NRA Readies Multi-Million Dollar Ad Push in Key Senate Races
(Danny Johnston/AP Photo)
The National Rifle Association is poised to spend millions supporting Republican Senate candidates with new ad campaigns launching Wednesday in Arkansas, Colorado and North Carolina.
The new ad blitz, which will total over $4 million spread across the three states, is the latest in the influential gun lobby's efforts to influence the midterm elections. The NRA is set to spend $1.4 million in the Arkansas Senate race in a new ad campaign promoting Republican Rep. Tom Cotton, NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam confirmed to ABC News.
The 30-second pro-Cotton spot will start airing Wednesday in Little Rock and Jonesboro and is set to run for at least four weeks.
"Our Second Amendment rights are under attack by the Obama administration. That's why we need leaders like Tom Cotton in the U.S. Senate to fight back for us," a narrator says in the ad.
"Tom Cotton protected your rights in Congress and abroad as a combat veteran. In the Senate, Cotton will stand up to President Obama's extreme gun control agenda, and that's why the NRA is proud to support Tom Cotton for the United States Senate," the narration continues.
The NRA announced its endorsement of Cotton last week. But just over a year ago, the pro-gun rights group jumped to the defense of Cotton's current opponent Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor. In June of 2013, the NRA ran radio ads thanking Pryor for his vote against the bi-partisan background check legislation sponsored by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., in the wake of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The radio spots pushed back on TV ads launched by Michael Bloomberg's Mayors Against Illegal Guns criticizing Pryor for his vote. At the time, the NRA declined to say whether it would endorse Pryor in the general election.
Additionally, the NRA will spend $1.3 million in similar ads backing Republican Rep. Cory Gardner in the Colorado Senate race and another $1.4 million supporting Republican candidate Thom Tillis in the North Carolina Senate race.