Why Veterans Run

Military Service in American Presidential Elections, 1789-2016

Jeremy M. Teigen

Narrated by David A. Wood

Available from Audible

Book published by Temple University Press

The assumptions that military service helps candidates attract votes—while lacking it harms a candidate’s chances—has been an article of faith since the electoral coronation of George Washington in 1789. Perhaps the most compelling fact driving the perception that military service helps win votes is the large number of veterans who have held public office. Some candidates even exaggerate their military service to persuade voters. However, sufficient counter-examples undermine the idea that military veterans enjoy an advantage when seeking political office.

In Why Veterans Run, Jeremy Teigen explains the tendency of parties to elevate those with armed forces experience to run for high office. He describes the veteran candidate phenomenon by examining the related factors and patterns, showing why different eras have more former generals running and why the number of veterans in election cycles varies. With both quantitative and qualitative analysis, Why Veterans Run investigates each postwar era in U.S. electoral history and elaborates why so many veterans run for office. Teigen also reveals how election outcomes with veteran candidates illuminate the relationship between the military and civilian spheres as well as the preferences of the American electorate.

Jeremy M. Teigen is Professor of Political Science at Ramapo College in New Jersey.

REVIEWS:

“This thorough study examines the candidacy patterns of military veterans who have emerged as U.S. presidential candidates.... The book abounds with interesting historical nuggets about how veteran candidates employed their military records during presidential campaigns.... Teigen’s historical organization of the military–presidential institutional linkages across American history make this an important addition to the literature on American political development. Why Veterans Run is also a significant addition to the literature on civil–military relations established in prior works by Peter Feaver and Christopher Gelpi. Teigen has written an insightful and useful 'big picture' analysis of linkages among the military, political parties, and the presidency across the nation’s history.”

—Perspectives on Politics

“Jeremy Teigen has written a timely survey of veterans running for political office in America, starting with the first vet, George Washington. In an era in which fewer Americans serve in the all-volunteer military, the military is one of the few institutions that retains the trust of the American people. Why Veterans Run is an interesting read.”

—Karl Rove, Former senior advisor to President George W. Bush

“An empirically rich and theoretically grounded contribution that sheds new light on America’s long-running ‘love-hate’ relationship with the military. Teigen is a leading scholar of the role of veterans in electoral politics and Why Veterans Run is an important study of a question as old as the Federalist Papers and as fresh as the next election.”

—Peter Feaver, Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at Duke University, and author of Armed Servants: Agency, Oversight, and Civil-Military Relations

“In the US, the military is subservient to political leaders who make the ultimate decisions regarding beginning, conducting, and ending wars. Teigen traces the prevalence of veterans as presidential contenders. He notes that unlike Eisenhower, most presidential candidates, George Washington included, were not professional soldiers. But voters accepted their military experience as relevant to performance as president, especially in the role of commander in chief. Teigen compares the prevalence of military experience among presidential candidates to that in the population as a whole and finds them to be connected.... Summing Up: Recommended.”

—Choice