Iraq war veteran Jon Powers sat at a coffee table across from U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy here last spring, picking the freshman lawmaker’s brain about what a political campaign might involve.

A political neophyte considering a run for Congress, the 29-year-old Powers wondered what kind of reaction he would get from those he’d served with. He had no idea how to assemble a staff or how running in his native New York would affect his family life.

The conversation ended with a clear message from Murphy, Powers recalled. ‘‘He literally looked at me across the table, and said, ‘You have to do it.’‘’

Murphy, the Bucks County Democrat who emerged from the 2006 congressional races as the first and only Iraq war veteran elected to Congress, is looking for company in Washington. And he’s not waiting around to see if it shows up.

The 34-year-old former Army captain is helping out other veterans as they jump into a different kind of combat than the one they faced in Iraq: campaigns for U.S. House seats against Republicans.