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Bonded by Service, Freshman Veteran Democrats Are an Occasional Thorn in Their Party’s Side

Representatives Mikie Sherrill, left, and Abigail Spanberger, both Democrats, frequently exchange group text messages with fellow freshman lawmakers who have served in the military or intelligence agencies.Credit...Erin Schaff for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — They huddle together on the House floor, conferring over what to do on a tough vote. They exchange group texts to consult on legislation and plan for the (increasingly rare) after-work drink, often with Bitmojis that capture their mood that day. They are frequently spotted walking together on Capitol Hill, huddled in what seems like an endless inside joke.

Among the 67 new Democrats in Congress, 10 served in the military or intelligence agencies, which has shaped a tight and quite visible bond. All defeated Republicans in arduous races last year, many in the 31 districts carried by President Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

Their backgrounds in the military, where nonpartisanship is key, have also made them among the most moderate members of a caucus in which there is increasing pressure to slide firmly to the left on various policy issues.

“I don’t know how I would be here without them,” said Representative Chrissy Houlahan, Democrat of Pennsylvania and a former Air Force officer. “Each of us has broken with the party for different reasons,” she said, adding, “It’s nice to have a smaller group to talk to about what this all means.”

Often, they are among a handful of Democrats to vote with Republicans on politically charged “gotcha” measures that the majority had routinely rejected out of hand, in one crucial case helping pass a gun bill targeting undocumented immigrants.

Knowing that they were critical to delivering the House back to their party, the veterans seem unbowed, for now, to pressures from some Democrats to adhere to party lines. Many of them did not back Nancy Pelosi for House speaker, and she has repeatedly begged Democrats not to vote with Republicans on what she views as essentially nuisance measures.

“The speaker’s office is inordinately powerful, and we have to work really hard to make this body egalitarian,” said Representative Max Rose, Democrat of New York, who was a platoon leader in Afghanistan. “The freshmen want to reduce seniority power, and the vets are leading that effort.”

Most had never run for office before, but said they were inspired by a sense of chaos in government and an erosion of faith in public institutions. While their transitions have been at times tense — the military notion of mission over ego as well as a preference for punctual meetings and clear lines of authority do not always translate well on Capitol Hill — these lawmakers are a cornerstone of the Democratic Party’s strategy to maintain the House in 2020.

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Among the 67 new Democrats in Congress, 10 served in the military or intelligence agencies.Credit...Sarah Silbiger/The New York Times

“There’s no question those veterans and service members were central to our work to build a Democratic majority,” said Cole Leiter, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, “and their relentless focus on service has better prepared this Democratic caucus to work for their constituents.”

These members spent quite a bit of time getting to know one another during the campaign, largely through the Serve America PAC started by Representative Seth Moulton, Democrat of Massachusetts, who was among the first troops in Baghdad in 2003.

“When I ran in 2014 against a nine-term incumbent, there was no member of Congress who would even speak with me,” Mr. Moulton said. “So I wanted to create that team for the amazing candidates who were running this time. What was important was building these relationships. They could call or text me at all hours of the night if they needed advice or something. We set up a Slack channel so that we could communicate more as a group.”

Once in Washington, the group immediately gravitated toward one another on bills and other legislative matters. “It’s the trust factor,” said Elissa Slotkin, Democrat of Michigan and a former C.I.A. analyst who served three tours in Iraq. “If Max Rose or Elaine Luria comes to me and says, ‘I’m doing this bill. Do you want to do it?’ they aren’t going to twist the issue and play it for their own advantages,” she said, referring to freshman veterans. “We made the choice to focus on Congress and made Congress like a mission.”

During the government shutdown, Ms. Slotkin and Ms. Houlahan wrote a measure to protect federal workers in subsequent impasses. Representative Mikie Sherrill, Democrat of New Jersey and a former Navy helicopter pilot, seized on news coverage about problems at the Department of Veterans Affairs serving women and quickly got several veterans to sign on to a letter demanding the department secretary, Robert L. Wilkie, fix the system. The group has helped revive discussions about asserting the role of Congress in war authorization.

Veterans are also prone to seeking one another out across the aisle. Mr. Moulton, who served in the Marines, and Representative Brian Mast, a veteran and Republican from Florida, worked to bring together both parties on a conservation bill that pleased environmentalists and commercial fishermen alike.

They can often be seen sliding across the aisle to sit with Republican veterans on the House floor, like Representatives Jim Baird of Indiana and Will Hurd of Texas. “We have a bias toward action because we all served in the trenches in an organization that is apolitical,” Mr. Hurd said. “We knew each other’s ethos.”

The women, who have called themselves “the badass women,” exchange group text messages and make special efforts to get together for dinner and talk during the week. Representative Abigail Spanberger, Democrat of Virginia and a former C.I.A. operations officer, had recently finished a tough town-hall-style meeting — among the more taxing, if vital, undertakings of lawmakers — and turned to the group for a lift. “She was having a down moment,” Ms. Slotkin said. “So there was a text chain, and we all told her, ‘You’re awesome!’” and other messages of buoyancy, she said.

Ms. Spanberger said they also tried to keep a light tone on their group texts, endlessly razzing — about Ms. Sherrill’s eternal obsession with the Gateway tunnel project in her home state, Mr. Rose’s incandescent speeches on the floor, the way their hair looked in a photograph accompanying this article. They share funny travel anecdotes from the road and videos of their children singing. “We had all come from places with really stressful environments,” Ms. Spanberger said, “so as stressful as the campaigns were, we had a perspective.”

In the difficult transition to Washington, they are often one another’s lifeboat. “It’s just implicit that you have each other’s back,” said Representative Jason Crow, Democrat of Colorado who served as an Army captain. “That’s rare in this town.”

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 21 of the New York edition with the headline: Veterans Turned Lawmakers Form a Political Band of Like Minds. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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