Democrats are turning to a tried-and-true campaign strategy as they try to win a House majority next year: recruiting and running military veterans.
In some of the 2026 midterm election’s top battleground districts, former Marines, Air Force officers, Navy pilots and Army combat veterans have emerged as leading Democratic House candidates, launching campaigns against Republican lawmakers that draw heavily on their records of service. Many of these Democratic candidates were recruited directly by party leaders in Washington, who have made a concerted effort to encourage veterans to seek elected office.
The military-centric strategy is a reprisal of Democrats’ approach during the last midterm elections under President Donald Trump. In 2018, the party relied on many veterans-turned-candidates on their way to gaining 41 House seats and the chamber’s legislative majority. Party leaders say they are deliberately copying elements of that strategy now, hoping to achieve a similar level of success next year.
“The proof of prior cycles is that veterans are very successful in campaigns,” said Rep. Jason Crow, a former Army Ranger who is taking point on recruiting veterans for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the House Democrats’ political arm. “There’s a lot of districts where I think our veteran candidates are going to do well, and we have several who we’re looking hard at right now that I think have a good opportunity to be successful.”
The surge of veterans running for office comes as the Democratic Party undertakes a larger debate over how it can rebuild its reputation with voters, some of whom see it as weak and ideologically extreme.
Recruiting veterans could be the quickest way for the party to improve its image, especially with more moderate voters, because of the military’s broad popularity with the public, party strategists say.
“The reality is in most districts we’re competing in, just getting all the Democrats isn’t enough,” said Jason Bresler, who was the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s political director in 2018. “That doesn’t mean you have a lot of Republican votes, but we at least need to keep the door open for them. And vets do that.”
Democratic strategists say they think the candidates’ military backgrounds insulate them from criticism that they’re radical or anti-American.
“When you serve the military, you write a blank check to your country, for up to and including the value of your life,” Ryan Crosswell, a former lieutenant colonel in the Marines who last week declared he is running in Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District. “I think when you have that mindset, and then you run for Congress, you’re getting someone who gets that the country and the Constitution come above politics, certainly above a president.”
Veterans already running as Democrats include Marines Crosswell, JoAnna Mendoza in Arizona and Maura Sullivan in New Hampshire; former Air Force officers Kevin Techau in Iowa and Moe Davis in North Carolina; former Naval helicopter pilot Rebecca Bennett in New Jersey; and Army combat veteran Cait Conley in New York.
Another candidate, former Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam, is expected to run in Michigan’s 7th District.
Democrats say they expect more veterans to declare over the summer, when the third fundraising quarter for federal candidates begins. Even if Democrats are off to a good start, however, they have a ways to go before matching 2018’s recruitment success: Well over 50 veterans ran for House seats that year, Bressler said.
Most of these candidates will face competitive primaries before reaching the general election, with no guarantee they’ll win the party’s nomination. And a candidate’s background alone does not determine whether they’ll impress voters.
Asked about Democrats’ strategy of recruiting veterans, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee alluded to a series of primary challenges backed by former Democratic National Committee vice chair David Hogg as proof that the party is struggling.
“Democrats across the nation are locked into a toxic competition over who will lurch furthest to the left, and it’s all trickling down from their persistent infighting on the national level,” said NRCC spokesperson Mike Marinella. “They have no leader, no message, and soon, no formidable candidates because they simply can’t hide their extremism.”
Many GOP lawmakers in battleground districts are themselves veterans, including Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Gabe Evans of Colorado.
Many of the Democratic recruits this election cycle have no background in politics. It’s not always easy to get volunteers for getting “beat up, name called and dragged through the mud” of public political life, Crow said.
“My job actually is to sometimes give them the information and maybe a little bit of coaxing,” Crow said. “Because a lot of the people who we really want, in many instances, are reluctant to serve because they haven’t been sitting around clamoring for 20 years for the opportunity to run for Congress.”
Not everyone needs a push out onto the campaign trail. Bennett volunteered to run in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, saying it was what she felt “called to do after the last election.”
Bennett was a Navy helicopter pilot who was deployed multiple times over more than a decade of service. She’s endorsed by both VoteVets, a veteran-focused super PAC, and New Politics, a separate PAC that specifically recruits and trains candidates with public service backgrounds.
Bennett sees that service as a bridge to people who might not have normally voted for her.
“It helps transcend hearts and minds, being able to appeal to people across different areas,” she said. “It helps to be able to approach folks that are maybe independent or unaffiliated, that may not necessarily consider themselves affiliated with either party.”
Crow agrees, saying veterans are often more pragmatic and willing to be bipartisan.
Veterans are also bringing along their own community, which is increasingly finding itself at the center of politics. Crosswell said he keeps getting support from his fellow Marines the more he wades into the political arena, but says he’s still got a lot to learn.“This is my first time in politics, right? And what’s the military term — you know, drinking through a fire hose?” he said. “But boy, I love to see it. I’m really encouraged by the other people I’m seeing jumping in on the Democratic side, who were federal agents or military, who want to serve in Congress.”
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John T. Seward is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow. Alex Roarty is a reporter at NOTUS.