Both the GOP and Democrats actually have something in common when recruiting candidates for the 2022 mid-term elections: Military veterans.
Republicans suffered losses at winning the House in 2020, and are taking a page out of the Democratic 2018 playbook in finding veterans to run for office. In 2018, Democrats won with a collection of candidates who were military veterans or had national-security experience. Candidates who have military experience have been found to appeal to voters from both parties, as well as independents and swing voters. Now the GOP seeks to place veterans on the ballots in key districts in order to gain control of the House.
According to Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb), “We’ve got a built-in advantage. I think, if you look at polling, about two-thirds of our veterans tend to be Republican.” Rep. Bacon is a retired Air Force general who is working to recruit more GOP candidates from the ranks of the military. Perhaps veterans are the “golden calf” of candidates, no matter which party they belong to. They have served their country, lost limbs (as in the case of Tammy Duckworth, Senator from Illinois) Both parties are betting on the fact that the military is the most trusted institution in America, and are willing to use such candidates to garner more votes.
The troubling part regarding this is that the GOP turned a blind eye to the January 6 insurrection, allowing the lies to propagate and unwilling to hold Donald Trump and his supporters on the Hill accountable. My husband, a combat veteran took an oath to defend his country against enemies, both foreign and domestic. How does the GOP sleep at night? How can the party encourage military veterans to run for office when that same party ignored a domestic terrorist act and attempted coup of our democracy?
Apparently, Republicans don’t see a conflict of interest here.
According to Jon Soltz of VoteVets, “You can serve this country and still be against America. Just ask Robert E. Lee.”
Here in New Mexico, military veteran Greg Zanetti has thrown his hat in the ring to run for Governor against incumbent Michelle Lujan-Grisham. Zanetti grew up in Albuquerque and graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1980, and served 6 years on active duty. In 2005 he entered the National Guard and was deployed as a brigadier general to a task force that oversaw the detention center at Guantánamo. We all know what Gitmo is famous for.
Like other right-wing candidates, Zanetti is anti-choice (He served on the New Mexico Right To Life board for 15 years) and tows the GOP line of spreading misinformation about immigration and criticizing Lujan-Grisham’s COVID-19 lockdowns last year. In a 2017 survey, 74% of rural New Mexicans and 79% of Catholic New Mexicans say they respect a woman’s right to choose and make her own healthcare decisions.
As GOP legislators move towards squashing voting rights and a woman’s right to choose, our present Governor passed legislation last year to protect access to reproductive health care by signing the Respect New Mexico Women and Families Act, which repealed New Mexico’s archaic abortion ban.
Conservative groups are betting on the valor of military veteran candidates, but they are not all created equal: Just look at Robert E. Lee.