. It lists the war as one of the subjects that had been covered at earlier debates and carries no new answer from her on it.
  • Michael Baumgartner's record is written separately, and nothing from his side of either debate is used here.

Places that could not be read, so nothing is claimed from them

  • https://www.facebook.com/CarmelaConroyforCongress/posts/for-immediate-releasecarmela-conroy-february-28-2026spokane-washeastern-washingt/122236998086118299/ , the campaign's statement of February 28, 2026 on the strikes on Iranian targets, cited in our research. Facebook returns an error to a desktop browser identity and a rendering retrieval returns only the post's headline fragment. Its reported contents are about Iran, which is a different question, so nothing turns on it, but the address is printed here.
  • https://www.facebook.com/CarmelaConroyforCongress/posts/the-conroy-for-congress-campaign-hq-in-spokane-is-officially-open-with-office-ho/122237164700118299/ and https://www.facebook.com/CarmelaConroyforCongress/ , the campaign's other Facebook addresses, same error.
  • https://x.com/CarmelaConroy , whose profile opens and whose posts do not.
  • https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/foreign-policy-clash-in-head-to-head-debate-spokane-news/id1850562118?i=1000788816518&l=vi , an episode of a two-minute daily news podcast titled “Foreign Policy Clash in Head-to-Head Debate | Spokane News”, dated September 10, 2026, which our research cited for the September 9 debate. It is audio and was not listened to. The debate is read instead at the newspaper that co-sponsored it.
  • https://www.grandcouleevoices.com/Washington/News , a news listing page our research cited for the same debate. It is a listing rather than an article and carries nothing attributable.

Not on the card, and why

  • Everything she has said about the war in Iran, including her line at the September 9, 2026 debate that “If it walks like a duck, if it talks like a duck, it's a duck. We are at war, ladies and gentlemen, whether we like it or not”, and her campaign's February 2026 statement on the strikes. Iran is a different question from what the United States sends to the government of Israel, and it does not appear on a card front.
  • Her views on Ukraine, Taiwan, China and Sudan, all recorded in the 2024 issue guide. Different questions.
  • The reported Facebook answer about the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. It could not be read; a reply to a voter is not published as a quotation; and a money-refusal pledge is not a position on weapons or funding. Its address is on this page.
  • The blank answers on her iVoterGuide profiles. She answered nothing at all on those forms.
  • The answers other candidates gave at the July 2026 forum, including the calls for an ultimatum, for conditions, and the one use of the word genocide. Those belong to David Womack, Nate Powell, Michael McGarr, Richard Freudenberg, Ann Marie Danimus, Bajun Mavalwalla and Matthew Hayes.
  • Michael Baumgartner's answers at both debates. No one else's record is narrated on this card.
  • ericconroy.com, a page our research listed among its sources. It belongs to Eric Conroy, a candidate in Ohio, and is a different person.

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

  • https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2026/sep/09/baumgartner-and-conroy-face-off-on-iran-israel-and/ (opened; 2026-09-19; published 2026-09-09, updated 2026-09-11)
  • https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2026/jul/05/congressional-candidates-debate-immigration-electa/ (opened; 2026-09-19; published 2026-07-05, updated 2026-07-06)
  • https://www.spokesman.com/grids/2024/aug/30/congress-general-election-issues/ (opened; 2026-09-19; published 2024-08-30)
  • https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2024/jul/14/on-foreign-policy-congressional-candidates-dont-al/ (opened; 2026-09-19; published 2024-07-14)
  • https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2024/oct/21/baumgartner-conroy-meet-again-on-the-debate-stage-/ (opened; 2026-09-19; published 2024-10-21)
  • https://www.spokesman.com/elections/2026/washington-primary-election-aug-4/candidates/carmela-conroy/ (opened; 2026-09-19)
  • https://ballotpedia.org/Carmela_Conroy (opened; 2026-09-19; survey submitted 2024-06-17)
  • https://ballotpedia.org/Washington%27s_5th_Congressional_District_election,_2026 (opened; 2026-09-19)
  • https://conroy4congress.com/priorities/ (opened; 2026-09-19)
  • https://conroy4congress.com/ (opened; 2026-09-19)
  • https://ivoterguide.com/candidate/79617/race/28767/election/1435 and https://ivoterguide.com/candidate/79617/race/2692/election/1118?culture=en-us (opened; 2026-09-19)
  • https://x.com/CarmelaConroy (the profile opened, the posts did not; 2026-09-19)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmela_Conroy (opened; 2026-09-19; an encyclopedia entry, used for nothing)
  • https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/foreign-policy-clash-in-head-to-head-debate-spokane-news/id1850562118?i=1000788816518&l=vi (opened, but it is audio and was not listened to; 2026-09-19)
  • https://www.grandcouleevoices.com/Washington/News (opened; 2026-09-19; a listing page carrying nothing attributable)
  • https://www.facebook.com/CarmelaConroyforCongress/posts/for-immediate-releasecarmela-conroy-february-28-2026spokane-washeastern-washingt/122236998086118299/ (could not open; 2026-09-19)
  • https://www.facebook.com/CarmelaConroyforCongress/posts/the-conroy-for-congress-campaign-hq-in-spokane-is-officially-open-with-office-ho/122237164700118299/ (could not open; 2026-09-19)
  • https://www.facebook.com/CarmelaConroyforCongress/ (could not open; 2026-09-19)
  • https://ericconroy.com/issues/national-defense/ (a different person's site; not used; 2026-09-19)
  • This is a record of what was checked on 2026-09-19, not a claim that no other statement exists.

Also in this race

  1. ✗ Michael Baumgartner (Republican)

All Washington 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.