One of the nation’s leading gun safety groups has a message for Republicans: Tuesday’s results show you don’t have to be scared of the pro-firearm lobby anymore.
Giffords, an advocacy group cofounded by former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.), is sending a memo to all Republican members of Congress today —first shared with POLITICO — noting that pro-firearm groups largely sat out both Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-Ky.) and Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-Texas) primaries, even as the two represent opposite wings of the GOP spectrum on gun control.
The ambivalence toward both one of the gun lobby’s strongest allies and one of its biggest Republican boogeymen shows its waning power, Giffords argues.
“Common logic has always been that the gun lobby can make or break you in a Republican primary,” Emma Brown, executive director of Giffords, told POLITICO. “Both of these primaries demonstrate a very different narrative: they just don’t have the juice anymore.”
Massie is one of the staunchest Second Amendment defenders in Congress. The president of the National Association for Gun Rights, a group that sits to the right of the National Rifle Association, called him “literally the best vote for the 2A in Congressional history” this week. Cornyn, meanwhile, was one of the architects of the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, a gun safety package passed in response to the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in Cornyn’s state.
That legislation angered many pro-gun groups — the NRA said it would place “unnecessary burdens on the exercise of Second Amendment freedom” by gun owners. But they largely sat out of Cornyn’s reelection bid: The National Association for Gun Rights Inc. PAC spent only $5,000 backing Cornyn’s opponent.
“The data shows they can’t take you out if you’ve pissed them off — like John Cornyn — and they also can’t save you if you’ve done all they asked — like Thomas Massie,” Brown said.
Cornyn’s support for gun safety legislation is an issue in his primary, as Attorney General Ken Paxton has slammed him for passing the “worst gun control bill in decades.” But a poll commissioned by Giffords of Texas GOP runoff voters found that attacks on Cornyn’s gun record are far less resonant than other criticisms, such as his change of position on the SAVE America Act and the suggestion he is a “Republican In Name Only” or “fake MAGA.”
The poll, shared first with POLITICO, found Paxton leading Cornyn 52% to 40%. It was conducted by Global Strategy Group between May 6 and May 11, 2026, before Trump endorsed Paxton on Tuesday. The sample included 600 likely Republican runoff voters in Texas.
“I think there are a lot of reasons Texas Republicans may oppose John Cornyn, and he may get his ass kicked, but it’s not going to be because of [the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act],” Brown said.
