The National Rifle Association (NRA) will not endorse Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) in his re-election campaign, even though the red state Democrat has voted against his party on gun issues.
The NRA announced that they would not endorse the Democrat, due to his votes to confirm anti-gun Supreme Court judges Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor. Begich’s support for the anti-gun judges has given him an A-minus rating.
But Begich has gone out of his way to buck his party on gun control. Facing a tough re-election campaign, he voted against President Obama’s push for expanded background checks for gun owners in 2013, in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook school massacre.
Three of Begich’s Democratic colleagues joined him in his vote against the legislation: Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), and Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR).
An NRA spokesman told the Associated Press the group does not plan to endorse Begich’s Republican challenger, Dan Sullivan, either, because he has no voting record on gun issues. The group has given him an “A-Q” rating based on a questionnaire.
Sullivan hit Begich for his votes for Obama’s judges in a recent ad focused on the importance of the Second Amendment:
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