Replication Data for: Supporting Veterans: Source Cues, Issue Ownership, and the Electoral Benefits of Military Service

Conventional wisdom has long assumed veteran status to be a beneficial credential for
political candidates, but the evidence is mixed on the direct association between
military experience and electoral success. Rather than a uniformly advantageous
candidate characteristic, we argue veteran status is best understood as an influential
source cue and issue ownership factor that can be capitalized on by effective
campaign messaging. We outline three potential mechanisms through which veteran
candidates unlock electoral gains—solidified issue ownership, enhanced trait
ownership, and increased salience of advantageous policy issues. We test these
expectations with two online survey experiments, randomizing the candidate’s veteran
status and the policy topic discussed in campaign messaging. We find veteran
candidates can use a combination of veteran cues and policy messaging to gain an
advantage over nonveterans. However, veteran candidates stand to benefit most by
talking about crime rather than national defense, as a ceiling effect appears to limit
veterans’ ability to enhance their service-related issue and trait ownership ratings by
messaging on national defense. By reconceptualizing military service as an effective communication tool rather than a uniformly advantageous biographical line, we clarify the substantial electoral value of veteran status in American politics.