Did Republicans take the military vote for granted?

[LtNOWIS]

The guy writing the affadavit is an idiot. Even if most military members were as conservative as ever, most military members voting in Detroit are going to be Democrats.

Which points to the larger issue about the military vote being a significant electoral bloc. Military members have diverse perspectives, they don't vote that much, and their votes are spread across a huge swath of states where they are stationed or where they are originally from. As much as I wish that appealing to members of the military is electorally important, I don't think it is. Pro-military, pro-soldier, pro-veteran talk is primarily aimed at the broader electorate, not the troops themselves.

It would be great if military votes cost Trump the election. Maybe it flipped Virginia Beach, which voted Dem for the first time since it annexed Princess Anne County in the 1960s. But it probably is not an important electoral demographic.