Meet 6 Military Veterans Running for Congress

— -- From George Washington to John McCain, the United States has a long history of veterans running for office.

This year appears to be no exception with the halls of Capitol Hill likely to be filled with even more than the 100 former military members already there, according to Congressional Quarterly.

Here’s a look at some of the candidates across the country who are veterans and how they've used their military experience to stand out:

Jason Kander (U.S. Senate, Missouri)

Using his military record to portray himself as a Washington outsider, Kander, a Democrat and former Army National Guard captain, has managed to put his race on the national radar. He has attracted outside spending from both sides of the aisle as Democrats look to regain control of the upper chamber.

Kander, Missouri’s 35-year-old secretary of state, served as an intelligence officer in Afghanistan, and rose from obscurity in his race against longtime Sen. Roy Blunt, with a television ad where he assembled a rifle blindfolded while describing his position on gun control.

Tammy Duckworth and Mark Kirk (U.S. Senate, Missouri)

Rep. Duckworth, a Democrat, lost both her legs when the Army Black Hawk helicopter she was flying in 2004 was shot down in Iraq. On the campaign trail, Duckworth often she says comes from a military family that stretches back to the Revolutionary War. Her opponent, sitting Republican Sen. Mark Kirk, is also a veteran and caught significant heat last month for questioning Duckworth’s family’s history of military service.

Kirk, a Republican, served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve for more than 20 years, and Duckworth also served as Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs, prior to running for congress.

Joe Heck (U.S. Senate, Nevada)

Heck is a three-term Republican congressman and Army Reserve Brigadier General who is running to fill the seat of retiring Democratic leader Harry Reid. A doctor, he ran an emergency room at a combat hospital in Iraq and is arguably the Republican Party’s strongest Senate recruit of 2016.

Heck’s campaign ads have focused heavily on his own military service, with one noting that he spent 460 days in Iraq. Another ad featured testimony from a man whose father got a bed in a VA hospital following a phone call Heck made to the administrator.

Heck tenuously embraced Donald Trump until recently. After the 2005 video of Trump’s sexually aggressive comments came out, Heck said he could no longer “in good conscience” endorse his party’s nominee. Still, Democrats have said his disavowal came too late.

Brian Mast (U.S. House of Representatives, Fla. 18th District)

An Army veteran who lost both of his legs in Afghanistan, Mast, a Republican, is running for the South Florida House seat left open by Rep. Patrick Murphy in his bid to unseat Sen. Marco Rubio.

Mast –- who received both a Bronze Star and Purple Heart -– is facing off against Randy Perkins, a successful businessman who founded his own environmental cleanup company, and is self-funding his campaign.

Mast’s military service and injuries have taken central stage in the contest. In a recent editorial board meeting, Perkins asked Mast why his military record qualifies him for Congress, and demanded he “stand” behind a series of negative attack ads.

Outside GOP groups hit on the comments calling them inappropriate and insensitive given Mast’s injuries.

John McCain (U.S. Senate, Arizona)

As the Republican Party’s presidential nominee in 2008, McCain is likely the best-known Senate candidate -– and veteran -- on the ballot this November as he seeks his sixth term.

His heroism as a POW during the Vietnam War is an integral part of his story, which is why many voters were confused when he stayed silent after Donald Trump took him on personally, saying he “like[s] people who weren’t captured.”

His Democratic opponent, Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, made it a campaign issue, telling reporters, “people can’t believe he didn’t stand up for himself… his actions show that he’s not the principled leader he used to be.”

McCain disavowed Trump after the video of him making lewd comments about women surfaced and released a scathing response to Trump’s assertion that he might not accept the results of the election, saying the loser’s acceptance of the results is “not just the Republican way or the Democratic way. It’s the American way.”