United States – -(AmmoLand.com)- With the upcoming mid-term elections (not to mention primary campaigns), it may not hurt to go through some of the lessons learned from past elections. Those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it, and in these times, Second Amendment supporters cannot afford to fail to learn.
Sometimes Other Issues Prevail
In 2018 and 2021, issues with a peripheral (at most) link to Second Amendment issues took pre-eminence. The 2018 elections were largely decided on health care, while the 2021 election involved issues surrounding education. Second Amendment supporters can address this by working to get their fellow Americans to view a failure to support our Second Amendment rights as a potential deal-breaker in terms of giving a candidate a vote.
Get On The Field
One of the big differences between the 2018 and 2021 elections was the fact that more of the elections were contested. In the past, all too often, an anti-Second Amendment extremist ran unopposed. That changed.
Similarly, there was outreach to people who Second Amendment supporters haven’t reached out to before. One of the biggest failures of Wayne LaPierre and current NRA leadership has been the failure to hire translators. Second Amendment supporters will lose 100% of the votes they don’t ask for, and leave 100% of the people they fail to reach out to vulnerable to being taken in by Bloomberg’s lies.
The Threat Is In The Suburbs
The 2021 election masked the growing threat to electing candidates that support our Second Amendment rights. It’s in the suburbs, particularly among suburban mothers, mostly due to the billions of dollars Michael Bloomberg puts into anti-Second Amendment groups. While legal cases like NYSRPA v. Bruen will help, but only so much.
The real task for Second Amendment supporters in the suburbs will be to learn from the 2020 election, in particular, the Senate campaign of Susan Collins in the face of social media censorship and biased media.
Down-Ballot Races Matter
Governors, United States Senators, members of the House of Representatives, and state legislatures get the headlines, but the down-ballot races matter a lot. A state attorney general or your local school board or prosecutor can have significant effects on your Second Amendment rights. Consider your volunteer efforts – and votes – accordingly, and be sure to ask the right questions of the candidates for local and down-ballot state offices.
Candidate Quality Matters
When running in hostile political territory, it will take a good candidate to have a fighting chance. A fighting spirit can help matters at times, but at the same time, a candidate who turns off voters could be a disaster – even if he or she checks off all right boxes on policy. Much of this will come down to who best fits the political terrain in your locality, legislative district, or state.
Second Amendment supporters will be facing a difficult task in upcoming elections. But learning from the past will make it easier to defeat anti-Second Amendment extremists at the federal, state, and local levels via the ballot box.
About Harold Hutchison
Writer Harold Hutchison has more than a dozen years of experience covering military affairs, international events, U.S. politics and Second Amendment issues. Harold was consulting senior editor at Soldier of Fortune magazine and is the author of the novel Strike Group Reagan. He has also written for the Daily Caller, National Review, Patriot Post, Strategypage.com, and other national websites.
