Both Parties Try to Rally the Troops as Election Looms

It wasn’t until one month before the election that a presidential candidate made the first stop of 2024 in Fayetteville. While Kamala Harris swung by the city in July, it was to campaign on behalf of Joe Biden, who would drop out of the race just days later. 

When former President Donald Trump made his way here for an October 4 town hall held minutes from Fort Liberty, home to the largest U.S. military base, he touted many of his standard talking points on immigration, vaccine mandates, and national security.

He also made an appeal to members of the military community. “We’re going to take care of our veterans properly,” said Trump, responding to a question from a Vietnam veteran who highlighted the homeless rate of veterans and asked about plans to address the issue.  

Trump’s visit to Cumberland County might appear surprising, as it has voted for the Democratic Party in recent elections. But with 700,000 active duty service members and veterans in the state, it’s an important part of Trump’s path to North Carolina’s 16 electoral votes. 

“We had a 92 percent approval rating at the VA [Department of Veterans Affairs],” said Trump, answering a question asked by a local advocate for veterans. “Now it’s down in the 40s.”

That’s not exactly true, based upon information provided by the VA. It found that trust in its services actually increased from a low of 55 percent in 2016 to a peak of 80 percent in 2020, a rate that has generally held steady for both Trump and Biden. 

For a voting bloc that traditionally has been categorized as strongly Republican, research shows that the veteran vote is still varied across factors like age and race. Vice presidential candidates Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Republican Ohio Sen. JD Vance both identify themselves as veterans. In North Carolina, several candidates vying for important statewide offices have military service records—on both sides of the aisle.

The presidential race in North Carolina is going to be close: Based on the polling aggregator 538, Trump is on average leading by one point over Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. Courting the military vote is key. With active duty military and veterans making up 10 percent of the state’s adult population, even a small shift in how they vote could be enough to flip the margins.

“Veterans have shaped American political history from the start,” said Ted Spencer, a Charlotte native who spent eight years in the Navy as a nuclear reactor technician and is now part of Common Defense, a progressive political action organization.

“Every generation of veterans has played a key part in the politics of their time,” he said. “For the Global War on Terror generation, it’s our turn. … We’re going to play an important role in how 2024 turns out in North Carolina.”

A Temperature Check 

While the military vote historically has leaned Republican, some data suggests that this has started to change in recent years with the rise of Donald Trump. Data from the past eight years finds his comments about servicemembers, plus the controversy around his actions at Arlington National Cemetery in August, seem to have eroded some of the support he once enjoyed.

According to 2016 exit polls, veterans voted for Donald Trump by a margin of 61 percent to 34 percent. But 2020 saw a 10-point swing toward Biden. It is still an open question of what these trends will look like this year: Pew Research Center released a study last month showing that veterans in their sample supported Trump over Harris 61 to 37 percent. 

Lorcan Neill, a researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who studies political communication and has previously worked on veterans’ issues, said the lack of specifics on veterans’ issues has been a big miss by both presidential campaigns. Harris only mentioned veterans once during her October 13 campaign rally in Greenville, North Carolina, for instance–a place that is only hours in either direction from Fort Liberty or Camp Lejeune, respectively. 

“The VA has a ton of issues affecting it and has its own priorities: veteran suicide, homelessness, brain injuries, and burn pit exposure, for example,” said Neill. “I haven’t seen a ton of messages highlighting veterans from either campaign.”

At Fort Liberty, nearly one out of three servicemembers and their families suffer from food insecurity, and veterans make up 18-20 percent of the state’s homeless population. Veterans in North Carolina also have a suicide rate that is twice the state’s average and are at risk of side effects from traumatic brain injuries. There are also issues with the state’s Veterans Health Care system, including access to care among rural veterans. At Camp Lejeune, a water contamination scandal remains unresolved after 30 years, with many veterans still not receiving payouts despite the passage of legislation meant to rectify it. 

Trump’s plans for veterans are also unclear. His signature legislative achievement for veterans while in office was the passage of the MISSION Act, which expanded the number of veterans eligible to receive private health care funded by the VA and consolidated several different programs for community care into one, allowing veterans to seek care outside the system if they faced long wait times.

Reviews of the MISSION Act’s impact have been mixed, with problems arising around the quality of care at community facilities compared with the VA system, leading to longer wait times for veterans for health care. 

Vice President Harris’ campaign is pledging to end veteran homelessness, invest more deeply into mental health and suicide prevention efforts, eliminate barriers to employment, and expand economic opportunity for military and veteran families. 

Under the Biden-Harris administration, the “Honoring Our PACT Act” of 2022 was passed, what the VA called perhaps the largest single expansion of veteran health care benefits in American history. Focusing on the health effects of toxic exposure to burn pits among Global War on Terrorism veterans and those in other wars, the White House estimated more than 900,000 veterans have had their claims approved under the law. The implementation, however, has been problematic, including the VA being overwhelmed by the demand. 

“The Biden administration has a decent record on veteran care, especially with the passage of the PACT Act,” said Neill. “I’m surprised the Harris campaign is not highlighting that more; it’s something that’s hard to politically attack, and it’s a potential way to build on a legacy of good work.”

Neill believes Trump is in a stronger position with veteran groups, despite his checkered history with them.

“Veterans already overwhelmingly support Trump over Harris,” said Neill. “The Trump campaign correctly has Vance do much of the appeals to vets given his own service in the Marines and Trump’s repeated controversial statements regarding the military.” 

Winning Over Younger Vets

Both parties want to capture the votes of veterans like Austin Campbell, an Asheville native who served in the Air Force from 2017 to ‘19 before suffering a traumatic brain injury that led to him being medically discharged. 

Campbell, who had previously been a registered Democrat, is now registered as an independent. He said his military experiences have shaped his political beliefs.

“I voted for Joe Biden in 2020,” said Campbell. “It was hard for me to endorse Trump due to his comments about women and minority groups. My time in the military was extremely diverse, and I have friends from all walks of life and all over the world. I have a lot of friends from different countries, and when Trump said he wanted to close the border and kick people out, that’s people I know.”

Campbell remains undecided this election—neither has proven that they are worthy of his support, he said. 

“A lot of Trump’s support was that he was perceived as doing good for the military,” said Campbell. “A lot of people from when I served say, ‘Well, I know when Trump was president, we got more money.’ And I feel there’s a definite generational difference between support for Trump among veterans: I feel like older veterans love him a lot more than younger ones do.” 

Campbell says he’s worried voters are misinformed about what each candidate has actually done for the military. (The data shows that military pay raises have, on average, been higher under Biden than Trump, according to the Department of Defense.)

But it’s a murkier picture when it comes to how veterans actually vote. A Military Times survey in 2020 found veterans 54 and under leaned Biden, while a 2018 survey found younger veterans lean more Republican than their older peers. There also seems to be a difference between active duty military and veterans. A 2020 Military Times and Syracuse University survey found Biden had a slight edge over Trump among active duty military.

For Dakota Passmore, a 24-year-old veteran from Wilkesboro whose time in the Army included a 2019 tour in Afghanistan, the issues are personal. 

“I care the most about abortion rights and the overturn of Roe v. Wade at the state level,” said Passmore. “The economy is also a big one: I’d like to be able to buy a house one day. It feels like we no longer have a middle class anymore.” 

Passmore is now a graduate student at UNC-Chapel Hill who plans to work in veteran advocacy due to what she perceives as the poor level of care in rural North Carolina. She said she is frustrated at the lack of attention candidates have paid to the needs of veterans.

“You shouldn’t have veterans, who volunteered to serve their country and did their duty, who are struggling to get food or housing,” she said. “They shouldn’t have issues getting medical care. This is simple stuff, and they deserve better.”

“If a candidate really wanted to sway veterans,” said Campbell, “they would offer or run on a comprehensive overhaul of the Department of Veterans Affairs. I have so many issues with the VA myself with getting access to care and benefits, and it is extremely common to hear from other veterans with the same problems. It seems to be perpetually troubled, yet no one is really offering specifics beyond ‘I support the troops.’”

Boots On the Ground

In Cumberland County, home of Fort Liberty, the Republican effort to win the military vote was on full display at the Crown Complex on October 4. 

Trump entered the stage with chants of “U-S-A!” emanating from the crowd, a mix of veterans and even some active duty troops. The military and veteran community were at the top of his mind, he said, calling them “real heroes.” Democrats, meanwhile, are “a bunch of lunatics” who don’t care about the military. 

“President Trump cares deeply for our veterans,” Matt Mercer, who attended the event and is the director of communications for the state Republican Party, said in a statement to The Assembly.  “He will restore Trump administration reforms to expand veterans’ healthcare choices, protect whistleblowers, and hold accountable poorly performing employees not giving our veterans the care they deserve.”  

The GOP also has put a robust effort on the ground in Cumberland, including reaching out to veterans since March 2023, said Nina Morton, head of the local GOP office. “The majority of our executive board and volunteers are veterans who tap into their personal networks. We also have a board member who is a representative on the Cumberland County Veterans Council.” 

Even though the county has leaned Democratic in recent elections, Republicans here said they are focusing their efforts on the county’s 77 voting precincts and the veterans present in all of them. The GOP also has made attempts to cover more comprehensively areas such as Fort Liberty. 

“I am particularly proud of appointing, training, and actively supporting more precinct chairs than Cumberland County has ever had,” said Morton, including the Manchester precinct which includes Fort Liberty.

Common Defense, which describes itself as a progressive political action group that is often aligned with Democrats, has also been working to gin up its base.

Political director Naveed Shah, an Army veteran who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, is hopeful about their chances.

“Veterans have a bigger impact on elections than people think,” said Shah. “From what I’m seeing, younger veterans are trending more to the left. A growing segment of the veteran population is women and minorities. 

“That’s part of what Common Defense is trying to accomplish,” he continued. “We want to denounce violent rhetoric and get more veterans involved in the conversation. Veterans’ issues are everyone’s issues.”

The group also has endorsed candidates, including U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross, a Democrat representing the 2nd District of North Carolina. Their endorsement list also includes Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Rep. Ashley Ehasz (D-Pa.), and Rep. Monica Tranel (D-Mont.) among others from the presidential to congressional levels.  

For Spencer, the Navy veteran from Charlotte who now leads Common Defense’s efforts in the state, the work isn’t just about the election. 

“We’re a movement,” said Spencer. “We’re seeking to get veterans to organize around the election in a peaceful manner.”

Spencer said Common Defense’s outreach focuses on jobs, the environment, health, and education.

“In North Carolina, we have about 65 active members who are engaging in a wide range of activities around the election, from knocking doors, to making phone calls, to volunteering at polling places or working as election monitors,” he said. 

The group has held seven events in the state in the past few months, including voter education and community organizing. 

“We’re finding that there’s a lot of veterans upset about what’s currently happening politically, and they want to do more,” Spencer said. “The goal is to train veterans to get them involved, and this is a long-term effort in order to build political power.”

The Middle of the Road 

The military and veterans loom large as political factors in this election. Both vice presidential candidates, Gov. Walz and Sen. Vance, served in the military.

In North Carolina, the GOP nominee for governor, Mark Robinson, is a U.S. Army Reserve veteran. Jeff Jackson, the Democratic nominee for attorney general, is a major in the N.C. National Guard whose 20 years of service included a tour in Afghanistan. 

In Fayetteville, former U.S. Army Capt. Shelane Etchison is running for Congress as an unaffiliated candidate in the 9th District, which includes Fort Liberty.

For Etchison, 38, being a veteran is why she got into politics–and how she sees a path to winning.

“The veterans’ community here is my community, and they were a huge part of me getting on the ballot,” said Etchison. “They’ve been involved with my campaign from day one. …  I hope my campaign serves as an inspiration for veterans in the state who want to run for office.

“You can’t replace the lived experience of being in uniform when it comes to understanding our issues and getting them addressed,” she added.

Her campaign has focused on concerns like the VA and support for families.

Still, everyone working on the ground acknowledges this is a fight that will continue well beyond November. 

“We all have the shared experience of serving and being part of something bigger than ourselves,” said Spencer. “ A lot of us want to continue serving, and organizations like this are ways to give back.”

Daniel Johnson is a Roy H. Park doctoral fellow at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was a journalist for the U.S. Army in 2016 in Iraq, and has reported for The New York Times and The Washington Post. Work he contributed to on blast overpressure injuries was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in national reporting in 2024.