MICHIGAN—US Rep. Tom Barrett talked a big game about helping Michigan veterans.
The money never followed.
The Detroit Metro Times reported this week that the Michigan Veterans Institute—which Barrett helped launch in 2016 and later touted as an accomplishment on the campaign trail—never raised enough money to provide any of the services it had promised.
“There was little to no money raised,” Ed Sarpolus, president of the Lansing nonprofit that served as the institute’s financial home, told the Detroit Metro Times this week.
The bombshell report lands less than two weeks before Election Day, as Barrett, a 22-year Army veteran, fights to keep one of the most competitive US House seats in the country against Democrat Will Lawrence, a Lansing organizer and co-founder of the Sunrise Movement.
What did Barrett promise?
Barrett, then a state representative from Potterville, announced the veterans initiative in March 2016 alongside Democratic state Sen. David Knezek.
The pitch: service dogs for veterans with PTSD, help reducing homelessness, job connections, better access to education and health care, mentoring, and town halls statewide.
Barrett told Michigan Public at the time that corporate donations were already coming in, and he credited AT&T with helping secure a grant to get the effort off the ground. He also said he and Knezek would personally take the lead in approaching donors and raising money.
Later that year, Barrett pointed to the institute as one of his accomplishments.
What does the evidence show?
It wasn’t a standalone nonprofit. The Michigan Veterans Institute was never its own 501(c)(3). It operated as an assumed name under Insyght Institute, an existing Lansing nonprofit.
Very little money came in. Sarpolus said some funds went toward research and events, but nowhere near enough for the programs Barrett promoted. He doesn’t remember an AT&T grant.
There’s no paper trail. Barrett claimed AT&T gave the institute a few thousand dollars, which he believes went toward research on benefit gaps facing women veterans. But neither Barrett nor anyone else could produce records for the exact value of the grant or where it went.
Michigan’s largest veterans group never heard of it. Officials with the American Legion in Michigan—the state’s largest veterans service organization—told The ’Gander they had never heard of the Michigan Veterans Institute and have no known collaboration or affiliation with it.
What was Barrett’s response?
Barrett told Metro Times that neither he nor Knezek sat on the institute’s board or handled its finances. His campaign also said the effort lost steam after Knezek lost his primary election in 2018. But as Metro Times pointed out, that election loss came about two and a half years after the institute launched—a stretch when both lawmakers were still in office.
Barrett also said his attention shifted after a state audit uncovered serious problems at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans.
“My focus was shifted to the response and oversight of that disaster,” Barrett told the Detroit Metro Times. “My committee became the first legislative committee to hold hearings at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans and a significant overhaul of the agency followed.”
Why does it matter?
A former US Army helicopter pilot, Barrett has made veterans issues central to his political brand. In Congress, he chairs the Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Technology Modernization.
And Barrett’s spending has drawn scrutiny before. In May, Metro Times reported that his campaign reimbursed him nearly $22,000 for more than 32,000 miles of campaign driving—enough to circle the globe—and didn’t respond when asked for documentation.
Earlier this year, Politico also reported that Barrett’s campaign and joint fundraising committee paid nearly $56,000 to two firms that employed his wife as a campaign finance lawyer: the law firm Butzel Long and political software company Aristotle International. And the payments haven’t stopped. Barrett’s latest quarterly campaign finance report shows his campaign paid Aristotle another $5,850 on July 30 for legal compliance and accounting services.
“Tom Barrett lied about establishing a nonprofit for veterans—and then campaigned on that lie,” said Ravi Mangla, national press secretary for the Working Families Party, which has endorsed Barrett’s Democratic opponent. “His nonprofit was nothing more than a PR stunt to help him get re-elected. How can voters trust anything that comes out of Tom Barrett’s mouth after this?”
What’s at stake on Election Day?
Michigan’s 7th Congressional District covers Clinton, Ingham, Livingston, and Shiawassee counties, most of Eaton County, and parts of Genesee and Oakland counties. Barrett flipped the seat in 2024, beating Democrat Curtis Hertel 50% to 47%. This year’s race is among the most competitive in the country and the result will help decide which party controls the US House.
Lawrence has pledged to put a dedicated veterans liaison in his congressional office if elected, with staff making regular visits to local veterans halls, as part of a plan he rolled out this month.
Michiganders can still register to vote in-person at their local clerk’s office through Election Day. Absentee voting is underway. Statewide early voting runs Oct. 24-Nov. 1. Election Day is Nov. 3. Check your registration, find your polling place, and track your ballot at michigan.gov/vote.
READ MORE: Unions line up behind Will Lawrence as corporate PACs back Tom Barrett
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