Though gun control wasn't a top issue for voters last night, the gun control lobby is still going to be one of the primary beneficiaries of the blue wave that crashed over the country on Tuesday. With Democrats in firm control of both the House and Senate beginning next year, we can expect an onslaught of anti-Second Amendment legislation, as well as roadblocks when it comes to the president appointing judges who see the right to keep and bear arms as a first-class right.
I suspect we'll also see a new champion for gun control in Congress. One of the shocking results from Tuesday was South Carolina sending Annie Andrews to the U.S. Senate for the next six years.
Andrews isn't just a gun control supporter who was endorsed by groups like Brady and Giffords. She was a volunteer activist for Moms Demand Action starting in 2018, and became a paid advisor for Everytown for Gun Safety five years later, taking in more than $100,000 from Michael Bloomberg's group from 2023 to 2025.
As you can imagine, Everytown is crowing about her victory over Darline Graham last night.
“Dr. Annie Andrews is a pediatrician, a mom, and a former Moms Demand Action volunteer who has spent her entire career fighting to keep kids safe, and now she’ll take that fight to the U.S. Senate,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “Winning a state Donald Trump carried by nearly 18 points is a wake-up call to every candidate who thinks gun safety only plays well in blue states, and Everytown is proud to have been with her from the start.”
“Annie Andrews joined the South Carolina chapter of Moms Demand Action in 2018, went through our Demand a Seat candidate training program, and is now headed to the United States Senate,” said Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action. “South Carolina volunteers organized alongside her for years before she ever ran, and this fall they knocked doors across the state to get her there. There is no clearer sign of how far this movement has come.”
Everytown spent more than $500,000 to help Andrews get elected, and I'm sure she'll do everything in her power to show the group that it was money well spent.
Even if Bloomberg hadn't opened up his wallet for Andrews, though, she'd still be one of the Senate's new gun control champions. Andrews is a true believer in restricting our right to keep and bear arms.
She tried to moderate her views somewhat during her Senate campaign, telling voters she didn't want to take anyone's guns and offering up the "I support the Second Amendment, but..." schtick that we've heard from so many other Democrats. Still, she's talked about banning "weapons of war" (which is Everytown code for commonly-owned semi-automatic rifles), adopting a federal "red flag" law, universal background checks, and storage mandates for gun owners.
Andrews may have downplayed those positions on the campaign trail, but I doubt she'll be nearly as coy about them once she's sworn into office. With Democrats controlling both chambers of Congress, she'll have plenty of opportunities to turn Everytown's wish list into actual legislation, and I suspect she'll be eager to lead the charge.
Andrews is going to be the gun control lobby's darling in the Senate, but she's just one of several new faces that Second Amendment advocates will have to contend with in Washington. The bigger problem is that the gun control lobby now has something it hasn't enjoyed in years: a friendly Congress with both the numbers and the motivation to advance its agenda.
Whether that agenda becomes law will depend in large part on President Trump's willingness to wield his veto pen. But we shouldn't be under any illusions about what's coming. Bloomberg spent tens of millions of dollars this cycle trying to reshape the political landscape, and now that the votes have been counted, he's going to want a return on his investment.