Public Views of Military Service in Campaign Advertisements

• In Event: Civil-Military Relations in a Changing Society: Institutions and Interests

Abstract

How does the American public view veterans running for Congress and the way veterans characterize their military service in campaign advertisements? This paper analyzes the findings from a battery of questions in the 2022 post-election Cooperative Election Study, which included an original, embedded survey experiment. We find that confidence in veteran candidates running for Congress in general and voter preference for veteran candidates is conditioned on respondents’ partisanship. Additionally, findings from the experimental portion demonstrate that the public fails to respond to cues about normative prohibitions pertaining to how veteran candidates can portray their military service in campaign advertisements. Moreover, these survey results demonstrate that Republicans are far more supportive of veteran candidates prominently featuring their military credentials in campaign advertisements, even if those advertisements violate longstanding rules and norms governing the military’s role in elections.

Authors

• Heidi Urben, Georgetown University

• Michael Robinson, Georgetown University

• Risa A. Brooks, Marquette University