Back in 2010, when the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action endorsed some vulnerable House Democrats, NRA-ILA Director Chris Cox explained that the NRA had to stick by Democrats who had not voted against the Second Amendment, no matter how much they disagreed with the lawmaker’s other votes:
We have our longtime election slogan of “Vote Freedom First,” which obviously means we’re hopeful that our members and gun owners put Second Amendment issues at the forefront when they make those decisions. Those decisions have allowed us to build a bipartisan majority now that has proven to be not only beneficial but, I would argue, invaluable to protecting and promoting the Second Amendment.
The political reality is that we have President Obama, who had at one point 60 Democratic votes in the Senate and a 39-vote margin in the House. If it weren’t for our pro-gun Democrats, we would be having a very different conversation.
For quite a while, pro-gun Republicans grumbled that the NRA’s efforts to help “pro-gun Democrats” helped ensure Nancy Pelosi would be Speaker of the House, harming the cause of the Second Amendment overall.
Times change, because last night Chris Cox addressed the Republican National Convention:
Eight years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that we have a fundamental individual right to protect ourselves and our families in our own homes. They should have ruled it 9 to nothing, but the Second Amendment survived by just one vote after Justice Scalia’s death that vote is gone. in case you’re wondering where Hillary Clinton stands, she said, ‘The Supreme Court is wrong on the second amendment.’ …
It’s that simple: a Hillary Clinton Supreme Court means your right to own a firearm is gone. Make no mistake, this election is not about the next four years, it’s about the next forty years.
It was an anti-Clinton, pro-Trump speech; nothing Cox said could be construed as an argument against the remaining pro-gun Democrats in Congress. But Cox’s appearance also suggests that the NRA’s effort to remain nonpartisan is increasingly moot; there simply aren’t many pro-gun Democrats left in Congress.
Back in 2010, the NRA’s PAC gave $350,000 in direct contributions to 65 Democratic House candidates. But those Democrats, mostly in rural, Republican-leaning districts, were wiped out in the 2010 and 2014 midterm elections, replaced with pro-gun Republicans. This year they have given a total of $3,500 to two Democrats, Sanford Bishop of Georgia and Henry Cuellar of Texas. They’ve given $399,450 to Republicans.
The NRA didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left them.
Chris Cox’s Convention Address and the Extinction of Pro-Gun Democrats