NEW POLL: Gun lobby influence collapses among Texas Republicans
Texas Republicans—including Paxton voters—SUPPORT Cornyn’s bipartisan gun bill. His detractors oppose him for other reasons.
WASHINGTON — GIFFORDS, the national gun violence prevention organization founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, released new polling of the Texas Republican Senate runoff electorate showing Republican voters — including those who support the candidacy of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — not only reject the gun lobby’s arguments against Senator John Cornyn’s work on the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), but in fact overwhelmingly support its policies.
“No matter who wins next week’s election, the gun lobby has already lost. Their influence over Republican primaries has completely collapsed—just ask their number one ally, Thomas Massie. Texans across the political spectrum have countless reasons to oppose John Cornyn, but this new data makes it crystal clear that working across the aisle to reduce gun violence is not one of them,” said GIFFORDS Executive Director Emma Brown. “Even among die-hard MAGA Texas Republicans, 2022’s Bipartisan Safer Communities Act is overwhelmingly popular. The gun lobby was hoping this election would stop Republicans from working across the aisle to combat gun violence, but their failures in Texas have just set the stage for even more in the future.”
BACKGROUND:
The gun lobby promised to make Cornyn’s primary election a referendum on these alleged betrayals. The National Association for Gun Rights called Cornyn “the most anti-gun Republican in Congress.” Texas Gun Rights declared “It’s time to send a message: No more backroom gun control deals. No more Cornyn’s [sic].” It said “Cornyn’s defeat would send a shockwave through the Republican Party.” Gun Owners of America added “There’s no reason Texas shouldn’t have an A+ senator representing them…Anti-gun votes have consequences.”
As the data shows, they utterly failed to convince voters.
Gun rights attacks on Cornyn were the LEAST important to GOP voters, even among those who supported Paxton’s challenge.
Among the messages in seven recent anti-Cornyn ads GIFFORDS tested, Republican runoff voters rated attacks on Cornyn’s gun rights record the least important in deciding their vote. This was even the case among voters who supported Paxton’s challenge against Cornyn.
Texas Republican runoff voters — including those voting for Paxton — overwhelmingly support Bipartisan Safer Community Act policies:
- Nine in 10 GOP respondents favor including juvenile criminal history and mental health records in background checks for gun purchasers under age 21.
- 86% support making gun trafficking and straw purchasing federal crimes punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
- 80% support blocking unmarried domestic abusers from owning guns.
- 76% support requiring unlicensed dealers who predominantly sell guns for profit to conduct background checks.
- 76% support expanding federal support for school-based mental health services.
- 73% support boosting community violence intervention programs.
- 66% support enacting red flag laws that allow law enforcement — with a court order — to temporarily disarm individuals who pose an immediate threat to themselves or others.
In fact, Texas Republicans support even more gun violence prevention policies that weren’t in the BSCA, including:
- 83% support closing loopholes in the law that allow criminals and other dangerous people to get their hands on a gun.
- 82% support requiring background checks on all gun sales.
- 76% support cracking down on untraceable guns sold without background checks, also known as ghost guns.
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