On foreign policy, congressional candidates don’t all split on party lines – except on Israel

Candidates running for Congress are primarily focused on the domestic issues playing out in their districts or nationwide, but, if elected, they will be expected to make difficult decisions about America’s role on the world stage.

Though the president is the commander in chief and chief diplomat, only Congress has the authority to declare war or approve aid packages, and that body’s members must take stands on whether to support allies embroiled in conflict or to assist other nations in crisis. Members of Congress also can help shape the nation’s diplomatic posture, such as with former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s geopolitically controversial 2022 visit to Taiwan amid heightened tensions with China.

Unlike some sharply partisan issues where candidates’ positions can largely be predicted based on whether they’re a Republican or Democrat, opinions on foreign policy tended to be more complicated for the 11 people running to represent Eastern Washington in Congress and fill the seat soon to be left by 5th Congressional District Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers.

Some candidates of both parties would be fully prepared to enter the U.S. into a war with China to defend Taiwan from invasion, for instance, while other members of both parties were hesitant. Most candidates, both Democrats and Republicans, support Ukraine as that country attempts to repel a Russian invasion, though they may differ in how far they’re willing to go to do so.

One issue, more than any other, breaks this pattern, with candidates splitting almost entirely along partisan lines: support for Israel amid its invasion of the Gaza Strip following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants, in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 253 were taken hostage. Now in its 10th month, Israel’s retaliatory campaign has displaced millions in Gaza and killed more than 38,000 people, mostly civilians, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Israel’s actions in Palestine, including cutting off water and humanitarian aid to Gaza, have faced growing international condemnation, with a U.N. Human Rights Council special rapporteur in March reporting that there are “reasonable grounds” to state that Israel is committing genocide. Israel and U.S. authorities have rejected these characterizations.

The vast majority of bombs Israel is dropping on Gaza are reportedly U.S.-made, leading some groups to call on American authorities to withhold military aid to Israel and pressure that country to be more deliberate in its campaign or to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas. In early May, as Israeli forces entered the densely populated city of Rafah, President Joe Biden for the first time said he would withhold a shipment of “high-payload” munitions, mostly 2,000-pound bombs which are among the largest conventional weapons in the U.S. arsenal.

Biden noted this during the June 27 presidential debates with former President Donald Trump, saying the large munitions were likely to cause mass civilian casualties if they were used in a city.

Trump clapped back, arguing that Biden should “let them finish the job. He doesn’t want to do it. He’s become like a Palestinian.”

With few exceptions, Republicans running to represent Eastern Washington in Congress gave Israel their full-throated support, condemning Hamas and voicing little, if any, concern for Palestinian casualties. Democrats universally criticized Israel’s killing of Palestinian civilians and specifically the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu, though most also condemned the Oct. 7 attack without being prompted.

Among Republican candidates, only author and veteran Rick Valentine Flynn appeared to seriously consider withholding military aid to Israel in response to that nation’s conduct in Palestine. Ferry County Commissioner Brian Dansel expressed broad skepticism of foreign aid in any form, but also called Israel the most important U.S. ally in the region and did not criticize that country’s pursuit of the war.

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.

Ukraine

Two years into a brutal and seemingly intractable war, Ukraine and Russia appear to be locked in a stalemate, with neither side making significant recent progress capturing or recapturing territory in recent months.

Despite more than $100 billion in U.S. aid to the Ukrainian government and its war effort, Ukraine has been unable to push Russian forces out of Ukrainian territory, leading some to push for an end to economic and military support to the western-backed nation.

In December, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, called for Ukraine to cede Russian-occupied territory to end the war. In April, reports emerged that Trump had privately agreed with this assessment, arguing he could end Russia’s invasion by pressuring Ukraine to give up some territory, and more recently top Trump advisers suggested that could be accomplished by threatening to withhold weapons unless Kyiv engages in peace talks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy previously said he would not agree to a peace agreement that entailed surrendering territory to Russia. In June, 78 countries, including the U.S., agreed that Ukraine’s territorial integrity could not be compromised in any negotiated end to Russia’s invasion.

Republicans running to represent Eastern Washington in Congress were likely to be willing to support a resolution to the war that includes Ukraine ceding Russian-occupied territory, but the opinion was not universal. Spokane County Treasurer Michael Baumgartner was firmly opposed to the proposition, arguing that Russia would be emboldened by anything short of failure in Ukraine, as was Flynn.

Spokane City Councilman Jonathan Bingle argued the opposite, that Russia likely needed to be able to claim some kind of victory, and through it a justification for an expensive campaign that has seen the deaths of upwards of 140,000 Russian soldiers, in order for its leaders to agree to end its invasion. He does not support further U.S. aid to Ukraine.

State Rep. Jacquelin Maycumber was not sure whether she would support such a resolution to the war in Ukraine. Dansel declined to say how he believes he’d land on the issue, but said he opposed further U.S. aid to Ukraine.

Almost all Democratic candidates forcefully said they opposed Ukraine losing territory to Russia as part of a peace agreement. Small business consultant Ann Marie Danimus, who like Baumgartner said that Russia would be emboldened by concessions, was the only Democrat to say there was even a remote possibility that they might change their mind on the issue.

Bank, who visited Ukraine in mid-April and encouraged other congressional candidates to do the same, has argued that the U.S. contributed to the current Ukrainian crisis when it pushed for that country to give up its nuclear arsenal in the 1990s, and thus owes Ukraine security assurances. Conroy, who has said she would not pressure Ukraine to come to peace talks, has previously called Bank’s visit to a war torn country irresponsible and inappropriate.

Disrupting foreign cartels

Border security is once again a focal point of Republican electoral politics this year, but Trump’s hard line policy proposals stretch beyond the Rio Grande.

The candidate for president has pledged to “deploy all necessary military assets” to destroy cartels south of the border, including through a “full naval embargo on the cartels” and by ordering the Department of Defense to use special forces, cyberwarfare and other “covert and overt actions ” Trump has said he would designate major drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, ask Congress to designate drug smuggling and trafficking as a capital offense punishable by death and “fully expose the bribes and corruption” of neighboring governments that do not cooperate with his administration’s efforts.

Eastern Washington’s congressional hopefuls had mixed opinions on military intervention south of the border, with stances that did not break down cleanly along party lines.

Danimus, Conroy, Flynn, Maycumber, Rene’ Holaday and Kootenai County Deputy Prosecutor Matthew Welde were all wary of such action, generally arguing that investing in domestic law enforcement or intelligence agencies should be the priority. Holaday supported deploying the military to go “door-to-door” on the U.S. side of the border in a law enforcement capacity, but was hesitant to support foreign deployment.

Bank and Baumgartner both voiced conditional support for bilateral action in coordination with the host country’s government and generally appeared cautious about the scope of such strikes.

Bingle eagerly supported such actions, though he did emphasize the need for bilateral coordination with Mexico or other host countries.

Dansel gave the clearest support for military action and was the only candidate to not emphasize bilateral cooperation for such intervention.