Sen. Tom Cotton is heading to Iowa to launch Veterans to Victory, a program the Arkansas Republican and prospective 2024 presidential candidate is starting to elect and reelect Republican military veterans to Congress.
Cotton will unveil Veterans to Victory on Tuesday in Sioux Center, where he is scheduled to headline a state Republican Party reception and mingle with GOP voters and local elected officials. The senator, an Iraq War Army combat veteran, has regularly supported military veterans who run for office as Republicans. Now, he is formalizing those efforts in a program that will provide fundraising, campaign infrastructure, and other forms of political assistance to endorsed candidates.
“The skills veterans learn while serving our country make them uniquely qualified to lead,” Cotton said in a statement shared with the Washington Examiner. “I am launching the Veterans to Victory program to give veterans the support they need to win and take back the majority.”
Cotton has provided granular support to Republican challengers and incumbents whom he has endorsed for the past few years, working closely with them on a personal level, deploying his political team to collaborate with their campaigns, and allowing them to take advantage of his existing infrastructure. With Veterans to Victory, the senator has turned his efforts into a political program that focuses on boosting military veterans running for the House and Senate or seeking reelection.
Candidates who participate in the program receive Cotton’s backing the primary and general elections, the senator’s commitment to campaign for endorsed candidates in their districts or states and air advertisements attacking their Democratic opponents, and his help with fundraising, both in the form of traditional contributions through his political action committee and digital giving via the network of grassroots donors he has been building over the past few years.
IOWA REPUBLICANS SAY NIKKI HALEY’S ROW WITH TRUMP NOT A DEAL-BREAKER
The first three Republicans to join Veterans to Victory hail from key presidential battlegrounds.
Cotton is endorsing Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, an Army veteran who represents Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District. The Iowa caucus is traditionally the first contest on the Republican Party’s presidential nominating calendar, and the state has already seen a parade of GOP 2024 hopefuls travel there to lend a hand to Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds and down-ballot candidates since former President Donald Trump left the White House.
Cotton also is endorsing two Republicans in Wisconsin, a swing state in general elections. The senator is backing Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Marine veteran running for reelection in the 8th District, and Navy SEAL veteran Derrick Van Orden, the Republican challenging Democratic Rep. Ron Kind in the 3rd District.
“As service members, we took an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That oath never expired,” Van Orden said in a statement issued by the Veterans to Victory program.
Cotton is the latest Republican mulling a 2024 presidential bid to introduce a concerted program ostensibly dedicated to helping the GOP win back Congress in 2022. Democrats are clinging to a single-digit majority in the House. The Senate, meanwhile, is split 50-50, with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris casting tiebreaking votes. With President Joe Biden in the White House, trends suggest that Republicans are positioned to reclaim power on Capitol Hill next year.
