Meet the man working to get more veterans in public office

Seth Lynn wants to see more former service members in Congress.

A founder of the nonpartisan Veterans Campaign, which trains veterans interested in running for office or similar public service, Lynn, 44, has spent the past 15 years making sure that goal comes to fruition.

“I think most people across the political spectrum agree that we aren't getting the best people where they need to be in office,” he told The Hill. “For a while there’s been this untapped resource of leadership, people that would make great leaders who don't really know how to start. That's the guiding philosophy of it.”

Today there are 97 lawmakers who served in the military — 80 in the House and 17 in the Senate — fewer than one in five members. The total hasn’t broken 100 since 2013.

In comparison, in the early 1970s, three-quarters of congressional members had a military background. 

Veteran advocates such as Lynn worry that decline means Congress is lacking in valuable insight when putting together defense budget proposals and crafting legislation that touches on national security policy and veterans support.

“There had been this pretty precipitous drop in the number of veterans in Congress,” he said, a trend that could somewhat be expected given the end of the draft meant fewer Americans serve in the armed forces than ever before. 

“We tend to have people who have pretty impressive credentials in our political system, but it doesn't always seem to encourage selflessness, putting your country first and working together,” Lynn added. “However, we have a group of people in young military veterans that do embody those values, and that's the idea here, if we can get some of those people.” 

A Naval Academy graduate, Lynn served for six years as an active duty Marine Corps officer, during which he deployed to Japan, Kuwait and Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

After leaving active duty for the Reserves, he had an interaction with a fellow officer that planted the seeds for what would become Veterans Campaign

“I had a boss who had been around for 26 years, a sort of a ‘back in the day guy.’ He would talk occasionally about how there used to be a lot more veterans in Congress, and how much better things were back then. It kind of stuck with me,” Lynn said.

Lynn, who himself had no experience in politics, believed many former service members would be more likely to be elected to office if they received the correct training.

A few years later, while earning a masters in public affairs at Princeton University, surrounded by classmates with experiences working on campaigns, he explored the idea further. 

“I realized I served with a bunch of people in the Marine Corps and for multiple services that I thought would make really excellent leaders, but for a whole bunch of really good legal reasons, we didn't have any involvement in politics. So no one really had any experience there,” he explained 

Aided by several classmates, he founded Veterans Campaign first as a student organization.

He reached out to several individuals who worked at veteran PACs, including from both the left and the right, before launching a first workshop held over two days in September 2009 at Princeton. The program, which had 75 participants, touched on the basics of starting a campaign, including who to hire first, how to fundraise effectively and building a personal brand. 

Lynn describes the program as “very cross-partisan,” with participants and instructors from across the spectrum. 

The curriculum focuses on the basics, such as fundraising, communications, how to do field work and how to choose a staff. Workshops also tackle veteran-specific pitfalls that emerged as the program went on.

“A lot of veterans have a tough time fundraising, it’s just not something, generally, the background lends itself to very well,” Lynn said. “We discuss mental blocks and ways to get around those by thinking about it a different way, like ‘Hey, I'm not asking for myself. I'm asking for my country.’ Or ‘Hey, could you invest in the team rather than can you give to me?'” 

Lynn also witnessed an initial public interest in candidates leading with their service record, but that alone “wasn't going to get people to put the lever for you.”

While veteran status lends credibility to a first-time candidate and gets them a foot in the door, “it's not going to be enough to get you to the finish line. And so being able to pivot to the issues that matter more to voters was essential," he said.

As of today, more than 1,000 people have participated in Veterans Campaign workshops. The program became so successful, with Lynn and his staff holding upwards of eight events one year, that in 2018, the University of San Francisco partnered with Veterans Campaign for a masters in public leadership program.

The list of people who have participated in a Veterans Campaign workshop and gone on to elected office includes current Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) and Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), and former Reps. Scott Taylor (R-Va.) and Peter Meijer (R-Mich.). 

“They’re going out and running and winning races,” Lynn said of the program’s alums. “I just thought it was incredible.”

Another high-profile attendee was Amy McGrath, a former Marine fighter pilot who famously attempted to take on Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for his seat in 2020, outraising the lawmaker $90 million to $57 million.

Since starting Veterans Campaign nearly 15 years ago, Lynn, like the rest of the country, has seen the political landscape shift drastically, with the two sides of the aisle further apart than perhaps ever before.

But not all changes have been for the worse. He’s witnessed a major increase in the number of female veterans running for public office, for one. 

“What we found is that a lot of the challenges that women candidates face can be overcome with a military service record. There's questions women candidates have to face about being tough enough. And that's not an issue for Tammy Duckworth, for example,” he said referring to the Democratic senator from Illinois who is a retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel.

Lynn is now focused on ramping the program back up after it was hampered when the COVID-19 pandemic put an end to the typical in-person workshops. He plans to hold the first two-day, in-person gathering in four years in October.