The gun control lobby has been not-so-quietly working to get activists to run for office in recent years, and sadly they've seen success at virtually every level of government from Congress to local school boards.
Pro-Second Amendment organizations really should be playing catch up in that regard, but that's a topic for another post altogether. Right now we'll focus on whether or not some gun control fans are disguising their position in order to run as Republicans.
The question is becoming a campaign issue in House District 41 in south Texas. Typically a Democrat stronghold, the district voted for Donald Trump two years ago, and with the longtime Democrat incumbent choosing not to run for re-election, Republicans are hoping to flip the seat red. But can they ensure their nominee is actually a strong Second Amendment supporter?
The state House district, which includes most of McAllen, became a target for Republicans after state Rep. Bobby Guerra, a Democrat from Mission, decided not to seek reelection after 13 years in office.
But before the two parties can duke it out in the fall, Republicans and Democrats are locked in heated primary races of their own. And candidates in both parties are facing allegations of lying about their party affiliation.
The Democratic frontrunner, who has voted in GOP primaries in the past, is being accused of being a closet Republican. And the apparent Republican frontrunner — who has never voted at all — is being accused of secretly being a Democrat.
We'll get to what's happening in the Democratic primary, but let's start with the Republican slate in HD 41.
Among the candidates seeking the Republican nomination are Sergio Sanchez, a former felony prosecutor who previously voted in Democratic primaries; Gary Groves, a local Republican Party volunteer who organized Trump Train rallies; and Sarah Sagredo-Hammond, the owner of an HVAC company who had never voted at all.
Sagredo-Hammond has amassed the most amount of campaign cash in the primary, but Sanchez has been going after some of her comments about abortion and firearms. During one podcast appearance after a shooting in Georgia, Sagredo-Hammond seemed to back a ban on AR-15s, though she apparently described them as "automatic guns", which suggests a lack of familiarity with the most popular rifles in the country.
“We were sharing concepts and ideas,” Sagredo-Hammond said. “We were not saying we were going to change an amendment, because we never would.”
That's not particularly reassuring, to be honest. Very few gun control activists are actively trying to repeal or amend the Second Amendment. Instead, they're intent on adopting as many restrictions as possible and arguing that they're 2A compliant. If Sagredo-Hammond really is in favor of prohibiting commonly owned firearms like the AR-15, she should come right out and say so. If she's not in favor of that, she should be crystal clear about why she's opposed to a gun ban despite her previous comments. This dissembling just makes it look like she's trying to hide what she really thinks.
She noted she also suggested that guns can be a useful tool for women to protect themselves.
“If you’re single, and you’re a single female, I highly encourage you to go get a gun, go learn how to use it, to keep yourself protected,” she said.
That's great, and I'm glad to hear it. But in a day and age where gun control groups like Everytown are offering gun "training" and Giffords is touting the support of gun owners and claiming to be faithful to the Second Amendment while its founder works for "no more guns", I don't think that's enough. Without a record to run on, Sagredo-Hammond needs to be explicitly clear about where she stands on Second Amendment issues, and it sounds like she's trying to avoid that.
Sanchez, meanwhile, has received an "AQ" (or "A Qualified") grade from the NRA, which is typically given to candidates without a voting record but who have filled out the NRA's candidate questionnaire to the organization's utmost satisfaction. None of the other candidates, including Sagredo-Hammond, are rated by the NRA's Political Victory Fund, which suggests they never filled out the group's survey.
Sanchez has publicly pledged not to impose any "gun limits" if elected, but his campaign has been dogged by the fact that before running as a Republican he routinely voted in Democrat primaries in the district.
Sanchez said he previously voted in Democratic primaries because Republicans rarely won elections in the fall. He figured voting in the Democratic primary had a greater sway in deciding the outcome of an election.
Texas House District 41, along with Hidalgo County as a whole, was part of the rightward shift in the Valley that helped solidify Trump’s victory in 2024.
Trump won District 41 by 1.6 percentage points that year. However, Republicans were not so successful down the ballot. Voters in District 41 voted for Democrats in nearly all other races. The most notable exception was in the race for Texas Senate District 27. Republican Adam Hinojosa beat Democrat Morgan LaMantia by more than 17 points among District 41 voters.
But in the past, because the Democratic nominee was a shoo-in to win the general election, the Democratic primaries were the only truly competitive races.“I’ve chosen to be relevant, and to speak my voice with the vote,” Sanchez said. “I know how I vote in November, but the truth is, the history of the county is there’s only March races.”
That's been true historically, and if Sanchez truly is a Democrat at heart it would make more sense for him to run as one this cycle. HD 41 may be a viable pickup for Texas Republicans, but a win for conservatives is hardly guaranteed.
Which brings us to the Democrat primary, where McAllen city commissioner Seby Haddad has the backing of the party establishment despite voting in Republican primaries from 2014 to 2022. Haddad says his opposition to Donald Trump led him away from the GOP, even though he continued voting in Republican primaries during Trump's entire first term in office as well as his second presidential campaign in 2020.
Haddad's campaign website makes no mention of gun control, even in the section on public safety. Instead he claims he will "work seamlessly with all agencies to target criminals and keep South Texas Safe, but the current administration’s change in priorities from dangerous criminals to families and hard working immigrants is reprehensible, dangerous to our way of life, and against the values of the South Texas people."
Actually, none of the Democratic candidates mention gun control on their campaign websites, though they're also silent on support for the Second Amendment as well.
I suspect there are quite a few stealth gun control fans running in HD 41 this year, and on both sides of the aisle. And if this is happening in one legislative race in Texas, it's probably taking place in other races too.
Gun owners need to be asking tough and specific questions to candidates: where do you stand on banning commonly owned firearms? What's your position on "red flag" laws? Do you believe government-issued permission slips to exercise our 2A rights are necessary or useful? What does the Second Amendment mean to you?
If they can't answer those questions to the satisfaction of Second Amendment advocates, they don't deserve our votes. And if they include any gun control talking points in their responses, the 2A community needs to sound the alarm and alert voters to the anti-gun candidate donning conservative camouflage.
