With John McCain’s Navy background, his hawkish views and the strong backing of his fellow ex-POWs, the Republican presidential nominee appears to have a strong claim on the vote of military veterans.
But Democrats have their own plans to win over that voting bloc, with outreach efforts under way, including the active involvement of Michelle Obama in wooing the group.
“I’m confident that we will experience a level of support that we have not experienced in years past,” said Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, a colonel in the Army Reserve who served in Iraq.
Brown had been co-chairman of Hillary Clinton’s national veterans steering committee and campaigned for her among veterans in Pennsylvania and Ohio. He plans to do the same for Obama.
“There’s a lot of grassroots activity throughout the country,” particularly among young veterans who have generally not been as active as older veterans, Brown said.
Michelle Obama talked about veterans issues this week in broadcast interviews and her speech Monday night to the Democratic National Convention.
She referred to her husband’s work on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, “fighting to ensure the men and women who serve this country are welcomed home … with good jobs and health care, including mental health care.”
The candidate’s wife is heading up Blue Star Families for Obama — families of members of the armed forces — and held two roundtable discussions with the relatives of military serving overseas in Virginia earlier this month.
Still Obama’s task is daunting. The Gallup Poll, interviewing 2,238 veterans in early August tracking polls, found ex-military “solidly back McCain over Obama, 56 percent to 34 percent,” said Jeffrey Jones of Gallup. But “McCain is doing only about as well among military veterans as Bush did in 2004.”
The support is mainly attributed to veterans’ strong Republican leanings, as might be expected among a group overwhelmingly older and male.
While Brown concedes that “veterans have consistently voted Republican,” he pointed to an analysis of campaign contributions released by the Center for Responsive Politics two weeks ago.
The numbers are small — only 323 donors serving abroad — but overall, Obama has gotten more money from more military personnel — $335,000 from 859 donors — than McCain — $280,000 from 558 donors — who only recently edged former presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, in contributions from the military. That means that 46 percent of the military contributors sent money to the two strongest anti-war candidates — Obama and Paul.
