By Naftali Bendavid
The National Rifle Association announced Friday that it won’t be endorsing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) for re-election this November.
The NRA has not endorsed Mr. Reid in the past, but his backers had been hoping for its official blessing this time around. Mr. Reid has long declared himself a supporter of gun rights.
In March, Mr. Reid helped open the Clark County Shooting Park, firing a shotgun and hitting two clay birds as the crowd cheered, according to press reports. Mr. Reid helped obtain $61 million for the new facility, and he was accompanied at the opening by NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre.
“I know how you worked,” Mr. LaPierre told Reid at the event, according to the Las Vegas Sun. Mr. LaPierre added that the park “would not have opened without the work of Sen. Reid.”
But in a statement Friday, Chris Cox, chairman of the NRA Political Victory Fund, the group’s political action committee, said it would not be endorsing the majority leader. He cited Mr. Reid’s push to confirm Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, whom the NRA opposed.
“The vote on Elena Kagan’s confirmation to the Court, along with the previous year’s confirmation vote on Sonia Sotomayor, are critical for the future of the Second Amendment,” Mr. Cox said. |
