An Ohio coalition of Tea Party and liberty groups has announced an alliance with gun-rights supporters to help win the critical swing state for Donald Trump.
“The majority of the TEA Party/Liberty Groups in Ohio will be aligning with the National Rifle Association in an effort to elect Donald Trump as the next President of the United States,” said the statement from “We the People Convention.”
That’s a big gain for Trump, partly because these groups will provide the people and networks to build a pro-Trump turnout machine in a critical state where the GOP governor is, at best, not supporting Trump.
“We are pleased to align our efforts in this Presidential election with the NRA because so many of our members are also NRA members and gun owners,” Tom Zawistowski, President of the We the People Convention, said in the statement.
“The NRA came out early to endorse Donald Trump, which was no surprise since Hillary Clinton’s anti-2nd Amendment positions are crystal clear. It’s a simple choice- if we want to keep our guns, we need to elect Donald Trump as President. Working together with the National Rifle Association we believe we can get that done in Ohio,” Zawistowski added.
In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News on Wednesday, Zawistowski blasted Ohio’s Republican governor, John Kasich, who ran unsuccessfully for the GOP’s presidential nomination this year.
“It’s really the NRA and us in Ohio,” Zawisotowki tells Breitbart News.
“The Kasich people are outwardly undermining Trump because Kasich wants to run in 2020, and he needs Hillary to win so that Obamacare does not get repealed,” he said. “He’s expanded Medicaid by billions of dollars in Ohio, and if Obamacare is repealed, the Ohio taxpayers [pay for] the bill,” Zawisotowki explains.
According to the statement released on Tuesday, “In 2012 members of TEA Party/Liberty Groups made over 75% of the calls and 75% of the door knocks for the Romney Campaign in Ohio.”
“Our members will make phone calls and knock on doors through the NRA’s Political Victory Fund,” Zawistowski explained in the statement:
This decision to align with the NRA was made for two important reasons. First, we needed to align with an organization that we could trust and that would respect the value of the volunteer effort we bring to the election. I am confident that the NRA is a trustworthy partner who will respect our volunteers as true partners. Second, there are possible concerns about the resources that the Ohio Republican Party will commit to supporting Trump, based on Governor Kasich’s refusal to attend the Convention in Cleveland let alone endorse Trump.
“Taking these factors into consideration, we had to find a partner that has no questions about supporting Trump’s election and the NRA has proven that commitment. This year’s combined effort will bring significant grassroots resources to bear on the mutual goal of ensuring Hillary Clinton is defeated and Donald Trump is our next President,” the Ohio Tea Party activist said.
Zawisotowski said the We the People Convention plans on aggressively organizing in the Buckeye State on behalf of Trump as part of the NRA’s efforts there.
“We will also hold a one-day state meeting [here in Ohio] in August to organize other efforts in support of Trump. We will notify all the leaders in the state concerning that event within the next week,” Zawistowski concluded.
The mission of the We the People Convention, which has been held in Ohio “annually since 2011,” is “to recruit, educate, and motivate Ohio citizens at the grassroots level to perform their constitutionally defined role in the governance of their townships, municipalities, counties, as well as in our state and nation, by providing opportunities, knowledge, and training to ensure limited constitutional governance.”