Veterans Group Spends Big Against Senators who Blocked Vet Healthcare
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 25, 2024
Veterans Group Spends Big Against Senators who Blocked Vet Healthcare
WASHINGTON D.C. – As reported in Huffington Post by Daniel Marans, Common Defense — the nation’s largest grassroots organization of veterans engaging in elections, with more than 15,000 members in Nebraska, Montana, and Texas alone — is spending $500,000 across three of the most competitive Senate races in the country to hold Senators Deb Fischer and Ted Cruz accountable for attempting to block the PACT Act, as well as supporting Senator Jon Tester who championed the PACT Act and helped ensure it’s passage through the Senate in 2022.
Forcing veterans to have to fight for the healthcare they needed to treat toxic exposures is something all Americans should rightfully be outraged about. Putting corporate handouts over the health and well-being of our veterans, and fist-bumping like Sen. Cruz did after blocking the bill, are the furthest things from “supporting the troops.” Nebraskans and Texans deserve to know who their Senators are really supporting. It is clearly not the veterans and military families within their states.
An example of the advertising campaign can be found here
EXCERPT FROM ARTICLE:
“Angela Montalvo, a Nebraska native and Army veteran who is now an organizer for Common Defense, recalled her frustration at having to call Fischer’s office in 2022 to demand she support the PACT Act. Montalvo’s husband has had respiratory issues related to his exposure to burn pits while serving in Kosovo.
“It’s more than just about holding the Senate…It’s also about holding these senators accountable and sending a message to the rest of them that this is what happens if you stand against these veterans and their health care.
“I really dislike people who claim to be patriotic, but don’t like the veterans who have served,” she added.”
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Common Defense Civic Engagement is a grassroots, veteran-led organization that was founded in 2016. We empower veterans to stand up for our communities against the rising tide of racism, hate, and violence, to organize against the entrenched powers that have rigged our economy, and to champion an equitable and representative democracy, where “liberty and justice” truly is for all. For too long, politicians from both political parties have attempted to use veterans as unwilling political props, and Common Defense serves as a home for veterans to organize and speak for themselves and support the candidates who truly share our values.