CHICAGO — Democrats hope to steal veteran voters from Republicans this year and plan to emphasize their efforts to improve access to health care in the race for several key seats.
At the heart of the party’s argument is the 2022 bill that expands access to health care for veterans exposed to toxins while deployed overseas. That law has led to a sharp increase in demand at the Department of Veterans Affairs, with over 412,000 new veterans enrolled last year. That high level of interest has even led to a deficit in the VA budget that lawmakers will scramble to close in September.
Two of the Democratic senators behind the initiative, Jon Tester of Montana and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, are highlighting the law in campaign ads, and President Joe Biden called it “one of the most significant pieces of legislation ever written” in his keynote speech Monday night.
“We have only one truly sacred obligation: to prepare and equip those we send to war and to take care of them and their families when they come and when they don’t come,” Biden said.
According to television polls, veterans voted for President Donald Trump over Biden in 2020 by 54% to 44%.
Members of the Democratic National Committee’s Veterans and Military Families Council met Tuesday and vowed to fight back against the Republican Party’s dominance of veteran voters.
“For too long, the GOP has made claims about veterans, defending our country and all things patriotic,” said Terron Sims II, co-chair of the council. “That is and always has been nonsense.”
Speakers on Tuesday included Arizona Senator Mark Kelly and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, both veterans who were in the running to be Vice President Kamala Harris’s vice presidential running mate, as well as Gwen Walz, the wife of Harris’s selected vice presidential running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
Trump has been criticized by speakers for a variety of comments he has made either publicly or allegedly in private about veterans. For example, Kelly criticized Trump for saying last week that the Presidential Medal of Freedom is “much better” than the Congressional Medal of Honor, whose recipients are usually “dead” or “in very bad shape.”
“In this election, it’s pretty clear to me which presidential candidate supports soldiers and veterans and which doesn’t,” Kelly said.
Trump clarified his remarks – praising a major Republican donor to whom he awarded the Medal of Freedom – in an interview with a Pennsylvania television station last week, calling the military award the “ultimate” honor.
Impact of the Toxic Exposure Act
Kelly praised the Biden-Harris administration for the “largest expansion of veterans’ health care in decades” under the Toxic Exposure Control Act.
“This is an administration that is working the way it should: supporting veterans,” Kelly said. “Those are Kamala Harris’ values.”
Buttigieg said he cried in the White House when Biden signed the toxic pollution control bill.
“(Biden) has made it clear that he will support veterans and military families as long as he is alive,” Buttigieg said. “And a Harris-Waltz administration will build on that track record.”
Tester and Casey both ran campaign ads featuring veterans from their states talking about how they received the care they needed after the law was passed.
Casey also hosted an event in Scranton last week with veterans group VoteVets to address the toxic exposure law. His race against businessman David McCormick, himself a veteran, is rated as leaning Democratic by Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales.
Tester, the chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, is in a neck-and-neck race with Tim Sheehy, another businessman who is also a veteran. Tester skipped the Democratic convention to campaign in Montana, while Sheehy spoke at the Republican convention in Milwaukee last month.
Sheehy has spoken extensively about his military service as a Navy SEAL during his campaign and last year hosted an event with Montana Governor Greg Gianforte on tax breaks for veterans.
Democrats should “absolutely” give more prominence to the Toxic Exposure Prevention Act and other efforts to support veterans, Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts said in an interview.
Biden has set a good example by talking about veterans’ issues more than previous Democratic leaders, and Harris should continue that in her campaign, said Moulton, who was awarded a Bronze Star while serving in the Marines.
“For too long, we’ve just sat around and watched Republicans attack us on national security issues and veterans issues and try to appropriate the flag,” Moulton said.
