Community organizing work has helped me see that “single-issue” voting rarely gets us anywhere, especially in general elections. No candidate is perfect. If we all conditioned our vote on every single thing an individual believes, says, or does, then none of us would ever vote.
However, as the 2026 midterms approach and the current administration’s popularity steadily declines, one issue is moving us closer to a singular political tipping point: Israel’s war on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. For Democrats in particular, many of their constituents are becoming increasingly fed up with their elected leaders’ support of genocide, whether by continually funding Israel or by themselves receiving campaign funds from AIPAC.
This anger is justified. If establishment Democrats continue to do AIPAC’S bidding, it won’t be long before there is no difference between the Democratic Party and whatever remnants survive a post-Trump Republican Party. Both will simply be pawns for Israel’s necropolitics.
That is, of course, if establishment Democrats can hold onto their seats.
Take, for instance, the “blue” state of Colorado where I live. In our June primary election, Diane DeGette, a U.S. Representative who has served the state’s First congressional district in Denver since 1997, was defeated by twenty-nine-year-old Democratic Socialist Melat Kiros.
Kiros was born the same year DeGette began serving in Congress.
What could cause a 15-term, widely respected, “progressive” public servant to lose her seat to a grad student who has never held public office? While several key issues likely factored in, one clear difference emerged throughout their campaigns.
Kiros refused to accept any funding from political action committees or special interest groups, while also taking a strong stand against Israel. She supported an embargo on all arms sales, saying in a Colorado Sun interview that “it’s illegal under international law for American laws to aid in crimes against humanity.”
DeGette’s response to the Sun’s question regarding US aid to Israel? “I’ll have to look at that budget for next year. This year I supported funding the final payment for the 10-year contract for defensive spending…”
Unsurprisingly, DeGette is one of Colorado’s congressional representatives listed by Track AIPAC as receiving large amounts of funding from Israel’s largest lobbying group. Likely as a result of her long congressional tenure, DeGette has received more AIPAC funding than any other Colorado congressional leader, with a total of over $1.6 million.
In my congressional district, located immediately west of Denver, Brittany Pettersen, the “progressive” Representative who serves much of heavily left-leaning Jefferson County, has received contributions of over $141,000 from the Israel lobby since her relatively recent election in 2022. Not surprisingly, she has also repeatedly voted for funding to support Israel’s genocide.
Notably, two weeks after DeGette’s primary defeat, Pettersen voted in favor of an amendment to the Republican budget calling for an end to military aid to Israel. While the amendment failed handily, AIPAC immediately suspended its online fundraising and endorsement links for her.
Perhaps Patterson and others felt the vote was worth the risk, sensing a shift in their constituents’ priorities, even though neither faced a primary opponent this year.
According to The Guardian, as of June 29, “The [Democratic Socialists of America] ha[d] endorsed about 150 candidates this cycle…with 35 either winning primaries or advancing without opposition, in races stretching across Oregon, California, Georgia, Pennsylvania and New York.” Add Kiros to that total with her June 30 primary victory in Colorado, and as of August 4, a narrow victory for Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan. In El-Sayed’s case, AIPAC spent over $30 million, with other pro-Israel groups piling an additional near-$30 million, in an unsuccessful effort to defeat him.
Christian Values Voting
As civically engaged people of faith, we often face the ethical dilemma of “choosing the lesser of two evils” in elections. But how can there be any question at this point that allowing our tax dollars to fund genocide is an affront to Christian values? Furthermore, our democracy is under a threat even greater than Donald Trump if leaders on both sides of the aisle remain beholden to Israel’s desires because AIPAC funds their campaigns.
We are witnessing an emergence of candidates who are standing firm in refusing to support Israel’s genocide. Many of these candidates also support values that closely align with Christ’s teachings on caring for the most vulnerable among us. This means that in many states, voters will have an option to uphold Christian values at the voting booth this November.
None of these candidates are perfect. But if enough people of faith turn out and vote for them, perhaps it’s possible the Democratic Party will begin to listen to its constituents and put matters of life and death above the desires of special interest groups. Perhaps party leaders will see that it is not only ethical, but politically advisable, to cut their ties to AIPAC.
An estimated 73,000 people have been killed in Israel’s genocidal war since October 7, including more than 20,000 children. How many more will die before we collectively decide to choose leaders who will stop this madness?
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Dr. Rebecca M. David Hensley holds a PhD in religious studies, with an emphasis in theological and social ethics. She is a member of the adjunct faculty for Iliff School of Theology and an ordained Deacon in the United Methodist Church.