Reaching out to voters is the most important work any campaign or organization can do during an election season. In 2020, American Veterans Honor Fund embarked on an extensive campaign to reach out to voters in North Carolina. Our mission was to get the vote out on behalf of Veteran candidates and those who would be a voice for the Veteran community in government. Through an extensive network of calls, emails, and text messages, American Veterans Honor Fund was able to reach tens of thousands of voters and generate an organic grassroots effort to elect candidates who represent our mission and the interests of American Veterans in 2020.
To reach so many thousands of voters we implemented several effective campaigns to raise awareness on the importance of Veteran representation in Congress. One of these tools was our use of simple mail-inserts to generate interest and highlight the benefits of Veterans in government. With the decline of Veterans in Congress has come the rise in hyper-partisan, career bureaucrats. This simple message is one of the foundations of our advocacy. From there, we followed up with extensive outreach to make contact with as many voters as possible. In just one Congressional district in North Carolina, we were able to engage with over 30,000 potential voters. This included 46,000 phone calls, 18,000 text messages, and 6 thousand emails. Through these initiatives, we were able to generate 70,000 impressions with voters.
All of North Carolina’s 13 House seats were up for election on November 3rd. In total, Republicans took 8 seats and Democrats took 5. One of the victors on Election Night in North Carolina was Republican Dan Bishop, who won the seat for the 9th Congressional District. As a member of the State Senate, he “voted to protect Medicaid, ensure in-state tuition, and create job opportunities for our veterans, increase access to health care, exempt military retirement from the state income tax, and fund programs to help veterans in crisis.” Republican David Rouzer represents the state’s 7th Congressional District, home to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. He won re-election on November 3rd and has a strong record of fighting for Veterans, including his proposed bill, Veterans’ Credit Protection Act of 2019, which directs the VA to help prevent and resolve credit issues stemming from late or delayed payments for medical claims.
These are just two of the pro-Veteran, pro-Military candidates who won in North Carolina during this past election. We look forward to the continued success of our grassroots campaign to raise awareness for Veteran’s issues and to garner support for Veteran candidates, or pro-Vet candidates, in many more elections to come!
The vision of American Veterans Honor Fund is “to become the preeminent proponent of Veteran politicians in the nation. We will strive to prepare dedicated Veterans from all military branches to continue their careers of service as elected officials at all levels of state and local government.” This year was a noteworthy election due to the sheer number of Veteran candidates running for the House of Representatives.
