Politically Unstable: NRA says ‘everything’ is on the ballot. Will gun owners show up?

Video

Friday, October 30, 2026

OPINION:

From the Senate’s judicial confirmations to 36 governors’ races, the NRA says the Second Amendment is on the ballot up and down the ticket Nov. 3.

On “Politically Unstable,” host Kelly Sadler talks with John Commerford, executive director at the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action and chairman of the NRA Political Victory Fund, about the races to watch and whether gun owners will turn out.

[SADLER] What is on the ballot when it comes to the Second Amendment and either restrictions or greater opportunity to carry?

[COMMERFORD] Everything’s on the ballot. You know, you hear folks say all the time, this next election is the most important in your lifetime. And that’s because elections carry consequences, whether that’s the U.S. Senate and their confirmation power of judges, which has led to a great reform of the Second Amendment, both at the Supreme Court, at the circuit level and the district level, driving a lot of the wins that we’ve had and restoring things that were done during the Biden administration, or going into the state level and seeing changes like we saw last election in Virginia and how quickly life can change in a Commonwealth overnight based on one election. Voters are facing that decision up and down the ballot, and it’s groups like NRA. It’s our job to educate them with exactly what’s at stake.

[SADLER] So what is at stake, looking nationally, at the state level? If you want to take it state by state, some of the ballot initiatives or the important things that different candidates are campaigning on that could either restrict or further or give you further access to your Second Amendment.

[COMMERFORD] Let’s look at Wisconsin, for example. Pro-gun legislation has been held back by current Governor Evers. You have someone, Tom Tiffany, who’s been an excellent supporter of the Second Amendment running for that open seat. And there’s been just a dam that has held back a lot of pro-gun reform there. So if you go to the ballot box in Wisconsin, you can really focus on restoring your freedoms by electing someone like Tom Tiffany. If you look at the state level, let’s say in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, there are just a few state Senate seats that are going to decide whether the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania stays free and the way it has been. Or if it turns into the Commonwealth of Virginia, which I just mentioned, where things change overnight. The governor is primed and ready to sign bad bills into law. They’ve just been held back by a pro-gun Senate there. So we need to make sure that the voters work up and down the ballot.

You see someone like Ty Masterson in Kansas, who is primed to flip that governor’s seat. But then we see the challenges in a state like Ohio, where Vivek Ramaswamy is fighting every day to try to get into that office and joining his counterpart, Senator Husted on the campaign trail. Georgia is a hotbed of activity. We see Michigan, of course, Arizona, Nevada, keeping Governor Lombardo in office. So there are challenges. I believe there are 36 governor’s races up this cycle. So it’s the widest map on the governor’s side of things. But state-level activity moves fast and furious, and it’s where a lot of legislative work gets done. So it’s incredibly important that voters pay attention to the races that are local to them.

[SADLER] Can you talk about Virginia? Because that did switch. The governorship did switch from Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, to Abigail Spanberger, who is a Democrat. When Abigail Spanberger was running for office, she campaigned as a moderate, saying that she would largely maintain the status quo. She’d work on affordability issues, that she wasn’t one of these radical DSA socialist candidates, that she was a centrist. But she’s not running the state that way, is she?

[COMMERFORD] Look, she was trained by the best intelligence agency in the world, our own Central Intelligence Agency, and essentially ran a PSYOP on the voters of Virginia. And you nailed it right on the head. Moderate. Moderate as can be. Wanted to basically be the Democrat Governor Beshear from Kentucky. That level of moderation. But as soon as she got into the General Assembly in the State House in Richmond, we saw the true colors come out. So much so that they even had a hard time in their own party coming up with a budget. But we saw her ram through significant anti-gun priorities.

Luckily, NRA was there to meet her at the court steps, and their crown jewel, so to speak, on the Bloomberg-funded gun control movement that helped pave the way for her governorship by buying ads and investing millions of dollars into that election, it was stopped dead in its tracks. We were able to obtain a permanent injunction there on blocking the ban on commonly owned semi-automatic firearms and magazines. So groups like NRA are ready to challenge governors and lawmakers like Abigail Spanberger and hold them accountable because they misled the voters on where they truly stand on issues. You have to rely on folks meeting them at the courts to really hold them accountable and educate voters on where they truly stand once they get into office.

[SADLER] In terms of the House and the Senate, why is it important for Republicans to maintain control of both bodies? What legislation are you currently working on and trying to get enacted at the federal level?

[COMMERFORD] NRA’s top legislative priority is H.R. 38, concealed carry reciprocity. Your right to carry a firearm to protect yourself and your family shouldn’t end at a state line. For example, if you leave Pennsylvania, where it’s perfectly legal, you cross the Delaware River into New Jersey, you face a very substantial felony for exercising your Second Amendment right. That is a huge problem. It’s been our top priority and it will be until we get it into law. Why is it important in the Senate and the House? Look, all of the work that’s being done by different departments and agencies restoring Second Amendment freedoms that were trampled on by Joe Biden and his administration, they’re going to be mired in investigative hearings in the House, document preservation, document production. The core work on behalf of the American taxpayers is going to be completely stalled.

And sometimes a stall of government isn’t a bad thing for the American taxpayer. But an issue as important as the Second Amendment and creating and treating a core civil right exactly where it should be, a core civil right and not a second-class right like has been done in the past. We need them there working. We need DOJ working and holding anti-gun states accountable for trampling on these civil rights. So the House oversight function will become a harassment function under Democrat control. And we’ve seen them outlining those priorities. And then on the Senate. Look, the Senate’s tough. They already have a filibuster that keeps good things from going into law. It also keeps bad things from going into law. So you can argue both sides of that. But most important is the confirmation function that it serves and making sure that President Trump nominates pro-Constitution judges and justices to the bench in various federal courts and that they get confirmed. And that’s how we really reshape the American judiciary in the interest of constitutional freedom going forward. And we need two more years of that.