Spencer Meline

Deep Dive

Spencer Meline is the Republican nominee in Washington's 8th District. He is a small business owner, born and raised in Edmonds, who built his businesses in Leavenworth and now lives in Cashmere, and he and his wife homeschool their four children. He has held no office. He placed second in Washington's top-two primary on August 4, 2026, behind the sitting representative Kim Schrier and ahead of three other Republicans and a second Democrat, and the two of them are on the ballot on November 3, 2026.

On what the United States should send this is close to an empty record, and the one place he was asked about it is a voter guide. Its questionnaire asked whether the relationship with Israel is important and why, and his whole answer is that Israel is America's strongest and most reliable ally in the Middle East, the only true democracy in the region and a vital strategic partner against terrorism and against threats from Iran and the Chinese Communist Party. It is an answer about the alliance. Nothing in it is about weapons, about money, about conditions on either, or about aid to Palestinians, and the form did not ask him.

The same questionnaire reaches foreign spending once, without naming a country. Asked for his priorities for eliminating government waste, he put third ending wasteful spending on foreign nations and on nation-building projects that do not directly serve vital American national security interests. Asked to choose among four descriptions of American foreign policy he picked the one saying the country has become too involved in others' policies, and added that America must put "America First" and should engage militarily only when vital national interests or direct threats to its security are at stake. No country is named in either answer, so neither says what the United States should send to the government of Israel or to Palestinians.

Nothing else of his reaches the subject. His campaign site sets out five priorities, small business, the cost of living, safe communities, public lands and immigration, and mentions no country at all. He answered a second candidate questionnaire in April 2026 at length, on small business, household costs and public lands, and it does not reach this question either. An empty record carries no implication either way. You are better placed to change this than we are. Ask Meline directly, or at a candidate forum, and send us the reply: it goes on this page in his own words, which is worth more than anything we could write about him.

The money

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

In their words

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. His campaign site was read in full, his voter-guide questionnaire was read answer by answer under his own heading, and his second candidate questionnaire and the quoted copy of his campaign platform were read on the same page as each other. Bands: Position (2024-01-26 onward), Reaction window (2023-10-07 to 2024-01-25), Earlier record (before 2023-10-07), Undated. He has never held federal office, so none of the congressional votes this site tracks are his, and no funding from the committees this site tracks is recorded on this record.

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

• Nothing located, at any date. No statement by him about arms transfers, weapons shipments, Foreign Military Financing, the memorandum of understanding, security assistance, a dollar figure, a condition on aid, or any bill or amendment on those subjects appears on his campaign site, in either questionnaire he completed, or in any report about his campaign read for this card.
• [Position, the page is undated and was read 2026-09-19] The nearest he comes, and it names no country. His iVoterGuide questionnaire asks for his top priorities to eliminate government waste, and the second of the three he gives reads: “Eliminate wasteful spending on foreign nations and nation-building projects that do not directly serve vital U.S. national security interests.” The other two are about fraud in federal payments and about redundant agencies. No country, no program and no form of aid is named, so nothing is drawn from it about what the United States should send to any particular government.
• [Position, the page is undated and was read 2026-09-19] On the same form, asked which of four views of American foreign policy most resembles his, he chose: “C) The United States has become too involved in others' policies and should remain focused on issues regarding our own sovereignty unless in imminent danger.” His own comment on that answer: “America must put “America First.” We should only engage militarily when vital national interests or direct threats to our security are at stake.” The page reproduces the curly quotation marks around America First inside his answer; they are his.

U.S. aid to Palestinians

• Nothing located, at any date. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, humanitarian funding for Gaza and the aid pipeline appear nowhere in anything of his that was read, and neither questionnaire asks about them.

Characterization of the conflict

• Nothing located, at any date. He has not been found using the words genocide, apartheid, self-defense or terrorism about the war in Gaza, and nothing was found from him about Gaza, Hamas, hostages, Palestinian statehood, a two-state framework or territorial boundaries. The words Gaza, Palestinian and Hamas appear nowhere on his campaign site, in his iVoterGuide answers or in his Ballotpedia answers.
• [Position, the page is undated and was read 2026-09-19] The one adjacent answer on the same form is to the statement “Islamic terrorism is a threat to the United States' national security”, against which he is recorded as “Strongly Agree” with no comment.

Related rhetoric and lobbying

• [Position, the page is undated and was read 2026-09-19] The iVoterGuide questionnaire puts one question on this subject: “Is the United States' relationship with Israel important, and if so why?” His whole answer reads: “Israel is America’s strongest and most reliable ally in the Middle East. It is the only true democracy in the region, and serves as a vital strategic partner against terrorism and threats from Iran and the Chinese Communist Party”. The answer has no closing full stop on the page. It is a statement about the alliance and says nothing about what the United States should send. The guide is published by iVoterGuide, an organization that surveys candidates and rates them for conservative voters; it records his overall rating as Conservative and lists endorsements from the King County and Snohomish County Republican parties.
• Nothing located from him naming the American Israel Public Affairs Committee or any other advocacy organization on this subject, and no money connected to any of them is recorded on this record.
• The questionnaire test is met in his favor. He answered nearly every question on the iVoterGuide form, in most cases with a written comment of his own beyond the multiple choice, declining only two of about thirty, so his answers are his own choices rather than a wall of blanks. What he did not do was volunteer anything about weapons, money or aid, and the form never asked.

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

• Nothing located, at any date. He has published no statement about antisemitism or about the safety of any religious community. His questionnaire answer describing his own beliefs is about his Christian faith and his family.

What the campaign site and his own pages say

• [Undated; read 2026-09-19] His campaign site has three pages: the home page, Vision and Priorities and a volunteer and contact page. The priorities page sets out five headings: Strong Small Businesses, Lower Cost of Living, Safe Communities, Responsible Stewardship of Public Lands, and Smart and Secure Immigration. A case-insensitive search of the site for israel, gaza, palestin, hamas, antisemit, jewish, aipac, foreign aid, foreign policy, military aid, weapon, arms, iran and middle east returns nothing. The only sentence touching anything beyond the United States is about farms, ranches and a legal workforce under the immigration heading.
• [Position, submitted 2026-04-01] His Ballotpedia Candidate Connection answers. The page's own note reads that the information was submitted through the survey on April 1, 2026. He answered the three required questions at length, on small business, the cost of living and public lands, and on what he is personally passionate about. Israel, Gaza, Palestinians, weapons, foreign aid and foreign policy appear nowhere in them. The same page reproduces his campaign website's text as of July 16, 2026, which is the same five priorities, and that text names no country either.

The race

• [Read 2026-09-19] Ballotpedia's page for the race: “Incumbent Kim Schrier and Spencer Meline are running in the general election for U.S. House Washington District 8 on November 3, 2026.” Washington runs a single top-two primary rather than party primaries, and it was held on August 4, 2026. Six candidates ran in it: Kim Schrier, 53.8 percent and 102,776 votes; Spencer Meline, 15.9 percent and 30,292; Trinh Ha, 14.8 percent and 28,323; Bob Hagglund, 10.7 percent and 20,364; Keith Arnold, 2.5 percent and 4,768; and Andres Valleza, 2.4 percent and 4,538, out of 191,061 votes cast. Schrier and Meline were the top two and advanced. This is the same two-candidate field the record carries.
• [Read 2026-09-19] The Washington Secretary of State's page for the 2026 primary gives the primary date as August 4, 2026 and publishes the official canvass of the returns with its certification, and a certification of candidates to the general election, both filed in August 2026. Both documents are scanned images and their text could not be read here, so the certification date is not stated on this card. The record on this site gives it as August 18, 2026.
• Kim Schrier's record is on her own card and is not narrated here.

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

• https://www.civoren.com/candidate/spencer-meline , an aggregator profile, returned 429 and was not read.
• https://www.localcandidates.org/elections/2026-us-house-of-representatives-wa-8/top-two-primary was not attempted. That host does not render for us and is left alone by a standing rule.
• No campaign account on any social platform is linked from his campaign site, and none was read. No League of Women Voters questionnaire, debate recording or candidate forum for this race was located.
• The two Washington Secretary of State certification documents, which are scanned images.

Not on the card, and why

• The line about eliminating wasteful spending on foreign nations and nation-building projects. It names no country, no program and no form of aid, and cutting money to one recipient is not the same act as cutting it to another. It is quoted in full above so a reader can weigh it, and the card does not turn it into a position on aid to the government of Israel or to Palestinians.
• His America First answer and his answers about Iran and the Chinese Communist Party. Iran and China are different questions from what the United States sends to the government of Israel. The answers are quoted above.
• His agreement with the statement that Islamic terrorism threatens American national security. It is a view about a threat, not about what America sends, and no comment of his accompanies it.
• The report our research cited at https://mynorthwest.com/seattle-red/2020-riots-inspire-former-spd-officer-to-develop-next-level-safety-barricades/3943310 . It was opened and it does not mention Spencer Meline anywhere; its subject is a former Seattle police officer and a crowd-control product. Our research had already marked it as not naming him. Nothing is built on it.
• Everything else on his campaign site and in his questionnaires: small business, regulation, the cost of living, housing and institutional investors, energy, public safety and fentanyl, public lands and wildfire, immigration and the border, abortion, healthcare, education, firearms, voting identification, marriage and his own faith. Out of scope, and listed above so the absence is checkable.
• Kim Schrier's record, and the records of the four other candidates who ran in the primary. Another candidate's record belongs on that candidate's own card.

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

• https://ivoterguide.com/candidate/92992 (opened; 2026-09-19; the page carries no date of its own and is recorded on the day it was read)
• https://www.melineforcongress.com/ and https://www.melineforcongress.com/priorities (opened; 2026-09-19)
• https://ballotpedia.org/Spencer_Meline (opened; 2026-09-19; survey submitted 2026-04-01; campaign website text quoted as of 2026-07-16)
• https://ballotpedia.org/Washington%27s_8th_Congressional_District_election,_2026 (opened; 2026-09-19)
• https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/data-research/election-data-and-maps/election-results-and-voters-pamphlets/2026-primary-election and https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/data-research/election-data-and-maps/election-results-and-voters-pamphlets (opened; 2026-09-19)
• https://www.sos.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2026-08/Official%20Canvass%20of%20Returns%20of%20the%20Primary%202026.pdf (downloaded; 2026-09-19; a scanned image whose text could not be read)
• https://mynorthwest.com/seattle-red/2020-riots-inspire-former-spd-officer-to-develop-next-level-safety-barricades/3943310 (opened; 2026-09-19; it does not name him)
• https://seattlered.com/politics/meline-schrier-8th-district-primary-housing/4119673 (opened; 2026-09-19; about housing, and it reaches this subject nowhere)
• https://www.civoren.com/candidate/spencer-meline (could not open, 429; 2026-09-19)
• This is a record of what was checked on 2026-09-19, not a claim that no statement exists anywhere.