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Friday, March 29, 2024

Alachua County veterans offer a unique perspective on the 2020 presidential election

vets voting

U.S armed forces prohibit active-duty service members from engaging in partisan activities and have a tradition of neutrality. However, President Donald Trump’s recent comments on dead soldiers have veterans picking a side. 

According to a Sept. 3 article in The Atlantic, the president reportedly called fallen soldiers “suckers” and “losers,” when visiting an American veteran cemetery near Paris in 2018. For the almost 6,000 veterans in Alachua County, a military perspective can have an influence on who they decide who to vote for in November’s presidential election.

Jonathan Novak, the president of the UF Collegiate Veterans Society, said Trump’s rhetoric strikes a nerve.

“I can actually piss myself off a little bit just thinking about it,” Novak said.

The 32-year-old UF epidemiology master’s student and U.S. Army veteran has never voted for a Democrat or Republican presidential candidate, and he won’t break his streak this November. Instead, he plans to vote for a third-party candidate.

Neither President Trump nor former Vice President Joe Biden appeal to Novak as options to vote for in November’s election, he said. Biden would be better than Trump, he said, but he can’t bring himself to vote for the Democratic nominee because he does not think he represents the healthcare needs of the people.

Novak said he supported Bernie Sanders, the sponsor of Medicare for All, in the Democratic primary and would have voted for him in November if he had won the nomination.

A Military Times August poll showed Trump’s approval rating with active-duty service members at 38%, a figure that has declined throughout his term. In 2017 when Trump took office, he had a 44% approval rating among active-duty service members, according to a Military Times poll.

The Military Times poll also shows Biden holding a four-percentage-point lead over Trump with veterans.

In June of 2019, a Pew Research Center poll showed 57% of veterans approved the president. This was an increase from 2017 when a Pew Research Center poll showed Trump’s approval rating among veterans at 54%.

Since 2017, the Trump administration has increased discretionary funding for Veterans Affairs by $30.7 billion. In the eight years of the Obama administration, discretionary funding for the VA increased by $26.5 billion.

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The increase in funding went to help services like the Malcolm Randall VA Medical Hospital in Gainesville, which provides healthcare to the city’s almost 6,000 veterans. Novak said he uses VA healthcare for his prescription medications.

Sean McDermott, a 42-year-old U.S. Navy veteran and senior assistant city attorney for the city of Gainesville, is voting for Biden in November. He said he is voting for the former vice president because he looks for someone who represents freedom, goodness, morality and human dignity, qualities he thinks make the U.S. great.

“I’d look for those ideals and I vote for the candidate who I think best represents that,” McDermott said. “That for me is certainly not Donald Trump in this election.”

While he was not personally offended by Trump’s comments toward dead soldiers, they just reinforced his view of the president’s character, he said.

McDermott said he has never been a fan of political parties and considers himself an independent voter, but he thinks a third-party vote is a “throw-away vote.”

McDermott’s primary-care doctor works at the Gainesville VA, he said.

Tony Domenech, a 74-year-old retired U.S. Navy Vietnam War veteran and former Gainesville City Commissioner, said he voted for Trump in 2016 and plans to do so again in November’s election.

Domenech believes the president is pro-military despite reports of Trump’s comments toward dead soldiers.

Domenech believes the president best represents American interests. He said he does not personally like Trump, but he agrees with his policies. He said he uses VA healthcare for his annual physical.

“I’m actually not sure I've liked very many personalities from New York,” he said. “But, but I can't think of a policy that he's done either domestically or internationally that I am not in favor of.”

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that the Military Times poll surveyed active-duty service members. A previous version of this article reported otherwise.

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Steven Walker

Steven Walker is the Fall 2021 Editor in Chief of The Alligator. He has previously worked at the Orlando Sentinel; and has bylines in the Miami Herald, Associated Press and Florida Times Union. In his free time, he likes to take long walks with his dog Luna and watch his favorite sports teams, the Orlando Magic and the Green Bay Packers.


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