VoteVets.org is a political action committee (PAC) and 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization in the United States. The organization prioritizes American defense, national security, and veterans advocacy. It was co-founded in 2006 by Jon Soltz and Jeremy Broussard and initially composed of United States Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. In 2020, the mission of the PAC is to elect veterans to public office that "fully support our men and women in uniform." According to the group's website, in 2020, the group is backed by over 700,000 supporters, including veterans, military families and civilians. VoteVets.org describes itself as a progressive organization, and endorses Democrats and Republicans for elected office. In media, they have been described as "closely aligned with Congressional Democrats," and "liberal" by The New York Times and The Washington Post. By election 2006 During the United States 2006 election cycle, VoteVets.org PAC spent between $1.2 and $2 million (sources differ) trying to influence the outcomes of various congressional races. Senators targeted by the VoteVets' campaign for their support of the Iraq War included Republicans George Allen, Rick Santorum, Conrad Burns, and Jim Talent. For each congressional campaign, they released a television advertisement criticizing the (now former) senators for their vote against body armor for US troops in 2003. VoteVets claim was based, in part, on the Republican senators' vote against an amendment offered by Democratic Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu, in 2003, to boost National Guard and Reserves equipment funding by $1 billion. The group FactCheck.org (a self-described non-partisan project of the Annenberg Center at the University of Pennsylvania) stated that the ad was misleading because the 2003 Senate budget amendment (on which the criticism was based) made no specific reference to "body armor". However, the progressive Media Matters for America repeatedly pointed out what it said were "misleading" statements about the ads by FactCheck.org. The group also ran ads targeting now-former Republican Representatives Melissa Hart, Gil Gutknecht, John Sweeney, John Doolittle, and Jon Porter. In that ad, an Iraq veteran, Tomas Young, who was paralyzed in Iraq, criticized the members of Congress for voting against increases in funding for veterans’ health care, while, in some cases, voting themselves a pay raise. The group also made a number of contributions to candidates, but only to those candidates who served during the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan. In 2006, out of all the Iraq or Afghanistan veterans running for Congress, VoteVets.org supported all