Is Another Presidential Candidate Preparing to Exit the Race?

We ask this question only half-jokingly, and as a response to Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren’s recent introduction of a “new” anti-gun bill.  It seems that every time a Democrat hoping to unseat President Donald Trump this November begins to see their campaign unravelling, they start to hammer on attacking the Second Amendment.

First came California Representative Eric Swalwell.  To be fair, though, the clock on when he would exit the race started the moment he filed.  The only reason people outside of his district would be aware of his existence was if they were interested in obscure politicians who make ominous threats towards large swaths of law-abiding Americans.

Next to quit was Texas Representative Robert Francis O’Rourke.  A media darling when running a losing campaign against U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, O’Rourke’s luster hardly faded with that loss.  But during his lackluster Presidential bid, when he shifted gears from just banning guns to actually confiscating them, the wheels completely fell off his campaign.  Now O’Rourke, once a Democrat rising star with national aspirations, has been relegated to hyping special elections for the Texas state house.  And he’s faring no better there, as his losses continue to mount.

We may have actually predicted California Senator Kamala Harris would fail in her bid to face Trump.  The week after we wrote about Harris embracing gun confiscation as a possible “exit strategy” for her floundering campaign, she quit.

New Jersey Senator Cory Booker was the most recent proponent of gun confiscation to have to face reality, and abandon his quest to be the Democrat to challenge Trump.

This brings us back to Warren.

She hasn’t turned to openly advocating for gun confiscation, as the other failed candidates had, and she has been consistently hitting double-digits with polls, which the others could only dream of doing.  Last October, her polling numbers even hit the mid-20s, and she was in a virtual tie with long-time frontrunner Joe Biden.

But that was last October.

Since that peak, Warren’s numbers have seen a dramatic decline, and are now stagnating in the mid-teens.

As for her legislation, there is really nothing new about it.  It includes banning semi-automatic firearms like the AR-15, a federal licensing scheme for all gun purchasers, “universal” background checks, and other proposals that have already been introduced.  This anti-gun wish-list is also part of Warren’s anti-gun platform posted to her campaign website.

So what’s the point?  Why take a number of proposals that have gained no traction in the Senate, bundle them together, and try to sell them as a “big, bold proposal?”

The announcement of her anti-gun Senate bill could be seen as a desperate attempt to generate some traction in the polls among those Democrats who embrace eviscerating the Second Amendment.  During the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump, Warren tried to steal a little bit of the spotlight by asking a ridiculous question of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who is presiding over the process.  Clearly, she’s looking for something…anything…to rejuvenate her fading aspiration to be President.

Stagnating poll numbers and ramping up the anti-gun agenda have been, thus far, harbingers of doom for the field of Democrat Presidential hopefuls this election cycle.  Is Senator Warren’s campaign set on the same path of despair that so many others have followed before her?  Only time will tell.