Veterans (VFW/Legion/IAVA composite)

Major veterans' service organizations consensus: pro-VA funding, anti-VA-privatization (universal position of VFW, American Legion, IAVA), strong national defense, GI Bill protection, mental-health funding (especially post-9/11), military housing reform, support for service-connected disability benefits. Increasingly skeptical of forever wars across the post-9/11 generation. Paxton has strong 'support troops' rhetoric, Second Amendment alignment, and military-related Trump endorsement points; specific veterans policies are largely absent from his platform, and he's silent on the privatization question all major VSOs oppose. Talarico explicitly opposes VA privatization, supports veterans' mental health (passed alternative-therapy research bill in Austin), held veterans' roundtables in El Paso, and supports VA funding. He loses some ground on his less-hawkish posture but the concrete VSO-aligned policy edge is meaningful.