President Obama secured a 34-vote, veto-proof Senate majority Wednesday in favor of the nuclear deal with Iran, but that doesn’t mean U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet can relax.

The White House is now aiming for a 41-vote majority in order to block a Senate vote on the agreement, meaning that the Democrat Bennet is still under pressure from both sides in what is emerging as one of the most divisive and closely watched votes of his career.

At a Wednesday press conference, former Sen. Gary Hart, a Democrat, argued in favor of the agreement, insisting that the United States would be “ostracized” if it rejected the deal and adding he and Bennet have been in “pretty close contact.”

“I urged Sen. Bennet to make the right decision and I think he will,” Hart said. “My guess is it will be sooner rather than later.”

A spokesman for Bennet said on Thursday morning that the senator hasn’t decided how he’ll vote on the deal.

Shortly after Hart’s press conference, members of Veterans Against the Deal and Americans Against Terror paid a visit to Bennet’s Denver office for a meeting with the senator’s staff — Bennet wasn’t there — to make the case for a “no” vote and point out that the veterans will still be around after the President leaves office.

“We would like our voices to be weighted a little bit louder than [that of] an administration that leaves office in 16 months,” said Michael Pregent, national director of Veterans Against the Deal, a 20-year Army veteran who served as a Middle East intelligence officer in Iraq.

“We’re going to be around afterwards,” he said. “We’re going to remember every senator who voted for this deal. Because every day Iran cheats, we’ll put a report out. And Iran’s already cheating and Russia’s helping them do it.”

He cited polls showing most Americans oppose the bargain, which lifts economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for limits and inspections on Iran’s nuclear capability aimed at stopping the regime from developing a weapon for at least a decade.

A Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday found that 55 percent of those surveyed nationally oppose the deal while 25 percent support it, virtually the same results as its Aug. 3 poll despite heavy advertising since then on both sides.

Such polling could be particularly relevant for Bennet, who is seeking reelection in 2016 amid surveys showing lukewarm support. Pregent predicted that a vote in favor of the deal would come back to haunt the senator during the election.

“We’re going to go into the building and meet with Sen. Bennet’s staff. We’re going to make our case for this and then we’re going to engage him again in DC,” said Pregent. “And if he still comes out for it, we’re going to run ads in Colorado, and every time Iran does something, we’re going to say, ‘Iran is doing this, and Sen. Bennet thinks it’s okay.’”

Hart pointed out that veterans are hardly united on the issue. He appeared at the press conference at the state capitol with Jason Crow, an Army veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, who supports the agreement between Iran and seven leading nations.

“For me, not having a deal and relying only on the threat or the use of military power would be irresponsible,” said Crow.

Another veterans’ group, VoteVets, is lobbying members of Congress in favor of a deal, while Concerned Veterans of America is against it.

Hart’s press conference was organized by the Truman National Security Project, a left-leaning think tank that has lobbied and run ads in support of the agreement, unveiled July 14 after nearly two years of negotiations.

Hart said that former Democratic U.S. Sen. Tim Wirth has also been involved in discussions with Bennet.

“The sole standard by which this agreement should be judged by the American people, including the people of Colorado, is whether it makes us safer or less secure,” Hart said. “It is a very difficult argument to make that we would be more secure without this agreement and with an Iran that is free to go forward without restrictions.”

For Robert Bartlett, however, the debate is also personal. As an Army staff sergeant, he lost an eye and his face was left scarred after he was “blown up by an Iranian bomb,” he said.

“It cut me in half from the left corner of my temple down to my jaw,” said Bartlett, a member of Veterans Against the Deal who met with Bennet’s staff. “It took my gunner’s legs off and it took the top of my truck commander’s head off. What killed me killed my friends came right from Iran.”

Hart noted that “we don’t negotiate with our friends,” but Bartlett said he’s stunned that the Obama administration would attempt to cut a deal with a country that continues to kill Americans. Three Americans are being imprisoned by the Iranians.

“The very people who tried to kill me and my buddies are getting billions of dollars to kill more Americans,” Bartlett said. “It doesn’t make any sense. You don’t reward bad behavior.”

Bennet has also been buffeted by television ads running in Colorado media markets. A J Street ad touts the support of some U.S. and Israeli military officials for the deal, while an American Security Initiative spot depicts Bartlett talking about the attack.

The ad isn’t subtle: A photo of Bennet appears on screen as Bartlett says, “Every politician who’s involved in this will be held accountable.”

What opponents fail to factor in, said Hart, is the damage that would be done to the nation’s role as an international leader if Congress were to reject the deal.

“We would be the one ostracized, and the rest of the democratic world would go forward in normalizing relations with relations with Iran and doing everything they can to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and materials in the next 10 to 15 years,” Hart said.

The news Wednesday that the White House had sealed the deal by gaining Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s vote failed to discourage the vets, who said they plan to keep lobbying both decided and undecided Democratic senators until the scheduled Sept. 17 vote.

“We’re military guys. We don’t quit,” Pregent said, adding, “Every senator who has come out now in support of this — they haven’t voted yet. We’re going to make sure we talk to them, we’re going to make sure we get in front of them.”

Pregent warned the pro-deal side against popping champagne corks too soon, given how long it took the Obama administration to scrape together 34 votes, even from staunch Democrats such as Mikulski, who rarely split with the president.

“No vote is safe,” Pregent said. “Today, the president was able to muster a reluctant minority of senators who are so concerned about this Iran deal that they’ve been pondering this thing for weeks. This is no milestone. This is no celebration for the White House.”

In Colorado, House and Senate Republicans are unified in their opposition, while Democratic Reps. Ed Perlmutter and Diana DeGette have said they’ll support the deal.

— valrichardson17@gmail.com