Adam Smith

Democrat · U.S. House, Washington District 9

Smith said in August 2025 that unless the government of Israel implemented a ceasefire and halted settlement expansion, the United States should stop selling it some offensive weapons systems. In July 2026 he said his vote to stop military assistance to Israel was his effort to force change.

Adam Smith is a Democrat who has represented Washington's 9th District, in south King County, since 1997, and he is the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee. He faces Republican Douglas Michael Basler on November 3, 2026, after finishing first in the August 4 top-two primary. This card is about the Washington congressman; the name belongs to many other people.

What he says the United States should send has changed, and he has explained the change in his own words each time. In May 2024 he urged his colleagues to oppose legislation that would have forced the administration to ship bombs it had paused, writing that removing a president's ability to pause a transfer “would be tantamount to writing a blank check to unconditionally send weapons, something we cannot do no matter how close an ally or friend.” Three months earlier he had said he voted against the standalone Israel supplemental because it abandoned Ukraine and carried no humanitarian assistance for Palestinians in Gaza, while stating in the same release that he supported continued funding so that the government of Israel could degrade Hamas.

On August 26, 2025 he set a condition. He asked the government of Israel to implement a ceasefire, increase humanitarian aid and stop settlement expansion in the West Bank, and wrote that if it did not take those steps the United States should stop selling it some offensive weapons systems as leverage. He said plainly that he had opposed blocking weapons sales as leverage in the past and that the situation had changed. After the House vote of July 15, 2026 he wrote that his vote to stop military assistance to Israel was his effort to force the Netanyahu government to change its actions, that the vote was a close one for him, and that “after nearly two years of me raising these concerns with the Israeli government and U.S. supporters of Israel, nothing has changed.” A week later Jewish Insider reported that he told the Breaking Points podcast he was unlikely to support future U.S. aid packages for Israel unless the Israeli government created a reasonable alternative for Palestinians in Gaza, stopped what it was doing in the West Bank and reached peace in Lebanon, and that he had reversed himself to oppose a defense-authorization provision expanding U.S.-Israel defense co-development programs.

On Gaza and the West Bank his own releases run through 2025. In March 2025 he called the Egyptian-led reconstruction plan a starting point and said the forcible displacement of more than two million Palestinians was unacceptable. On May 2, 2025 he wrote that the government of Israel was blocking the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza and enabling settlement expansion and settler violence in the West Bank. In June and July 2025 he twice said the responsibility for getting aid in was the Israeli government's, condemning the killing of people around aid distribution sites and then calling for a rush of food and supplies into Gaza. On July 31, 2025 he said the complete destruction of Hamas was not a feasible goal and called for an immediate ceasefire. On August 25, 2025 he called the advancement of the E1 settlement project deeply alarming and asked the Israeli government to halt it. In April 2025 he had joined Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Jim Himes in introducing a bill to authorize sanctions on people committing violent acts in the West Bank. In October 2025 he welcomed the first phase of the U.S.-backed ceasefire framework.

Two days after the July 2026 vote he told the Jewish News Syndicate that he was aware AIPAC would not be supporting him in the short term and that the group had “made some decisions that sort of pushed them in the direction of being too partisan Republican and too blindly in favor of whatever Israel does.” AIPAC is a lobbying organization that works to strengthen the United States relationship with the government of Israel. In the same statement about his vote he also described vandalism at his home, a fire set in his driveway, town halls shut down and an assault on a staff member by people pressing him to cut off aid. His statements on antisemitism, his remarks about protest tactics, and everything else that was read are on the research page.

Tracked votes: opposed sending U.S. weapons or funding to the government of Israel in 4 of 6 recorded votes.

Research

An initial search was run on 2026-08-21 to find sources for this card, and its 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. Bands: Position (2024-01-26 onward), Reaction window (2023-10-07 to 2024-01-25), Earlier record (before 2023-10-07). Smith has represented WA-09 since 1997, so his tracked votes appear as badges on this card and are not re-counted here.

Identity: every source below was checked to be about Adam Smith of Washington's 9th District. The introduced text of H.R. 3045 names him as “Mr. Smith of Washington”, and each house.gov release is from his own office at adamsmith.house.gov.

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 a position on what America sends)

Earlier record

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: Doug Basler (Republican) · All Washington 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.