Veterans
To Gordon, cutting veterans' benefits is not a budget line.
It is a broken promise to people who gave so much to defend America, and he will fight these cuts as hard as they fought for the country.
A double hardship for rural veterans
Rural veterans in District 8 face two problems at once: longer wait times from VA cuts, and real difficulty reaching care even when it is available, because of distance and transportation. Gordon would lower wait times and help veterans physically get to the care they have earned, by increasing the mileage reimbursement for VA patients and adding shuttle transportation for those who cannot drive.
Deep cuts, real consequences
In 2025, the administration cut nearly 28,000 VA employees, about 6 percent of the agency's staff. Those losses included over 2,700 nurses, more than 1,000 medical officers, more than 1,000 psychologists and social workers, and over 1,800 people whose job was to evaluate veterans' claims for benefits. (Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, https://www.cbpp.org/blog/veterans-have-borne-trump-administrations-deep-cuts-to-federal-personnel)
It was the largest one-year staffing decline in the VA's history, and the employees who left took with them more than 577,000 years of collective experience. In the same year, the VA hired the fewest new employees since 2005. The consequences are already being felt: delayed enrollment in clinical trials for advanced cancers, growing backlogs, and canceled research studies. (Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, https://www.cbpp.org/blog/veterans-have-borne-trump-administrations-deep-cuts-to-federal-personnel)
A promise Gordon will keep
That is not cutting bureaucracy. It is longer waits, worse care, and a betrayal of the trust those veterans placed in their country. Gordon will not stand for it. The people of District 8 have his word on that.