Ben McAdams, House Representative for Utah’s 4th district, endorsed anti-gun financier Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City and intrepid authoritarian late last month.
Michael Bloomberg, now running for president as a Democrat, is the billionaire personally bankrolling a number of vehemently anti-Second Amendment organizations such as Moms Demand Action, Everytown for Gun Safety, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, and others. His campaign for president has largely been focused on this issue, with each of his regional headquarters plastered with signage in support of those aforementioned organizations. Bloomberg has also made many public comments about his plan to significantly restrict firearms ownership for any purpose, and his dedication to that issue.
As a Democrat running against probably one of the most uninspiring and milquetoast Republican incumbents ever elected in Utah, armed with a unifying message of anti-Pelosi centrism, McAdams cinched to a narrow victory in his CD-4 race and was subsequently sent to Washington tasked with representing Utah’s deep-red constituency that was apparently too disenfranchised with their incumbent and their party to vie for a win.
Only a few months into his tenure, Rep. McAdams has voted in favor of a House Resolution to ban the common practice of private firearm transfers by supporting HR8, Universal Background Checks, a measure touted by Speaker Pelosi. It’s clear that Rep. McAdams doesn’t understand the issue well enough, but instead of voting with his fellow Utahns that may have a better grasp of the issue, he took a party line vote in direct support of the Speaker. We discuss Universal Background Checks in depth here on our Policy page.
While thankfully we have had few federal gun control measures gain any traction in the House, Rep. McAdams’ willingness to endorse Bloomberg betrays either a deep misunderstanding of his constituency or a deep ignorance of Bloomberg’s policy positions on firearms. This also ignores Bloomberg’s authoritarian outlook on individual liberty, and his history of supporting abusive practices like stop-and-frisk, which disproportionately affected minorities and in which nearly 9 of 10 stopped were completely innocent, his support for taxation as a method of behavior control, attempted bans on soft drinks, and more.
As the fight for the preservation of the right to keep and bear arms heats up in Statehouses across the country, Rep. McAdams may have made a fatal misstep in his re-election campaign by supporting a candidate with serious anti-gun positions; an issue that he could have left well enough alone.