Obama Campaign Targets Military

President Barack Obama's reelection campaign is targeting military families in a bid to peel off support from a traditional GOP constituency.

Obama is banking on the changing demographics of the military now made up of more women, minorities and young people, groups that helped him win in 2008, The Washington Post reported.

“There’s a different face of the American veteran now,” Lauren Zapf, 30, a Navy veteran who served in the Persian Gulf, told the Post. “The president’s stance on social policies, his work with military families, what he was doing with policy in both Iraq and Afghanistan — I appreciate that.”

Obama lost veterans nationally in 2008, but he won those under age 60, besting Vietnam veteran Sen. John Kerry’s performance in 2004. The president is making a big push for the military vote in battleground states with large military installations including North Carolina, Colorado and Virginia, the Post reported. He is also pushing such actions as increased funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs, launching jobs programs for vets and winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

Success, however, is no sure thing, the Post said, as Romney is also courting veterans and independent groups are launching attacks on Obama’s record with veterans.