New Ads Blast GOP Sens. Deb Fischer, Ted Cruz For Holding Up Veterans’ Burn Pit Benefits

Common Defense, a progressive veterans group, has begun a $500,000 advertising campaign attacking Republican Sens. Deb Fischer (Neb.) and Ted Cruz (Texas) for voting to hold up the PACT Act, which created new health benefits for 3.5 million U.S. military veterans exposed to toxic burn pits.

The digital ads and direct-mail items focus on a July 2022 vote against cloture on the PACT Act. Fischer and Cruz were among the 25 Senate Republicans who voted for a similar version of the legislation in June 2022, but changed course after then-Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) raised concerns about the long-term costs of the program. A few days later, following outrage by veterans groups, the Senate passed the bill with Fischer’s and Cruz’s support.

Common Defense has endorsed independent Dan Osborn, a left-of-center Navy veteran, who is challenging Fischer, and Rep. Colin Allred (D), who is challenging Cruz.

The group’s 30-second digital ad hitting Fischer doubles as a positive spot for Osborn, who has mounted an unexpectedly competitive bid in ruby-red Nebraska.

“Deb Fischer, she took millions from special interests, backed endless wars and then tried to block health care for veterans poisoned overseas,” the narrator intones. “Fischer profits from our sacrifices. Dan Osborn fights for those who made them.”

Common Defense’s mail item attacking Cruz highlights a real photo of his “fist-bump celebration after killing vets bill.”

The group is also funding mailers hitting Republican Tim Sheehy, an entrepreneur and former Navy SEAL running for Senate in Montana, for allegedly lying about being wounded by friendly fire while serving in Afghanistan. Sheehy is running against Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee and an original co-sponsor of the PACT Act.

All three Senate races — in Nebraska, Texas and Montana — are critical for determining control of the Senate, where Democrats currently have a 51-seat majority. Republicans, who stand to pick up a seat in West Virginia and are ahead in Montana polling, are favored to retake the chamber, but the tight races in Nebraska and Texas could upset the GOP’s plans.

Angela Montalvo, a Nebraska native and Army veteran who is now an organizer for Common Defense, recalled her frustration at having to call Fischer’s office in 2022 to demand she support the PACT Act. Montalvo’s husband has had respiratory issues related to his exposure to burn pits while serving in Kosovo.

“It’s more than just about holding the Senate,” said Montalvo, who recently moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with her husband. “It’s also about holding these senators accountable and sending a message to the rest of them that this is what happens if you stand against these veterans and their health care.”

“I really dislike people who claim to be patriotic, but don’t like the veterans who have served,” she added.