Nearly 200 veterans won major-party primaries this year and will vie for a seat in Congress in the midterm elections, making this the largest field of candidates with military experience in a decade.

Both parties have prized veterans as candidates over the years because of the public’s trust in the military and their perceived expertise on foreign policy and government operations, Grant Reeher, director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute, tells Military Times.

"And veterans lean more heavily towards Republicans than Democrats, relative to the rest of the population," he says. "So it is tougher for Democrats to find veteran candidates. But in some ways, they’re recruiting veterans even harder than the Republicans are."

Reeher was also quoted in the Military Times article, "Half of GOP vets running for Congress have challenged Biden’s 2020 win." "I’m not surprised to see these numbers, because I think candidates feel if they’re on the Republican side that they’ve got to say this," says Reeher.

Reeher was interviewed for the City & State article, "The New York veterans running for Congress." "You’ve got to be able to articulate a connection between what you've done as a veteran, and how that's going to make you a better representative," Reeher says.