It can seem like it is always election season. In fact, in the era of Donald Trump, nonstop campaigning seems even more prevalent, as Democrat leadership and their allies in the media continue to question virtually every policy he ran on—policies that secured his victory.
President Trump made clear he would work to protect and strengthen the Second Amendment, and he has been doing just that. Those opposed to the right to arms, however, will never give up and are prone to wail even louder when they are no longer in power, always pushing for more gun control even after voters clearly rejected it.
That said, anti-gun forces could well regain key seats of power this year in Virginia, home of NRA Headquarters.
Before you say, “Oh, no! Not another election column,” let me simply remind you that defenders of freedom can never become complacent, nor, sadly, can they ever rest. As the saying goes, the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
Now, Virginians know that we have enjoyed four years of having a stalwart defender of the Second Amendment in Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R). Over the last two legislative cycles, he has vetoed more than 50 anti-gun bills. I don’t know if that is a record, but it is an awesome testament to Gov. Youngkin’s steadfast defense of our cherished freedom.
But Virginia doesn’t allow its governors to be elected to consecutive terms, so there will be someone new occupying the mansion in Richmond, Va., next year. Election Day to determine who that will be is Nov. 4, and the difference between the Republican and Democrat candidates vying to replace Youngkin could not be clearer when it comes to defending the rights of law-abiding gun owners.
Current Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears (R) is as strong and vocal an advocate for our rights as you could possibly want. She served in the U.S. Marine Corps and became famous nationally when, as a candidate for lieutenant governor, she produced campaign material depicting her holding an AR-15. Anti-gun extremists pilloried her over that, and she told NRA that even some Republicans suggested she was “too openly for guns,” but she stood her ground.
NRA-PVF endorsed that run, and the voters of Virginia did, too, making her the first black woman to hold the second-highest office in Virginia.
In stark contrast, Abigail Spanberger (D) is the very definition of anti-gun. She has been campaigning with gun-ban extremist groups like Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action—both subsidiaries of billionaire Mike Bloomberg’s anti-gun operation—and she regularly repeats anti-gun lies, like calling firearms “the number one killer of kids in our country.”
Spanberger boasts of endorsements from virtually every gun-ban organization there is, including Brady, Giffords and Bloomberg’s Everytown. She supports banning semi-automatics and limiting the capacity of magazines, among many other infringements.
If Spanberger had been governor when the anti-gun majority in the Virginia General Assembly sent that deluge of freedom-killing bills Gov. Youngkin vetoed, the outcome would have been devastatingly different.
In another critical race, the current Virginia attorney general, Jason Miyares (R), is running for reelection. Miyares, like Earle-Sears, was endorsed by NRA-PVF when he ran for the office he now holds. As a member of the Virginia General Assembly, he consistently voted to support law-abiding gun owners, and he has carried through with that support as attorney general.
In 2022, under the guidance of Miyares, the solicitor general of Virginia wrote to the U.S. Supreme Court to notify them that the commonwealth of Virginia supports the right to keep and bear arms outside the home in the NRA-backed case of NYSRPA v. Bruen. This reversed the position previously held by former anti-gun Attorney General Mark Herring (D).
We don’t yet know who his Democrat opponent will be, but I do know Miyares has proven his pro-gun bona fides.
Of course, there are other races, but as I am writing this column, many candidates have yet to be determined, and I have to wait to see how the political landscape unfolds before I work with staff to determine our involvement. As Election Day gets closer, Virginia NRA members need to keep a watchful eye out for alerts from me and my colleagues about the critical races in the commonwealth and in their local areas.
In the meantime, if you want to get more involved, go to nraila.org/grassroots. There you will find information on volunteering, registering to vote, contacting local activists (our FrontLines Activist Leaders) and other ways you can help defend freedom.
Fellow Virginians, I encourage you to stand and fight!
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