With a vote on the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch fast approaching, the NRA is making clear they will campaign against Red State Democrats who vote against the nominee.
There are number of Senate Democrats from Red States who are up for re-election in 2018. Gateway Pundit published a list of names that included Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Sherrod Brown (D-OH) Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Clair McCaskill (D-MO), Bill Nelson (D-FL), and Jon Tester (D-MT), among others.
Democrats in this list who vote against a Gorsuch confirmation will not only find themselves campaigning against a Republican challenger but against the NRA as well.
The Washington Examiner quoted a letter from NRA-ILA executive director Chris Cox, in which he wrote, “The NRA has every confidence that Judge Gorsuch will protect the Second Amendment rights of law abiding gun owners and will faithfully apply the Constitution in the cases that come before him. He has our strongest support for confirmation.”
Cox added, “Because of the importance of this issue to NRA members and gun owners throughout the country, votes on his confirmation will be considered in future candidate evaluations and we will notify our members accordingly.”
The New York Times shows that Senators Baldwin, Brown, Donnelly, Heitkamp, McCaskill, Nelson, and Tester already voted against the confirmation of pro-Second Amendment Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Those votes, plus any votes against Gorsuch, could only be expected to unleash the NRA’s unfettered campaigning power against the Red State Democrats.
It is also interesting to note that President Trump won all eight states represented above: Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, North Dakota, Missouri, Florida, Montana, and West Virginia. This alone puts added pressure on the Senators, should they vote against the nominee Trump put forward to save the Second Amendment from the machinations of the left.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.