Gunning for Hiliary, Poll shows the NRA Helped Trump win in 2016

Weekly Standard ^ | Published March 6, 2017 | Fred Barnes

[WonkyTonky]

The poll found that more NRA supporters voted for Trump in 2016 than for Mitt Romney in 2012. This meant 208,000 additional votes for Trump in North Carolina, which he won by 173,000 votes. In Ohio, he got 479,000 more votes from NRA backers and he won Ohio by 447,000. In Pennsylvania, Trump received 421,000 additional votes and won by 44,000.

A second group was tested in June 2016: the 19 percent of voters in the battleground states who viewed both candidates unfavorably. The poll found that 60 percent of them supported the NRA. Moreover, it found that most were "very willing to believe" that Clinton was corrupt and hypocritical. And it found that "most women" polled were conservative and liked the Second Amendment.

There was a third test. The post-election survey found that 3 percent of 2016 voters in battleground states said they hadn't voted in 2012. And 79 percent of them were supporters of the NRA. "This means 784,000 NRA supporters in battleground states did not vote in 2012 but did vote in 2016," the pollster said.

This is neither definitive nor conclusive evidence the NRA elected Trump. But it certainly suggests that the NRA ads played a critical role. And it's the best case I've heard for crediting anyone with tipping the election to Trump. Absent the NRA, I think we know how Trump would have fared. He'd have lost.

[HamiltonJay]

I do agree with that, and made that argument strongly in the primaries.

Any other candidate and the republican winning was a squeaker at best.

I laid that out many many times during the primaries. Trump was the only republican guaranteed to win.

[Jack Hammer]

My goodness, NRA members voted for Trump.

What’s next, a bear took a dump in the woods?

[trebb]

NRA members voted Trump because he was the ebst choice and he energized right-minded people - the NRA backed Trump, but those who voted for him did the deal.