2012 Election Recap

The dust is still settling from Tuesday's voting, but one thing is clear:  NRA-ILA's 2012 election effort was one of the most sophisticated and targeted endeavors in our history.  Though President Obama was able to secure a second term, pro-gun voters did turn out to the polls in significant numbers, making the difference in several down-ballot races and ballot measures.  Prior to Tuesday, our country had an anti-gun president, a questionable U.S. Senate majority, and a pro-gun U.S. House majority.  Today, America still has an anti-gun president, questionable U.S. Senate majority, and pro-gun U.S. House majority.  As Ronald Reagan once famously said: "Status Quo is, you know, Latin for the mess we're in."

Here is a breakdown of other results from Tuesday's contests:

We won a significant pro-Second Amendment constitutional amendment in Louisiana.  Louisiana now has the strongest state constitutional protection of the right to keep and bear arms in the country.  We will use this as a template to pass similar constitutional amendments wherever we can.  This amendment was approved by a 74% majority.

Voters in Idaho, Kentucky, and Nebraska passed meaningful right to hunt constitutional amendments.

We hired 25 Campaign Field Representatives in 13 battleground states, who in turn marshaled thousands of volunteers, who participated in precinct walks, volunteer phone banks, and marshaled support at gun shows. Fred Barnes, executive editor of the Weekly Standard, singled out the NRA's work in a coalition of organizations as having "put together a massive GOTV effort focused on swing voters in key states" which "averaged 1.8 million phone calls per day in recent days."  In the races in which a CFR was deployed, we were victorious 70% of the time.

U.S. Senate

Nine of NRA-PVF's 20 endorsed U.S. Senate candidates won their races (Arizona, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming).  In addition, we saw pro-gun upgrades in Indiana, North Dakota and New Mexico. The only pro-gun downgrade was in Virginia.

U.S. House

Of the 270 candidates endorsed by the NRA-PVF for the U.S. House, 225 were victorious, for a winning percentage of 83%.

As of this writing, eight House races remain too close to call.

Gubernatorial & State Legislatures

Of the nine gubernatorial candidates endorsed by the NRA-PVF, five were victorious (North Dakota, Indiana, Utah, Vermont, and West Virginia). 

Gains were also made in many state legislative races, although we also suffered some disappointing losses as well, notably in Colorado and New York.

While disappointing, it is important to remember that President Obama did not win reelection because he is anti-gun and Governor Romney did not lose because he ran as pro-gun.

Make no mistake, with Obama's reelection, we face a perilous four years when it comes to the future of our Second Amendment rights.  There will be battles ahead, and NRA members and their fellow gun owners must remain vigilant.  We must let our representatives, both Democrat and Republican, know one thing:  We expect our Second Amendment rights to be respected.  Like you, NRA will remain totally focused on fighting the good fight to ensure our Second Amendment rights remain intact.

We want to thank all of the gun owners who volunteered for pro-gun candidates, sacrificed their time, and contributed their hard-earned money in support of the Second Amendment.  Your efforts and sacrifices are truly irreplaceable, and we are profoundly grateful that you were "All In" on November 6^th.