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About this candidate response
DutyStation contacts candidates to ask whether and how they support service members, military families and veterans, and invites them to share their thoughts and priorities. We share their replies here in the candidate’s or campaign’s own words, with minor formatting for readability and correction of obvious spelling mistakes.
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Government-shutdown follow-up received October 2, 2026. Travis Jack Stevens reaffirmed his earlier answers.
Government shutdown and cooperation
- I oppose a government shutdown in 2027 — and in any year. A shutdown is not a governing strategy. It is a failure to do the basic job of funding the government, and the people who pay for that failure first are the ones who already carry the heaviest load: service members, military families, federal workers, and veterans waiting on care and benefits.
- If Democrats win control of one or both chambers, I would still work the same way I intend to work in any divided or unified Congress: as a write-in Senator from Delaware whose job is to protect people, not to play shutdown chicken. I would negotiate appropriations in good faith with whoever holds the White House and the other chamber. I would refuse to treat troop pay, VA care, disability benefits, or TRICARE as bargaining chips. The first floor of any deal should be continuity of pay and benefits for those who serve and those who have served. Everything else can be argued in public, in daylight, without holding families' rent and grocery money hostage.
- If a shutdown still occurs, my priorities would be immediate and concrete:
- Vote to restore pay for active-duty service members and Guard/Reserve members called to duty without delay, and keep pressing until it is law.
- Protect continuity of VA care, mental health services, disability benefits, and prescriptions — no interruption in treatment because Congress failed to fund itself.
- Push emergency measures so military families are not left without BAH, childcare access, or health coverage while politicians posture.
- Demand a public accounting of who chose brinkmanship over funding, and what readiness and care gaps the shutdown created — because Delaware is home to Dover Air Force Base, where the flag-draped transfer cases come home, and our state understands what military decisions cost.
- I spent years as a nurse, including critical care under a Department of Defense contract treating service members and their families. I later developed PTSD and had to leave the bedside. I will not vote for a process that makes those same people wait for a paycheck or a VA appointment so someone in Washington can score a point.
Candidacy update
- I am a write-in candidate for U.S. Senate in Delaware. Voters write in TRAVIS JACK STEVENS on November 3, 2026. My campaign is people-funded and takes no Super PAC money.
Earlier answers received September 27, 2026. The candidate’s original wording is retained below.
Core belief
- My core belief is simple: a nation of equal opportunity is built on universal health care, free education, and universal housing. Those who serve, and their families, should be first in line for that promise.
Veterans' care
- I spent years as a nurse, including critical care work under a Department of Defense contract at a DoD hospital where my patients were service members and their families. I saw the injuries and the psychological toll, and the particular grief of caring for young people whose bodies had been broken in service. Later, during COVID, I developed PTSD and had to leave the bedside. I know what it is like to need help from a system that wasn't designed with you in mind.
- VA wait times come down to staffing. The VA needs more doctors, nurses, and mental health providers, and veterans need more access to care when and where they need it. As a nurse, I know that when a unit is short-staffed, patients wait.
- Mental health care must be treated as health care: I support enforcing mental health parity and more funding for mental health and addiction services.
- I would vote to cut Pentagon executive-dining budgets and redirect that money to enlisted housing and mental health services.
Family housing
- I support universal housing, and military families should never be left in unsafe homes.
- Sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln have reported broken bunks, water intrusion, mold, and berthing compartments above 100 degrees while Pentagon leadership was renovating executive suites.
- I would redirect executive-dining budgets to enlisted housing, hold hearings, put readiness reports in the public record, and make the people responsible explain themselves on camera.
- I also support stronger tenant protections and an end to corporate landlord loopholes.
- Housing is not a slogan. It is whether your kids sleep under a roof you can keep.
Quality of life
- Pay: Service member pay needs to rise to match the burden our government puts on them. Every deployment, extended tour, and sudden move is a decision made in Washington, and the people carrying it out and their families shouldn't pay the price for it.
- Health care: Health care is a right, not a privilege. I support universal health care, capping prescription drug costs, and ending the era of medical debt.
- Childcare: Military childcare should be free. We ask service members to be ready at any hour and to move wherever they're sent. Their kids should have safe, free care wherever they're stationed.
- Spouse employment: Military spouses should have supportive career opportunities. They give up jobs and seniority every time orders come, and wherever the family is stationed, they deserve real support to build a career.
- Frequent moves: When a military family moves, it's out of necessity, not choice. We should treat it that way and give the most support to the families who need it most.
Concrete steps, and how I'd judge whether they're working
- Follow the money: vote against any supplemental without a full accounting, and require the Pentagon to pass an audit before approving another dollar of baseline increase.
- Put the money where the troops are: redirect executive-dining budgets to enlisted housing and mental health services.
- Daylight: hold hearings on deployment conditions and readiness, publish readiness reports, and declassify Inspector General findings the public paid for.
- War powers: the Constitution gives Congress the war power for a reason. I opposed the Iran war and will push for a diplomatic way out instead of escalation. Delaware is home to Dover Air Force Base, where the flag-draped transfer cases come home. Our state understands what military decisions cost.
- How I'd judge success: a passed Pentagon audit, readiness and conditions reports published and discussed in public hearings, and shorter VA waits.
Write-in candidacy
- I am a write-in candidate for U.S. Senate in Delaware. My name will not be printed on the ballot, so voters write in TRAVIS JACK STEVENS on November 3, 2026. My campaign is people-funded and takes no Super PAC money.
ELECTION REFLECTIONS · IN THEIR OWN WORDS
Looking ahead to Election Day
Brief answers to DutyStation’s questions about hope, America’s future, unity, the next generation and a closing message. The earlier policy answers and their received date remain above.
Hope heading into the election
- Working people across Delaware are tired of being told to wait, and they're ready to write in their own answer.
Vision for America
- Equal opportunity, everywhere.
Bringing Americans together
- Our shared need for health care, a home, and a fair shot. Those aren't partisan needs.
The next generation
- Universal health care, free education, a home they can afford, and a country at peace, not at endless war.
Closing message to voters
- I spent years as a travel ICU nurse caring for service members and their families. I'm running a people-funded campaign for all of us. On November 3, write in TRAVIS JACK STEVENS.