As hundreds of military veterans campaign across countless U.S. states between now and November, new polling shows that Americans trust the candidates more than the military institution itself.
A Gallup poll conducted in partnership with the cross-partisan veteran organization With Honor and released July 30 found that 77% of 1,001 adults across all 50 states trust people with military experience to perform well in office, with 70% having a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in military veterans in such roles. Just 18% responded that they have some confidence, and 10% reported very little confidence.
The poll shows that appreciation for veteran candidates extends across partisan lines, with majorities of Democrats (70%), independents (73%) and Republicans (91%) expressing this view. When age is factored into the equation, nearly eight in 10 adults aged 55 and older (79%) said they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in veterans, compared with 68% of those aged 35 to 54, and 57% of those aged 18 to 34.
Dr. Ellyn Maese, Gallup’s research analyst on the project, told Military.com that this poll mirrors others Gallup has conducted regarding Americans’ confidence in people and institutions over the past 20 years.
This survey collected results based on random digit dialing techniques, which she said is one of the premier probability-based sampling techniques that provides for a diverse array of responses.
“We’re seeing really high levels of confidence in veterans,” Maese said. “The military has long been kind of at the top of the list of high degree of confidence across Americans, second only to small businesses this year. That’s been pretty consistent, so it’s really tracking with what we’re seeing here for military veterans as well.”
This poll, conducted June 1 to 15 and with a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points, comes out as 752 veterans have run or are running for Congress in 2026, according to With Honor—representing a 47% increase from 2024, the highest number the organization has tracked since it began monitoring.
Rye Barcott, CEO and founder of With Honor and author of the New York Times bestseller Courage Can Save Us, told Military.com that his organization has been around for about nine years and currently works with roughly 50 veterans in Congress that “have taken our pledge to still work across party lines with the courage that it takes to do so.”
About two years ago, With Honor partnered with Gallup with the idea of measuring American sentiment towards veterans as the polling traditionally has done with trust in other institutions. Longitudinal data like this help minimize the effects of polarization in Congress, at least as it pertains to veterans.
“These findings were especially striking in terms of cross-party validation that veterans are respected for the leadership qualities that they have,” Barcott said. “That doesn’t mean all vets are cross-partisan or bipartisan. There’s some that are sort of hyper-partisan, but the value and the leadership abilities, I think, is a noteworthy one, and something that we shouldn’t take for granted. It’s earned, and it can also erode over time.”
Veterans running in both the Democrat and Republican parties have increased since 2018, he added, and female veterans have also increased two times compared to previous cycles.
Why Veteran Trust Eclipses Other American Institutions
Maese said that trusting people with certain backgrounds or levels of experience is different than testing them in their specific, traditional roles.
It was one of the reasons she, Gallup specifically asked respondents whether they felt like military experience was something that added to that preparation in order to serve in office.
“It’s kind of adding to kind of the credentials, the assets that lead people to trust someone and want to vote them in,” Maese said. “We’ve seen that in our previous work as well, of course. The proving ground is how they behave and act once they’re there, and I think you know the referendum on Congress, kind of as a whole, maybe doesn’t necessarily speak to the small minority who are military veterans.
“That’s a perception of the larger, broader group of people, the agenda, and how well the responsiveness has been going over the past year. So, I think only time will tell as we see more veterans in office whether those numbers improve and kind of track with that strong perception of veterans and their ability to kind of lead across the aisle and work with different kinds of people.”
Barcott said that one of the reasons he wrote his book and profiled 10 military veterans is due to incentives not rewarding acts of courage, notably acts of courage against one’s own party or political ideology. That becomes more polarized and exacerbated in this era of 24/7 news and curated social media personas.
“Somebody will be applauded in the moment, then the partisans will forget, and the algorithms will sort of attack the individuals,” Barcott said. “So, just culturally, we want to see more courage. … Vast majorities of Americans want to see more courage in their communities, and believe that there’s basically none of it in D.C., or very little of it in D.C. It still exists.
“They’re examples of it, but they get buried very quickly. The incentives are really aligned not to be there.”
He added that “one of the healthiest attributes” With Honor looks at when supporting candidates, such as the roughly 100 candidates this election cycle, is “a willingness to lose.”
“[We look at the] willingness to say, ‘Listen, there are actual issues that I will fall on my sword for and and I’ll cross a red line,’ and then you see if they can rise to those occasions. Some do, and some don’t,” he said.
Finding Common Ground in Era of Polarization
While majorities support military veterans running for office, there are more granular disparities based on age and political affiliation.
Majorities of Democratic respondents said they support veterans in politics, but not as much as Republicans say the same thing. Baby boomers will feel more endeared to the prospect than, say, a Gen Z voter.
However, Barcott acknowledged that polls finding 80-20 or 70-30 splits in the U.S. nowadays is a victory in itself.
“I mean, the U.S. is so damn divided across the board so I actually find it a pretty encouraging sign,” he said. “Like, 90’s are crazy high numbers, obviously, but 70’s are really strong numbers. Now, obviously, in the age gap, you drop lower and I think that it’s a cause for concern—particularly as fewer Americans are called to serve, whether that’s in the military or civilian service like Americorps.
“Just fewer Americans are serving, and fewer Americans have connectivity to military veterans, in particular. So, that gap is widening. I think it’s kind of a warning sign. One of the things that we do work on with our organization is calls to or work to basically enhance national service opportunities, whether it’s in the military or civilian.”
Maese echoed Barcott, saying that numbers this strong are “always really compelling.”
“We don’t have that many places where we see such consistency across so many different demographic groups, where we see majorities again across age groups, across education backgrounds, gender. Really, everything.”
The age disparities should also be taken with a grain of salt, she added, as it can be difficult to surmise whether attitudes are based on country and culture, or a life-stage factor. Younger individuals will tend to be more skeptical, for example, on issues including government, democracy and institutions.
“Now, some of that does shift over time, and when we look back at our past trends, sometimes we do see that younger generations that seem more skeptical do become more positive,” Maese said. “But that’s not always the case. You can’t count on it. We can’t assume that this generation is going to become just as positive about veterans.
“It’s something cultures have to work on and kind of think about traditions and how they perpetuate these things over time because it’s not a given.”
Party-wise, she said that polling shows very wide splits between Republicans and Democrats on many issues, from the environment to “pretty much everything these days.”
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