After receiving millions of dollars in support from gun control groups, Terry McAuliffe has officially been elected to the governor’s chair in the state of Virginia. Despite his opponent Ken Cuccinelli leading in the early results tonight, the heavily Democratic counties in Fairfax and Alexandria have tipped the scales enough in his favor to win. The race tonight was extremely close, and there’s little doubt that recent events nearly put Cuccinelli over the top, but rest assured that the gun control advocates who invested in McAuliffe will parade their victory as if it were a unanimous vote.
The whole point for Bloomberg and Watts was to use the “sure thing” of McAuliffe’s election to boost their own profile. They had been stumbling in recent months, unable to have any impact whatsoever in national or state politics to further their civilian disarmament agenda, and they were in serious trouble of becoming irrelevant. They needed a victory — ANY victory — to keep the donations coming and keep their names in the headlines. And when they saw that Democratic candidate McAuliffe was in the lead by 15 points, they immediately jumped on board his campaign.
In the days after the gun control advocacy groups started campaigning for McAuliffe, his numbers plummeted. From a high of a 15 point lead, he dropped back to the point where the race was within the margin of error. But on polling day, he was able to barely pull it out and win. Barely.
According to CNN, the results are within 2% between the candidates.
Despite how close this race actually was, there’s no doubt that the Moms Demand Action propaganda machine will be in high gear spinning this as a resounding success and a clear message from Virginia residents that they want — nay, demand — more gun control. Nevermind the fact that less than half of the people casting ballots voted for McAuliffe, in the mind of Watts and Bloomberg it will be a glorious victory that they can use to point to and say “see? We can bring down the mighty NRA! We have the power!” When in reality, looking at the numbers, it’s more likely that their 11th hour endorsement probably hurt McAuliffe’s polling numbers more than it helped him.
The effects of this race on the future of Virginia’s gun laws is yet to be seen, but needless to say it can’t be good. Look forward to more attempts to restrict civil rights in the coming years.