Sean Strickland Turns His Back on The Republican Party Over AIPAC
MMA athlete Sean Strickland, a former UFC middleweight champion, has publicly announced he will vote for a Democrat rather than a Republican candidate backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
Sean Strickland Denounces the Republican Party
On July 31, 2025, Sean Strickland wrote on X, “I cant believe Im saying this but I will vote for a democrat over an aipac republican candidate. 4 years of a Democrat sounds easier than a politician owned by a foreign government.” He added, “Ted Cruz really was a sobering reminder of how owned our politicians are” and described this as “a line in the sand for me.”
Strickland has supported Republican figures in the past, most notably former President Donald Trump, with whom he has appeared in photographs. In June 2025, he criticized Trump’s proposal to seize Gaza territory, writing that if the president “keeps this bs up I’m about to start waving a Palestinian flag” and arguing that U.S. cities “are shitholes” while the administration spent billions on what he called a “dumpster fire” abroad. The fighter’s stance shifted amid the intensifying conflict between Israel and Gaza, where widespread civilian hardship and starvation have drawn criticism of U.S. support for Israel’s military actions.
“Did we make a mistake?! This ain’t America first..”
AIPAC
AIPAC is the leading pro-Israel lobbying group in the United States. Founded in 1954, it works to strengthen U.S. policy in support of Israel through lobbying, political action committees, fundraising and educational programs. AIPAC does not directly fund candidates, but its affiliated PACs contributed more than $560,000 to Senator Ted Cruz between 2019 and 2024, making it his top donor. Critics describe AIPAC as exerting outsized influence on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East; supporters call it a bipartisan advocate for U.S. and Israeli security interests.
Ted Cruz
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas has been among the most vocal defenders of sustained U.S. military aid to Israel. In a June interview with Tucker Carlson, Cruz cited biblical passages to justify support for Israel and acknowledged receiving significant campaign contributions from AIPAC and its donors, including $562,593 from the group’s PAC alone. Cruz has argued that backing Israel serves both American and Israeli security, framing the conflict with Iran and Gaza as a battle between “good versus evil” and “civilization versus barbarism.”
Within the Republican Party, support for Israel has long been considered a hallmark of conservative foreign policy. Republican lawmakers have maintained high levels of approval for military aid to Israel even as public support among other U.S. voters has declined.
A recent Axios report noted that younger conservatives and some veteran MAGA figures are questioning unconditional support for Israel amid humanitarian concerns in Gaza and rising U.S. defense spending abroad. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene became the first Republican in Congress to call the Gaza offensive a “genocide,” marking a break with the party’s traditional stance.
Strickland reflects a broader debate among Republicans over “America First” principles versus longstanding U.S. alliances. He argued that politicians “owned by a foreign government” betray domestic priorities and that eight years of Democratic leadership would prove less entangled with foreign interests than a GOP aligned with AIPAC.
Public opinion on U.S. involvement in the Israel-Gaza conflict has shifted sharply. A Gallup poll in late July found that only 32 percent of Americans approve of Israel’s military actions in Gaza, down from 42 percent a year earlier, while 60 percent disapprove. Among Republicans, approval rose to 71 percent, but support among independents and Democrats fell to record lows of 25 percent and 8 percent respectively.
