Want to examine the corrosive effect of money on U.S. politics? The National Rifle Association[1] is the perfect place to begin. In the 2016 election cycle, the gun rights organization spent $52.6 million[2] on “independent expenditures” — meaning donations for or against an individual candidate, rather than to a campaign.
And guess what? Democrats received $265, while Republicans got the rest.
With the November midterms[3] less than two weeks away, let’s find out which politicians up for re-election are some of the biggest recipients of NRA funding.
Dean Heller
Republican Senator Dean Heller is a good person to start with. In October 2017, his state of Nevada became the site of the deadliest mass shooting[4] in U.S. history, with a gunman killing 58 people and leaving hundreds more wounded. So you might imagine that he would consider gun control to be a smart idea.
Quite the contrary. Heller has described himself as an “unwavering advocate[5]” of the Second Amendment, declaring:
We won’t lay down our arms out of fear of special interests. Especially when our Founders envisioned a government where the people have a right to defend themselves, their home, and their family.
A frequent beneficiary of NRA dollars, Heller has received $9,900[6] from the gun rights group in the 2018 election cycle. However, since entering the U.S. Congress in 2007, Heller has received more than $110,000[7] from various gun rights groups — including the NRA, the National Shooting Sports Foundation and the National Association for Gun Rights. In the 2012 election, the NRA endorsed Heller, and he just barely defeated Democratic Representative Shelley Berkley.
Dana Rohrabacher
Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican who
