The Democratic Party needs candidates who can win in red regions of the country, and it thinks it has found them. A former Marine in Kentucky. An Army veteran in Wisconsin. A former Air Force officer in Pennsylvania. The list goes on, and with reason; as the Associated Press reported in May, the party is 24 seats short of a majority in the House. The math is simple: Pick a veteran to run in a red district, reap the profits.

There’s some validity to this strategy. Seth Lynn of Veterans Campaign told the AP that candidates with a history of military service enjoy a polling bump of about two points on average when they run against candidates with no service record. Democratic veterans in office could also help defeat Republican attempts to shrink or entirely privatize the VA. But this is not a new strategy for Democrats: In 2006, the party’s “Fighting Dems” campaign didn’t actually put many new Democrats in office. “Ever since the Iraq War, Democrats have always recruited a robust slate of military vets,” Bill Scher wrote in Politico earlier this month. “And they usually lose.”

It’s not clear that conservative voters prioritize military service above party affiliation, among other considerations. They supported Donald Trump, who infamously took five deferments to avoid service in the Vietnam War. Meanwhile, the Swiftboating of John Kerry, the recipient of three Purple Hearts and a Silver Star, helped cost him an election.

But beyond the horse race, there are other reasons to be skeptical of the way Democrats have recruited veterans and tried to take advantage of their appeal. By running veterans in conservative areas, Democrats have reinforced conservative principles when it comes to issues of foreign policy and national security. This not only undercuts their ability to craft a distinct identity, but also leaves progressive veterans out in the cold.





Republicans elevate veterans because it fits their jingoistic conception of American national identity; it’s not quite Starship Troopers, but it’s close. Veterans play a starring role in any performance of American exceptionalism. Democrats could subvert that narrative if they wanted to, because there are veterans out there who could offer a different vision of what it means to be patriotic and what it means to serve.