Independent Voter News took a hard look at our strategy for 2026 — and at the credibility veterans bring to a movement the two parties can’t seem to stop.
Independent Voter News this week published a profile of Independent Veterans of America and the idea behind everything we do: recruiting the people Americans trust most — veterans — to run for office outside a broken two-party system. It’s worth your time, and not just because it’s about us. The piece lays out, with hard numbers, why we believe the independent movement’s breakthrough will be led by people who already wore the uniform.
The most trusted people in America
Start with the trust gap. At a moment when almost every American institution has lost the public’s confidence, the U.S. military still ranks second among all institutions in Gallup’s confidence survey — trailing only small business, and standing far above Congress and the two major parties. In a separate survey, 78% of Americans said veterans put the country’s interests ahead of their own party or personal agenda. More than half — 55% — said a candidate’s military service makes them more likely to vote for that person.
That’s not a talking point. It’s a political asset, and it may be the only one left that still crosses party lines. As IVA founder Paul Rieckhoff put it to IVN, “Veterans are the last group of Americans that people trust.” Our entire theory of change starts there.
A pattern you can’t miss
Look at who is actually running serious independent campaigns in 2026: Dan Osborn in Nebraska. Seth Bodnar in Montana. Karen Matthews in California. Todd Achilles in Idaho. Ty Pinkins in Mississippi. Bob Chew in Colorado. Almost every prominent independent on the map is a veteran.
That isn’t a coincidence — it’s the early shape of a movement. In Nebraska, Osborn’s campaign has gained enough traction that Democrats stepped aside rather than run a candidate against him. The trust veterans earn through service is translating, one campaign at a time, into real political momentum.
Why it’s so hard — and why we exist
Here’s the part the two parties would rather you not think about. Independent candidates don’t get to inherit decades of party machinery. They have to build it from scratch.
To make the ballot in Montana, Bodnar’s campaign had to collect more than 13,000 valid signatures by hand — and submitted close to 30,000 to survive the legal challenges everyone knew were coming. Paid signature drives can run anywhere from $7 to $45 per name. That’s tens of thousands of dollars and months of work spent before a single voter hears the candidate’s message. The major-party contenders skip all of it. The parties hand them ballot access, voter files, and donor lists on day one.
That gap is the entire reason Independent Veterans of America exists. We help veteran candidates clear the hurdles the parties never have to face: ballot access, shared data and tools, and a community that has their backs.
“We’re not just looking for one win. We’re looking for a movement.”
— Paul Rieckhoff, to Independent Voter News
Building for the breakthrough
We’re playing a long game. Rieckhoff’s view, as he laid it out to IVN, is that a single high-profile defection or breakout win could tip independents from long shot to obvious choice almost overnight — and that the movement just needs someone brave enough to go first. Our job is to make sure that when that moment arrives, the infrastructure is already built and waiting.
Our goal for this cycle is 100 independent veteran candidates across federal and statewide races. We’ve made our first round of endorsements, with dozens more candidates moving through vetting right now. We’re on track — limited more by our own bandwidth than by the number of veterans ready to serve.
Be part of it
Read the full profile in Independent Voter News — and share it. The more people who understand why veterans are the key to loosening the two-party grip, the faster this movement grows.
And if you want to help us build the infrastructure these candidates can’t get anywhere else, you can support our work directly. We don’t have a party machine behind us. We have you.
Leave the partisan herds. Run with the independent pack.
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