Glenn Grothman

Deep Dive

Glenn Grothman has represented Wisconsin's 6th District, which runs from Sheboygan and Fond du Lac down to the Milwaukee suburbs, since January 2015. He served in the state Assembly and then the state Senate before that, and he was a lawyer in estate planning and probate. In 2024 he chaired the House Oversight subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs. He advanced from the Republican primary on August 11, 2026 and is running on November 3, 2026 against the Democrat Bradley Smith, the Wisconsin Green candidate Matthew Arndt, and two independents, Elizabeth Anne Fitzgibbon and Mike Thurow.

His clearest statement on American weapons came on May 10, 2024, after the president said he would halt arms shipments if the Israeli military entered Rafah. Grothman called it “an unconscionable and dangerous move for many reasons” and gave four: that withholding aid pulls pressure away from Hamas and places it on Israel, that it would prolong the war, that it would defeat the purpose of the rest of the campaign, and that it put party politics ahead of principle. He ended by saying the president should “immediately retract his statement, commit to delivering the arms, and demand unconditional surrender by Hamas”. In the same statement he said of the money Congress had approved weeks earlier that “I approved this funding as it is critical the United States stand with our friends”.

He had explained that vote at the time. On April 20, 2024 he said he was “happy to vote for funding to our ally Israel” while voting against aid to Ukraine, and he set out why: “It is essential to Israel’s existence that they succeed in eradicating Hamas”, and much of the money would replenish the Iron Beam, Iron Dome and David’s Sling defense systems after the Iranian attacks of that month.

On American money for Palestinians he has spoken as an overseer of it rather than as an advocate. Opening a hearing on foreign aid on March 21, 2024, he said the United States had given more than $700 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in 2022 and 2023, that a Hamas compound had been found under one of its buildings in Gaza City, and that the previous administration had withheld the money for that reason before “The Biden Administration unwisely reversed this decision.” In the same remarks he objected to the plan to build a temporary pier off Gaza, saying it would put about a thousand American service members off that coast without assurances that Hamas would not attack them or divert the aid. He has said nothing we could find in favor of any American humanitarian funding for Gaza.

How he reads the war has not moved. On the first anniversary of the October 7 attack he said Israel has every right to continue defending itself and the United States must keep standing firmly with its strongest ally in the Middle East, and that the conflict could end at any time if Hamas surrendered. A year later he called the attack “the deadliest assault on the Jewish people since the Holocaust”. Two days after that he congratulated the president on a peace agreement between Israel and Hamas and called it a breakthrough for the region.

His campaign site lists seven district priorities and none of them is foreign policy. His statements about Iran, his record on campus protests and antisemitism, his record back to 2015, and what he said in the weeks after October 7, 2023 are on his research page.

The record

Supported sending weapons or funding in 6 of 6 tracked votes

The money

$30K in lifetime support from the five lobbying groups we track

In their words

AIPAC (2026 endorsement)

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 2026-09-20 unless the entry says otherwise. His congressional newsroom was read in full: all 494 items in the press release listing, back to January 2015, plus the whole of the in-the-news and in-case-you-missed-it listings, with every title checked against this subject and every match opened. His campaign site was read in full. Bands: Position (2024-01-26 onward), Reaction window (2023-10-07 to 2024-01-25), Earlier record (before 2023-10-07), Undated. His recorded House votes and his recorded cosponsorships are shown in this card's record section and are not restated here.

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

• [Position, 2024-05-10] His statement after the president said he would halt arms shipments. The in-scope passages: “Just a few weeks ago, Congress approved, and President Biden signed into law, funding to help our greatest ally in the Middle East, Israel, as they respond to the deadly attack on their soil that left well over 1,000 people dead. I approved this funding as it is critical the United States stand with our friends. Now, President Biden announced he would halt arms shipments if Israel follows through with their clearly stated military goals. This is an unconscionable and dangerous move for many reasons.” His first reason: “the objective of the United States should be to assist in putting pressure on the terrorist organization Hamas to give up and stop fighting. The announcement made by the Biden Administration to withhold aid does just the opposite, pulling pressure away from Hamas and placing it on Israel.” And the close: “President Biden should immediately retract his statement, commit to delivering the arms, and demand unconditional surrender by Hamas.” The release also reproduces a 2019 answer of the president's to PBS News Hour, that cutting off military aid to Israel would be “absolutely preposterous”; those are the president's words, not his, and nothing is built on them. The introduction his office wrote misspells Israel.
• [Position, 2024-04-20] His statement on the four foreign aid bills the House passed that Saturday, issued after voting no on aid to Ukraine and yes on aid to Israel. The in-scope paragraph reads in full: “I was happy to vote for funding to our ally Israel. It is essential to Israel’s existence that they succeed in eradicating Hamas, who orchestrated the October 7 attack that killed over 1,200 people. This funding was of particular importance given the recent unprecedented attacks by Iran and the fact that so much of the aid is going to replenish Israel’s defense systems, including the Iron Beam, Iron Dome, and David’s Sling that have been crucial over the last two weeks. We must stand strongly with our ally and support Israel’s right to defend itself.” The Israel bill in that package is one of the rows in this card's record section; the card characterizes the vote only because he explained it himself, and it narrates no roll call. The three named systems are defensive and are kept off the fifty-word front by standing rule; they are on the deep dive and here with no prejudice. The rest of the statement is about Ukraine and the southern border.
• [Reaction window, 2023-10-07] His statement on the day of the attack: “Israel has every right to defend itself, and America strongly stands with Israel, our strongest ally in the Middle East, as they respond to the violence perpetrated by Hamas.” Not on the card summary; recorded here with its date.
• [Reaction window, 2023-10-20; could not be read] Our research reported that on PBS Wisconsin's Here and Now he said “We do have to get aid to Israel” while arguing against admitting refugees from Gaza. The address it gave, https://pbswisconsin.org/news-item/here-now-highlights-us-rep-glenn-grothman-us-rep-mark-pocan/ , refused every attempt on 2026-09-20. The words are not verified here, and the item is not on the card summary because of its date in any event.
• [Earlier record, 2019-05-15 and 2018-08-10] Two further statements on Gaza and on Hamas rocket attacks sit in his archive, at May 15, 2019 and August 10, 2018, along with a 2015 statement condemning Palestinian rocket attacks. They are earlier-band and nothing on the card is built on them.
• Nothing located in which he discusses the dollar figure in the United States and Israel memorandum of understanding, or any condition on that money, and nothing at all in his newsroom since December 2025 on this subject. He has said nothing we could find about either of the 2026 amendments to cut that aid on which his votes are recorded.

U.S. aid to Palestinians

• [Position, 2024-03-21] His opening remarks at the Oversight subcommittee hearing “Accountable Assistance: Reviewing Controls to Prevent Mismanagement of Foreign Aid”, published as prepared for delivery. The in-scope passage: “Recently, the USAID Inspector General has cautioned that foreign aid going to Gaza and the West Bank is at extremely high risk of waste, fraud, and abuse. In 2022 and 2023, the United States donated over $700 million to the United Nation’s Relief and Works Agency, an organization created and intended to provide humanitarian relief for Palestinians. However, we now know that a Hamas compound was located under a UNRWA building in Gaza City. Further, evidence has surfaced that some UNRWA employees participated in the devastating October 7th Hamas terrorist attack against Israel on Israeli soil. Unfortunately, the Biden Administration had been sending taxpayer dollars to UNRWA since 2021 despite concerns that funds were being diverted to support terrorist activities. That is why the previous Administration had withheld funding from UNRWA. The Biden Administration unwisely reversed this decision. And taxpayer dollars were released to UNRWA without adequate guardrails to ensure funds went to humanitarian relief, rather than Hamas terrorists, and were only paused again after reports about U-N-R-W-A’s support for terrorist activities surfaced a few weeks ago. That is why I led a request with Chairman Comer and other Republican members of this Committee to Secretary Blinken requesting documents and information about the Biden Administration’s 2021 decision to restore funding to the UNRWA.” On the pier: “During his recent State of the Union address, President Biden announced plans for the U.S. military to build a temporary port to deliver humanitarian assistance to Gaza. The President has decided to maroon approximately a thousand American uniformed men and women off the coast of Gaza to build—using taxpayer dollars—a supposed humanitarian aid port without providing assurances that Hamas will not attack our troops or those receiving the aid, or that Hamas will not divert that aid for its own evil purposes.” The dashes in that sentence are the page's own. The rest of the remarks concern Ukraine, the World Bank and what he calls the politicization of aid, and are not used.
• [Position, 2024-03-21] The committee's wrap-up release from the same hearing prints two questions of his to the witnesses, on how foreign aid is weaponized and on monitoring international organizations at the southern border. Neither names Gaza or Palestinians and nothing is taken from it.
• Nothing located in which he supports American humanitarian funding for Gaza, the aid pipeline or the United Nations agency in any form, at any date.

Characterization of the conflict

• [Position, 2024-10-07] His statement on the first anniversary of the attack: “Israel has every right to continue defending itself against such unprovoked aggression, and it is essential that the United States continues to stand firmly with our strongest ally in the Middle East.” And: “We remind the world that the conflict which spun from this attack on Isarel could end anytime if Hamas surrendered.” The misspelling of Israel is the page's own.
• [Position, 2024-05-21] His statement on the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee's agreement with protesters: “Israel certainly must subdue Hamas and has the right to demand unconditional surrender. Interfering with Israel and essentially allowing Hamas to regroup and fight another day is inexcusable.” And: “I want to reemphasize my position that Israel has the right to continue this fight until Hamas surrenders, turns over their tunnels and weapons, and releases all hostages.” The statement also contrasts “the barbaric Hamas and the strong western country of Israel”, says the university “sided with Pro-Palestinian protestors and disregarded the Jewish students”, and invokes Hiroshima and Nagasaki on civilian casualties. Those passages are about a university's conduct and about the war's conduct rather than about what the United States sends, and they stay here.
• [Position, 2025-10-07] His statement on the second anniversary: “The lives of over 1,200 innocent men, women, and children were lost, making this the deadliest assault on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. It was a stark reminder that antisemitism and terrorism remain powerful threats that must never be ignored or excused.” And: “The United States must stand with Israel, our strongest ally in the Middle East, and reject terrorism wherever it appears.”
• [Position, 2025-10-09] His statement on the peace agreement: “I’d like to congratulate President Trump for his leadership and can-do attitude in securing a historic peace agreement between Israel and Hamas.” And: “This breakthrough offers real hope for lasting stability in the Middle East and brings new countries to the table that have not traditionally been part of lasting peace efforts in the region.”
• [Position, 2025-06-13] His statement on the Israeli strike on Iran: “Israel has every right to defend itself, and when faced with an existential threat, it acted decisively with a highly sophisticated and successful operation.” The rest is about Iran and is out of scope.
• [Reaction window, 2023-10-07] His statement on the day of the attack: “Hamas terrorists invading Israel is plain evil. The goal appears solely to spread terror and death.” Not on the card summary; recorded here with its date.
• [Earlier record, 2021-05-13] His statement during the 2021 fighting: “Hamas has decided to continue the completely irresponsible, outlandish, and criminal behavior that they choose to exercise from time to time ever since Israel left Gaza in 2005.” And: “Sadly, but not surprisingly for those familiar with their tactics, Hamas retreats to residential buildings after carrying out their attacks. They do this with the goal of forcing any retribution to kill innocent civilians. This tactic is documented and nothing but a ploy to make Israel look heartless.” And: “The United States and all civilized countries should stand with Israel as they respond to the violence perpetrated by Hamas.”
• [Earlier record, 2016 to 2019] His archive also holds a December 2016 statement condemning American abstention on a United Nations resolution on Israel, a December 2017 statement applauding the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, a May 2018 statement on the embassy opening, a May 2019 statement on Gaza and a March 2015 statement on the Israeli prime minister's address to Congress. All are earlier-band and nothing on the card is built on them.

Israel-related rhetoric and lobbying

• [Reaction window, 2023-10-11] The Arab Center Washington DC's weekly summary records that he and Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken asking for an investigation into what they called “secret nuclear negotiations” with Iran. That letter is about Iran, which is a different question, and it is not on the card summary because of its date as well.
• No statement of his about donations from any organization on this subject was located, and no such organization appears on his campaign site.

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

• [Position, 2025-12-15] His statement on the antisemitic attack at Bondi Beach in Sydney: “The antisemitic attack at Bondi Beach is a horrifying act of hatred that must be unequivocally condemned.” And: “Combating antisemitism requires the truth. Facts about Israel, along with the horrors of Hamas and its allies, must be clearly communicated.” This is the most recent thing in his newsroom on any part of this subject.
• [Position, 2024-05-21] The university statement above, in the parts about Jewish students at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. Context about safety on a campus, not an answer about what America sends.
• [Reaction window, 2023-11-14] Times Higher Education reported that at a House hearing he “suggested that anti-Israel protests at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other US campuses were related to their high numbers of overseas students”. Those are the publication's words summarizing him. Not on the card summary because of its date and context in any case.
• [Reaction window, 2023-12-05] An opinion piece in the Jerusalem Post, published December 20, 2023, describes his questioning of Harvard's president at the December 5 hearing about the share of the faculty on the political right and whether a “lack of ideological diversity” was a problem. The writer's own view of the exchange is the writer's. Our research also cited a Washington Post report of the same hearing, at https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/12/05/colleges-antisemitism-house-hearing-israel/ , which could not be opened on 2026-09-20; our research had itself recorded that it does not name him. All of this is not on the card summary because of its date and is context in any event.

What the campaign site and own pages say

• [Read 2026-09-20] His campaign site, its biography page and its volunteer page were all read. The home page lists seven priorities for the district: skills-based education, keeping work centers open for people with disabilities, ending the marriage penalty in government assistance, refinancing student loans, getting more generic medication to market, election integrity, and border security and immigration. A case-insensitive search of all three pages for israel, gaza, palestin, hamas, antisemit, jewish, unrwa, west bank, foreign aid, middle east, arms and weapon returns nothing. The record carries no campaign website for him; this is the site his own committee pays for, and it carries a 2026 volunteer form and ballot-access papers.

The race

• [Read 2026-09-20] The general election is on November 3, 2026. Wisconsin's partisan primary was held on August 11, 2026. The field on the Wisconsin Elections Commission's certified Candidates on Ballot list, printed on August 25, 2026, is Glenn Grothman, a Republican, Bradley Smith, a Democrat, Matthew Arndt of the Wisconsin Green party, and two independents, Elizabeth Anne Fitzgibbon and Mike Thurow. Ballotpedia's page for the race agrees: “Incumbent Glenn Grothman, Bradley Smith, Matthew Arndt, Elizabeth Fitzgibbon, and Mike Thurow are running in the general election for U.S. House Wisconsin District 6 on November 3, 2026.” It records that Grothman advanced from the Republican primary on August 11, 2026, that Bradley Smith defeated Amanda Bell in the Democratic primary that day, and that Matthew Arndt advanced from the Green primary. Ballotpedia prints its own caution that the candidate list may not be complete. The other candidates' records belong on their own cards.

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

• The PBS Wisconsin page for the October 2023 Here and Now interview, at https://pbswisconsin.org/news-item/here-now-highlights-us-rep-glenn-grothman-us-rep-mark-pocan/ . Three attempts on 2026-09-20 all failed. This is the only place our research found the sentence “We do have to get aid to Israel”, and it is the one unverified in-scope claim on this record. It is not on the card summary because of its date in any event.
• The Washington Post report of the December 5, 2023 hearing, at https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/12/05/colleges-antisemitism-house-hearing-israel/ , which could not be opened on 2026-09-20.
• His accounts on Facebook, X and YouTube, and the video of any hearing. None was read or watched for this card.

Not on the card, and why

• Everything dated between October 7, 2023 and January 25, 2024: his statement on the day of the attack, the October 2023 television interview, the October 11, 2023 letter to the Secretary of State, the November 2023 hearing remarks about international students, and the December 2023 hearing questions to university presidents. All are on the research page with their dates.
• Everything he has said about Iran: the June 2025 statement on the Israeli strike, the October 2023 letter about nuclear negotiations, the 2018 statement on leaving the nuclear deal, the 2016 statement on ransom payments and the 2015 statements on the nuclear deal. A different question from what the United States sends to the government of Israel. Where an Iran clause sits inside a sentence of his that is quoted whole, the quotation keeps its own words and nothing is built on it.
• The Iron Beam, Iron Dome and David's Sling replenishment he named in April 2024, as material for the fifty-word front. Defensive systems are kept off the front by standing rule; they are on the deep dive and the research page with no prejudice.
• The campus material: the May 2024 statement about the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, the November and December 2023 hearings, and the December 2025 statement on the attack at Bondi Beach. Context about safety and about a university's conduct, not an answer about what America sends. His words are set out on the research page and our own labels are not substituted for them.
• The passage in the May 2024 university statement invoking Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the phrase about “the barbaric Hamas and the strong western country of Israel”. They are his own words about how the war is being fought and about a university, not about what the United States sends; both are printed on the research page.
• The president's 2019 answer about cutting off military aid, which his office appended to the May 2024 release. Another person's words.
• The Ukraine, southern border, World Bank and foreign-aid-politicization passages in the March 2024 hearing remarks, and the Ukraine and border passages in the April 2024 statement. Out of scope.
• Bradley Smith's, Matthew Arndt's, Elizabeth Anne Fitzgibbon's and Mike Thurow's records. Another candidate's record belongs on that candidate's own card.
• The manufacturing, welfare, education, immigration and health care material that fills most of his newsroom and all of his campaign site. Out of scope.
• The recorded votes and the recorded cosponsorships. They are shown in this card's record section. The prose narrates no roll call; where it describes the April 2024 funding it does so from the statement he published himself.

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

• https://grothman.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx?DocumentTypeID=27 and all 494 items across its 50 listing pages, back to January 2015 (opened; 2026-09-20)
• https://grothman.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx?DocumentTypeID=30 and https://grothman.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx?DocumentTypeID=26 , the in-the-news and in-case-you-missed-it listings, read in full (opened; 2026-09-20)
• https://grothman.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=4016 (opened; 2026-09-20; dated May 10, 2024 on the page)
• https://grothman.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=3970 (opened; 2026-09-20; dated April 20, 2024)
• https://grothman.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=4031 (opened; 2026-09-20; dated May 21, 2024)
• https://grothman.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=4265 (opened; 2026-09-20; dated October 7, 2024)
• https://grothman.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=4735 (opened; 2026-09-20; dated June 13, 2025; about Iran and out of scope)
• https://grothman.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=4887 and https://grothman.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=4888 (opened; 2026-09-20; dated October 7 and October 9, 2025)
• https://grothman.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=4961 (opened; 2026-09-20; dated December 15, 2025)
• https://grothman.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=3685 (opened; 2026-09-20; dated October 7, 2023)
• https://grothman.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=2189 , https://grothman.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1066 and https://grothman.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=780 (opened; 2026-09-20; dated May 13, 2021, May 15, 2019 and August 10, 2018)
• https://oversight.house.gov/release/grothman-opens-hearing-on-biden-administrations-mismanagement-of-foreign-aid%ef%bf%bc/ (opened; 2026-09-20; datePublished 2024-03-21T19:56:55+00:00)
• https://oversight.house.gov/release/hearing-wrap-up-more-accountability-mechanisms-needed-to-safeguard-foreign-aid-falling-into-bad-actors-and-woke-international-groups%ef%bf%bc/ (opened; 2026-09-20)
• https://fmep.org/resource/trump-admin-cut-off-of-aid-to-unrwa-what-not-about-terror-receipts/ (opened; 2026-09-20; it quotes the March 2024 remarks in a shortened form and gives him the wrong title)
• https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/cu-10-16-23/ (opened; 2026-09-20; dated October 16, 2023)
• https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/republicans-blame-campus-diversity-efforts-antisemitism (opened; 2026-09-20; published November 2023)
• https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-778727 (opened; 2026-09-20; datePublished 2023-12-20T03:40:44.000+00:00)
• https://glenngrothman.com/ , https://glenngrothman.com/meet-glenn and https://glenngrothman.com/get-involved (opened; 2026-09-20)
• https://ballotpedia.org/Wisconsin%27s_6th_Congressional_District_election,_2026 (opened; 2026-09-20)
• https://pbswisconsin.org/news-item/here-now-highlights-us-rep-glenn-grothman-us-rep-mark-pocan/ and https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/12/05/colleges-antisemitism-house-hearing-israel/ (could not open; 2026-09-20)
• This is a record of what was checked on 2026-09-20, not a claim that no other statement exists.