VoteVets, the liberal political action committee known for supporting veterans running for office, will spend $45 million to support President Biden and Democratic candidates for the House and Senate, said Jon Soltz, its co-founder and president. group.
VoteVets is the latest liberal organization to announce its 2024 plans to support Mr. Biden and other Democratic candidates. Future Forward, the main Democratic super PAC backing Mr. Biden’s bid, has planned a $250 million advertising blitz. Last month the liberal activist group MoveOn unveiled its $32 million plan.
The centerpiece of the VoteVets effort is a $15 million project targeting veterans and active-duty military families in presidential battleground states.
The man Mr. Biden beat in 2020 and is likely to face in a rematch this fall, former President Donald J. Trump, slipped in among veterans during his re-election campaign. In 2020, Mr. Trump fared a net 14 points worse among veterans and military families than he did in the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton, according to a Pew Research study released in 2021. A series of evidence followed that showed he had no respect for military officials and families.
“While all these other groups are focused on core participation, one has to be able to focus on damage reduction with some of these core groups,” Mr. Soltz said in an interview. “Elections aren’t just won by running up the score, but by cutting losses, and Biden’s success came in large part by cutting losses in this community.”
VoteVets, which Mr. Soltz founded in 2006 in opposition to the Iraq War, has grown into one of the Democratic Party’s top benefactors. Mr. Soltz has remained a leading voice for ending the US military presence in Afghanistan.
Mr. Scholz acknowledged that Mr. Biden’s handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan was “not well-tested,” but said that Mr. Trump’s support for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Capitol Hill and his public battles with military leaders will appear in the VoteVets ad.
“There are political implications to all of this,” Mr. Soltz said. “There is no other way to explain the disrespect for Gold Star families and the erratic behavior and attacks on law enforcement on Capitol Hill — these are values.”
In the 2022 midterm elections, only four other super PACs topped the $24.7 million VoteVets spent on Democratic candidates: the major House and Senate super PACs, the League of Conservation Voters and EMILYs List, which supports Democratic women who support abortion rights.
VoteVets had $11 million in cash at the end of 2023, according to its filing with the Federal Election Commission.
The group will spend money to support Senate Democratic incumbents in Montana, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Ohio, along with Reps. Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, who are seeking a Senate promotion. VoteVets will also support Rep. Andy Kim of New Jersey, who is in a tough primary campaign to succeed embattled and impeached Sen. Robert Menendez.
VoteVets will also support Democratic House candidates who are veterans, have national security backgrounds or are in the most competitive districts, Mr. Scholtz said.
Mr. Soltz said VoteVets intended to conduct research and focus group polling on the network of veterans and active-duty service members’ families. It will also run targeted mail and digital advertising campaigns, as well as television and radio ads targeting rural markets that have larger concentrations of veterans.
To that end, VoteVets has already begun its campaign to amplify some of Mr. Trump’s more infamous statements about the military. Last month, the group spent $100,000 on an ad that aired in Pennsylvania during an NFL playoff game, featuring Gold Star parents who condemned Mr. Trump for calling Americans who died in overseas wars “whores” and “lost”.
Rep. Brian Mast of Florida, a Trump campaign surrogate, called the VoteVets ad “both vulgar and absurd.”
