While the complete picture from the 2026 midterm elections is still emerging, the results, to say the least, were not what gun owners wanted. Anti-gun forces took control of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. They will also wield trifecta control of state government in the former pro-gun stronghold of Arizona and even in Wisconsin. The governorships of Georgia and Texas, as well as their respective houses of representatives, may also be poised to flip into anti-gun hands.
Yet make no mistake, this election was not a referendum in favor of gun control. Indeed, most Democrat candidates – from the party most likely to support gun control – took pains to avoid the issue in highly contested races or tried to portray themselves as moderates on it. And while national gun ban lobbies like Everytown and their billionaire patrons like Michael Bloomberg spent heavily to obtain these results, their campaign ads tended to downplay gun control, if they mentioned it at all.
Polls showed gun control was not a significant factor motivating voters this cycle. Their chief concerns centered on the economy and cost of living.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s policies on crime and immigration have helped to drive nationwide violent crime rates as low as at any time in the FBI’s history of measurement. And while hot spots of violent crime still exist, they are heavily concentrated in discrete neighborhoods and among discrete feuding social groups, most often in locales under legacy Democrat control. This is occurring at the same time as the Second Amendment is being embraced by a more numerous and broader cross-section of law-abiding Americans than at any point in the nation’s history.
Indeed, if there was a bright spot in the outcome, it was in Florida, where pro-gun forces prevailed in every major race. The “Gunshine State” remains a beacon of what America could yet become. Diverse, to be sure, and famous for its commitment to the right to bear arms and the pursuit of virtually every version of happiness in the American character, Florida is a stronghold and a template for better days ahead.
So, no, gun control did not drive these results in any shape or form.
But that doesn’t mean gun owners and the gun industry won’t suffer from them.
Virginia is a good example of what can be expected. Abigail Spanberger ran as a moderate, rarely pressing the issue of firearms. Once elected, however, she presided over the single largest binge of gun control the Old Dominion had ever seen. This included a ban on America’s most popular and iconic rifle, the AR-15. It also included a law specifically designed to allow anti-gun activists to sue law-abiding gun industry members for the acts of unaffiliated third-party criminals. None of this was responsive to or necessitated by Virginia-specific problems. Rather it reflected a national agenda driven by a small handful of wealthy and elitist donors and interest groups.
So now, for the first time since 1988, Texas will send a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in the person of James Talarico, who openly backs a ban on AR-15s and similar semiautomatic rifles. Likewise, Michigan’s open senate seat went to Abdul El-Sayed, a Democrat M.D. who suggested trading in the Second Amendment for a right to universal healthcare and who argued the right to keep and bear arms, if it protects any individual liberty, is limited to muskets.
And so it goes, in one race after another at the federal and state levels.
Fortunately, the NRA has been around since 1871, arising from the ashes of the Civil War itself. We have seen good times and bad here in the United States.
We will not insult your intelligence by downplaying the challenges that lie ahead, but we promise you this: The American gun owner has no more stalwart, experienced, or battle-tested ally than the National Rifle Association of America.
Among other national pro-gun groups, NRA alone led the fight in the 2026 midterm elections, both in spending, independent expenditures and ground operations. While we could not compete with Bloomberg’s billions in the funding game, we fought a guerrilla war of movement and direct engagement with the NRA Gun Bus Battleground Tour. Mobilizing and encouraging voters over thousands of miles through 13 states and 60+ stops, the Gun Bus assured pro-gun America of our enduring commitment to the cause, come what may.
What has come in this moment is not what we wanted. But we are not licking our wounds. We’re charging back into the fray, as we always have when the need arises. More than ever, we need your support and your engagement. The battle is joined, and it is full steam ahead in defense of our sacred rights.
NRA-ILA alerts are the quickest way to stay engaged in this fight. Make sure you are signed up, and add your family, friends and members of your gun club.
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