We Need More Veterans to Run for Office

We need more military veterans to run for office!

Our cities, states and country need more proven leaders seeking office. We’re hungry for men and women who have a proven will to fight for what they believe in, can lead under pressure and stand by their principles when faced with adversity. Doesn’t that description describe so many of our military veterans?

Running for office isn’t for everybody, even among veterans, but there are an incredible number of built-in advantages they have when they run. Service is part of their DNA and many of the veterans that I’ve interacted with immediately turn from their military service to looking for a second-service opportunity. While their tour in our country’s armed forces may be over, their dedication and oath remain intact.

Running for office is a powerful way for veterans to find that second-service opportunity.

What I did last week has me very excited about Veterans running for office…

Last week I got to spend 4 days helping with the new Patriot Academy Veteran’s Track. I highly encourage you to learn more about Patriot Academy but the short version is that it provides young people and now military veterans with a principle-based immersive legislative simulation. Basically a week of mock-government training in the Texas Capitol building.

I went through the student track (open for people ages 16-25) back in 2006 and the impact it had on me has shaped much of my political involvement since.

This year was the inaugural opportunity for the Veterans Track. About 40 military veterans from ranging in age from about 35-65 participated in the mock-legislative session and in a week of leadership and principles focused training. I got to work with them throughout the week and help them as they learned the legislative process, crafted their arguments and debated on the Texas State Senate floor.

I drove away from the Texas Capitol with a real fire for increasing the efforts we’re expending to identify, train and deploy military veterans as candidates for public office!

We’re dedicated to helping conservative Veterans run for office and win!

Our training, from the blog, podcast, videos and courses, is focused on helping “Good people get elected, to do great things.” Many of our tools are free and some are paid (Gotta take care of my wife, mortgage and kid on the way…) but we’re going to be giving away a bunch of those courses to veterans who are thinking about running. We want to help make their chances at winning as strong as possible!

We’re developing a plan, but need your input…

We’re looking for the best ways to help conservative veterans as they run for office and need your help with two things: 1. Identifying the best ways we can do that (free courses to veterans, consultations, events, etc) and 2. Supporting those efforts when they’re live.

I’m already talking with veteran and public service oriented organizations about helping us get these tools in the right hands and I’m confident that we’ll have that part in motion very soon.

Once we get going, the question will be one of scale. We want to donate as much as we can but it’s likely that we’ll need some financial support from other people who believe in our mission in order to full realize the scale I’m hoping for. This may take the shape of a scholarship program where you can sponsor a veteran to take the course, or something similar.

What can I do today?

If you also think we need more veterans running for office, please subscribe to our email list today. As soon as our action plan is finalized, we’ll be reaching out for feedback to that core group first and they’ll be the first to hear any news that’s released.

We’re going to need you to help us spread the word, give us advice and possibly support the effort financially.

Let’s work together to serve those who have sacrificed for us!