Joseph P. Tartaro, Editor Emeritus
By Joseph P. Tartaro|Editor Emeritus
Gunowners who live in nine states—Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan and both North and South Carolina—may be surprised to discover they are living in ground zero for the 2020 election battle to control the US Senate.
That’s because New York Sen. Charles Schumer—the current minority leader of the US Senate—wants to become the majority leader, and as 2019 was ending he was sending fund-raising letters to the Democrat faithful on behalf of the Senate Majority PAC (Political Action Campaign).
There are three themes to Schumer’s fund-raising appeals:
• It will do the Democrats no good if they win the 2020 presidential election but fail to win control of the US Senate as they did in the House of Representatives in the 2018 federal elections. He calls such an outcome a “nightmare” that would haunt Democrats for the next six years.
• That the odds are in favor of Democrats winning control of the Senate because there are almost twice as many currently Republican-held Senate seats up for election in 2020 as Democrats: 22 to 12.
• The Democrats only have to shift three seats to gain control of the Senate—four seats if they lose the presidential election.
In his recent epistles to his fellow Democrats, Schumer sees the nine states mentioned above as the ones where the Democrats believe they have the best chances of unseating a Republican incumbent. That means those nine targeted states will get most of the Democrats focus, campaign dollars, email campaigns, television expenditures, phone banks and campaign workers.
There is no way to know how good Schumer’s campaign intelligence really is, but he sees a chance for his party to win control of both houses of Congress this coming November. The most vulnerable he claims are Martha McSally in Arizona, Cory Gardner in Colorado, David Perdue in Georgia, Joni Ernst in Iowa, Mitch McConnell in Kentucky, Susan Collins in Maine, Thom Tillis in Norrth Carolina, Lindsay Graham in South Carolina and John Cornyn in Texas.
Of course, Schumer blames the Republicans—particularly the current majority leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky—for holding up his party’s agenda in the current Congress. Hence the focus of his campaign is to “Ditch Mitch.” And—no surprise to anyone—he mentions new gun control laws as a key element of that future Democrat agenda.
Among the new gun controls proposed by Democrats are: universal background checks, more “red flag Laws” with concomitant confiscations, a total ban on modern sporting rifles and magazines of over 10 rounds, federal licensing and registration of all guns, and even mandatory federal buy-ups of guns.
There are even more anti-gun proposals in the Democrats’ playbook, depending on which Democrat candidate for president emerges from the primary process. And while the presidential race seems to be occupying the most media attention and public focus these days, Schumer is right about one thing: the Senate races should not be ignored—especially not in states where the incumbent Republican faces serious political opposition.
“Bottom line,” according to Schumer, “If grassroots Democrats don’t act now, we could let this rare opportunity to swing control of the slip through our fingers—and that mistake would haunt us for the next six years.
“Imagine how many important pieces of legislation we would miss out on,” Schumer continued, “Imagine how many good progressive judges would be blocked so that the Republicans can fill the courts with hard-line radicals who will help them destroy women’s rights. Imagine seeing the next Democratic president turned into a lame duck before he or she even takes office.”
Gunowners across the country will have to play a key role in the election of a total of 34 members of the US Senate this November, and in the races for every seat in the House of Representatives, plus the president. However, because Schumer is salivating over the prospect of becoming the majority leader and dictating the legislative agenda in January 2021, gunowners will have to devote more time, talent, energy and dollars in 2020 than in any other election in recent memory. The stakes have never been higher. Just imagine what will happen to your right to keep and bear arms if Schumer’s Senate majority dream comes true.
His victory could prove to be our nightmare.
Make no mistake. If Schumer wins the majority leadership seat, we will live through our own nightmare. If he succeeds, you and I lose.
