{"id":2385224,"date":"2025-01-01T05:49:01","date_gmt":"2025-01-01T10:49:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/veteran-pac-funded-by-democrats-and-big-labor\/"},"modified":"2025-01-01T05:52:13","modified_gmt":"2025-01-01T10:52:13","slug":"veteran-pac-funded-by-democrats-and-big-labor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/veteran-pac-funded-by-democrats-and-big-labor\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Veteran&#8217; PAC funded by Democrats and Big Labor"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fveteran-pac-funded-by-democrats-and-big-labor%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2385224&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article discusses the progressive institution VoteVets, which claims to\u2064 advocate for veterans&#8217; interests\u200b but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pitts-infamous-experimentation-on-aborted-babies-takes-center-stage-in-state-funding-battle\/\" title=\"Pitt\u2019s Infamous Experimentation On Aborted Babies Takes Center Stage In State Funding Battle\">receives significant funding<\/a>\u200c from\u2064 labor \u200dunions and large Democratic PACs. In the 2024 election cycle, VoteVets raised around $31\u2063 million, with at least $10 million coming \u200cfrom sources not affiliated with veterans.Its largest contributor was the House \u2063Majority PAC,linked to the Democratic Party. Critics argue that votevets&#8217; advocacy aligns closely with Democratic Party policies, often\u200d incorporating themes related to climate change and misinformation that \u200dare prioritized by the Biden administration. This involvement has raised concerns among nonpartisan veteran groups\u2063 about the potential exploitation of military service for partisan agendas. Leaders \u200din these\u2062 groups have voiced\u2063 apprehension over the increasing partisanship in organizations that should\u2063 traditionally remain nonpolitical.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">&lsquo;Veteran&rsquo; PAC bankrolled by millions from Democratic establishment and Big Labor<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_1877037\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>A progressive organization <a href=\"https:\/\/votevets.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">promising<\/a> to &ldquo;lift up the voices of veterans&rdquo; receives a considerable portion of its funding from labor unions and large Democratic PACs, raising questions about its ability to advocate the interests of veterans independently.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>Of the roughly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fec.gov\/data\/committee\/C00418897\/?tab=summary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">$31 million<\/a> VoteVets raised during the 2024 election cycle, at least <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheets\/d\/1wt6A9FYvKpLOj-fl3G2qWmBLBZ5qyOda0GE7hY49Wn8\/edit?usp=sharing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">$10 million<\/a> came from nonveteran sources. The organization&rsquo;s single largest contributor, donating about $2.7 million, was the House Majority PAC, the committee designated by the Democratic Party to elect its members to the lower chamber. Other major nonveteran contributors to VoteVets included the Senate Majority PAC, the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry, the American Federation of Teachers, the International Union of Operating Engineers, and the Democratic Majority Action PAC.<\/p>\n<p>Many of the <a href=\"https:\/\/votevets.org\/policy-priorities\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">promises<\/a> VoteVets makes when claiming to advocate veterans&rsquo; interests are couched in the language of the Democratic Party. The organization, for instance, insists that we must reverse &ldquo;climate change, which threatens global security,&rdquo; and that &ldquo;combating the spread of disinformation&rdquo; is crucial to keeping America safe. The Biden administration, alongside congressional Democrats, has prioritized countering <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/statements-releases\/2024\/11\/14\/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-continues-driving-climate-investments-to-reduce-emissions-lower-home-energy-costs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">climate change<\/a> through spending on alternative energy sources and sought to tackle disinformation through initiatives such as the ill-fated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dhs.gov\/publication\/disinformation-governance-board\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Disinformation Governance Board<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Leaders at nonpartisan veteran groups have expressed concerns about military service being exploited for partisan agendas.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Most mainstream veterans groups are required to be nonpartisan, and it concerns me that we do have groups on both extremes that are very partisan in their approach and very calculating in what they want to accomplish,&rdquo; Joe Violante, the national legislative director of Disabled American Veterans, <a href=\"https:\/\/rollcall.com\/2014\/09\/30\/who-really-speaks-for-veterans-rules-of-the-game\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">said <\/a>of the group in 2014. <em>Politico <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2015\/06\/partisan-veterans-koch-steyer-2016-elections-119396\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">reported<\/a> a year later that Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America founder Paul Rieckhoff &ldquo;expressed deep misgivings about the veteran label being used to advance partisan agendas.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">U.S. Army 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment Lt. Col. Erik Kurilla, right, and his soldiers pursue an insurgent sniper after two soldiers were shot and wounded, one in the hand and one in the leg on Feb. 10, 2005, in Mosul, Iraq. (AP Photo\/Jim MacMillan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>While VoteVets does receive a considerable portion of its funds from nonveteran sources, it also receives a significant amount from individual contributions. How much of these individual contributions come from veterans, however, is unknown as the Federal Election Commission does not collect data on veteran status from donors. Some of the PAC&rsquo;s high-profile donors, such as James Murdoch and Soros heir Alex Soros, are not veterans while others, such as transgender activist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pritzkermilitary.org\/about\/mission-personnel\/board-directors\/colonel-jn-pritzker\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Jennifer Pritzker<\/a> and investor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.investopedia.com\/contributors\/359\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Frank Armstrong<\/a>, did serve in the armed forces.<\/p>\n<p>VoteVets, which is registered as a PAC, has previously faced scrutiny for allegedly skirting the legal line regarding its cooperation with the Democratic Party. The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust and the Functional Government Initiative, two right-of<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">-center government watchdog groups<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/ethics-complaints-pile-up-against-eugene-vindman-over-illegal-super-pac-coordination\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">filed complaints<\/a> with the FEC after the <em>Washington Free Beacon <\/em>reported that the group was handling communications for Democratic congressional candidate Eugene Vindman.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The facts are clear in this case, VoteVets PAC is providing communications services to Vindman&rsquo;s campaign, including making statements to the media that are directly attributable to the campaign,&rdquo; the FACT complaint reads.&nbsp;&ldquo;This is a service that has value and thus there is reason to believe that Vindman has accepted, and VoteVets has made, an illegal in-kind contribution of communication services &hellip; VoteVets is obviously not independent from the campaign and cannot make &lsquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/megadonors-pour-record-amount-of-money-into-get-out-the-vote-effort-for-dems\/\" title=\"Megadonors Pour Record Amount of Money Into \u2018Get Out the Vote\u2019 Effort for Dems\">independent expenditures<\/a>.&rsquo;&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\"><strong><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>PACs are prohibited from coordinating with campaigns for electoral purposes. VoteVets <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fec.gov\/data\/independent-expenditures\/?data_type=processed&amp;most_recent=true&amp;q_spender=C00418897&amp;cycle=2024&amp;is_notice=true&amp;candidate_id=H4VA07234\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">spent <\/a>over $400,000 on independent expenditures supporting Vindman&rsquo;s campaign. The FACT argued that the spending, in combination with the PAC performing communications work for Vindman, amounted to illegal coordination. The PAC <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fec.gov\/data\/independent-expenditures\/?data_type=processed&amp;most_recent=true&amp;q_spender=C00418897&amp;cycle=2024&amp;is_notice=true\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">expended<\/a> millions supporting Democrats and opposing Republicans through independent expenditures during the 2024 election cycle.<\/p>\n<p>VoteVets did not respond to the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em>&rsquo;s request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_1877037\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"1877037\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Veteran&#8217; PAC funded by millions from Democratic groups and unions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":894,"featured_media":2385225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/ap-eugene-vindman-2.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[38629,7409,5894,4873],"class_list":["post-2385224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-labor-unions","tag-pac","tag-politics","tag-veterans"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/ap-eugene-vindman-2.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2385224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/894"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2385224"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2385224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2385228,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2385224\/revisions\/2385228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2385225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2385224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2385224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2385224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}