CHICAGO — Democrats are hoping to wrestle veteran voters away from Republicans this year, and plan to highlight efforts to expand health care access in campaigns for some key seats. Central to the party’s argument is the 2022 law expanding access to health care for veterans exposed to toxins while serving overseas. That legislation has led to a sharp increase in demand at the Department of Veterans Affairs, with over 412,000 new veterans enrolled over the past year.
That high level of interest has even led to a VA budget shortfall that lawmakers will be scrambling to fill in September. Two of the Democratic senators behind that effort, Montana’s Jon Tester and Pennsylvania’s Bob Casey, are featuring the law in campaign advertisements, and President Joe Biden called the law “one of the most significant laws ever” in his keynote address here Monday night. “We have only one truly sacred obligation: to prepare and equip those we send to war and care for them and their families when they come and when they don’t,” Biden said.
Veterans voted for President Donald Trump over Biden in 2020 by a 54% to 44% margin in 2020, according to exit polls conducted by television networks. Members of the Democratic National Committee’s Veterans and Military Families Council met Tuesday and vowed to push against the Republican Party’s grip on veteran voters. “For too long, the GOP has laid claims to veterans, our nation’s defense, and all things patriotic,” Terron Sims .