{"id":20014,"date":"2026-03-14T14:46:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T14:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/2028-dem-veteran-uncle-sam-wants-you\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T14:46:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T14:46:37","slug":"2028-dem-veteran-uncle-sam-wants-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/2028-dem-veteran-uncle-sam-wants-you\/","title":{"rendered":"2028 Dem veteran? Uncle Sam wants you."},"content":{"rendered":"
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In the 15 days since President Donald Trump launched Operation Epic Fury on Iran, Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) is approaching nearly a dozen media appearances, offering his often visceral reaction to the conflict.<\/p>\n

Gallego, a 46-year-old combat veteran who deployed to Iraq as an infantryman in 2005, has emerged as<\/a> a blunt, clear voice for the Democratic Party on foreign policy, speaking as someone whose own generation experienced the forever wars.<\/p>\n

There he was on BLN\u2019s \u201cThe Source with Kaitlin Collins\u201d saying Secretary of State Marco Rubio was doing \u201cCYA\u201d and noting that the \u201cMAGA base is pissed<\/a>.\u201d There he was sitting down with the AP<\/a> speaking \u201cas someone who lives with PTSD,\u201d adding \u201cit\u2019s not been an easy week.\u201d And there he was on Derek Thompson\u2019s podcast, speaking about<\/a> \u201cgoing town to town searching for insurgents\u201d 21 years ago, \u201cbut there was no clear direction of what victory looked like, what the end goal was, what was going to be the after-action report on Iraq.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gallego isn\u2019t alone. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), a Navy captain who flew combat missions during Operation Desert Storm in 1990, has also racked up<\/a> a run of high-profile<\/a> media appearances, as has<\/a> former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a U.S. Navy Reserve intelligence officer who deployed to Afghanistan. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, who served in Afghanistan in the Army\u2019s 82nd Airborne, went on local radio this week to link Americans\u2019 affordability woes to the war<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a year after many Democrats pined for a metaphorical fighter, the party is now having a conversation with itself about whether it needs a literal fighter \u2014 a veteran who can speak with credibility on issues of war and national security.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Blue Light News, Gallego spoke of \u201cdodging bullets, IEDs, RPGs, clearing towns and then coming back to the same towns with insurgents\u201d and of \u201closing friends and still not understanding what the end goal was the whole time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt leaves a mark on you, and you start seeing it happening again, you know, you don’t really think about the politics,\u201d Gallego said. \u201cYou think about the people who are going to be potentially dying. And that\u2019s why I think I was not hesitant to speak my mind on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later this month in San Antonio, Texas, Gallego will join VoteVets Action for its third town hall featuring potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidates, promising \u201cfresh voices to the national conversation \u2014 those who have worn the uniform and served alongside us, who connect with everyday Americans others can\u2019t,\u201d according to a promotional video<\/a>. (They\u2019ve also done town halls with Buttigieg and Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin.)<\/p>\n

\u201cOn foreign policy, the Dems need a candidate who is seen as strong\/tough \u2014 not in rhetoric or bravado political platitudes but who conveys a sense of judgement and resolve with which voters connect instinctively,\u201d said Doug Wilson, the former assistant secretary of Defense for Public Affairs during the Obama administration and co-lead of Buttigieg\u2019s 2020 foreign policy team.<\/p>\n

The \u201cIran war underscores the need\u201d for such a candidate, Wilson added.<\/p>\n

Whomever the Democrats select as their nominee could potentially face a Situation Room-steeped ticket deep with national security credentials, including a Marine Iraq war veteran in Vice President JD Vance or Rubio, with his secretary of State experience.<\/p>\n

Depending on how the many conflicts the U.S. is engaged in at the moment resolve, that experience could cut against them.<\/p>\n

But right now, Democrats who can match those bona fides have some currency others without them can\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s obviously going to be helpful to them,\u201d said Matt Bennett, co-founder of the center-left think tank Third Way. \u201cIt’s gonna be a big part of what they’re talking about for the next little while. But you know, how long does it last? We just don’t know, right? In my professional lifetime, foreign policy stuff and national security has mattered in a presidential race once<\/i> \u2014 in 2004. That\u2019s it. Otherwise, it comes up, but it\u2019s not driving the conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some potential Democratic candidates without such credentials have still managed to break through amid the Iran news cycle. Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) has said the White House has treated aspects of the war \u201cas a video game<\/a>,\u201d in a clip gaining traction on X. \u201cWhen American service members killed in action are returning to the United States in flagged-draped coffins, and even more Americans have lost limbs or suffered terrible brain injuries or are fighting for their lives, this White House treats war like a game, and it\u2019s a disgrace,\u201d Ossoff said.<\/p>\n

When asked whether military service is an essential for the party\u2019s eventual nominee, Gallego acknowledged there is a benefit for someone who can \u201cspeak with that type of credibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not the type of person that’s like, \u2018you have to be a veteran \u2014 Iraq War veteran,\u2019\u201d Gallego said. \u201cThis is a democracy. We\u2019re still one, and there\u2019s a lot of people that can bring valuable experience and knowledge. But you know, someone that actually has a nuanced understanding of foreign policy; that doesn’t go to the total knee-jerk reactionism that sometimes we see where we go to the point of, you know, isolationism; or the other way, where we go to full neocon. There needs to be a very balanced way to how we approach the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like this content? Consider signing up for Blue Light News’s <\/i>Playbook newsletter<\/i><\/a>. <\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the 15 days since President Donald Trump launched Operation Epic Fury on Iran, Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) is approaching nearly a dozen media appearances, offering his often visceral reaction to the conflict. Gallego, a 46-year-old combat veteran who deployed to Iraq as an infantryman in 2005, has emerged as a blunt, clear voice for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20014\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}