With the NRA and their instate lackeys at the Iowa Firearms Coalition (then known as Iowa Carry) giving A+ ratings and campaign money to notorious gun grabbers like Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal and Chet Culver over the years, it was hard for gun owners to make much progress prior to 2010.
Afterall, these politicians could attack the Second Amendment and still receive money from the NRA…so why should they ever advance pro-gun legislation?
That’s why, following the 2010 legislative session, Aaron and Chris Dorr set about a plan to expose as many anti-gun politicians as possible on behalf of the members and supporters of Iowa Gun Owners.
Prior to that time, it was almost unheard of for a state level gun rights organization to run an election program of any size, much less one that targeted dozens of anti-gun politicians with direct mail, email, and lit drops.
But that’s exactly what we did.
Every politician who voted against Constitutional Carry legislation during the 2009 and 2010 legislative session and who had a competitive election was on our initial target list.
From there, we surveyed every legislative and gubernatorial candidate seeking their party’s nomination in the 2010 primary election, to determine which candidates were willing to commit to the Second Amendment, and which ones were hoping to ‘farm’ gun owners for easy votes.
(The envelope containing the signed candidate survey of Governor Terry Branstad, who was running for his old job again in 2010. Branstad, who vowed to support Stand-Your-Ground law in this survey, signed that bill into law seven years later.)
Once we had a list of politicians we needed to expose based on their record, their district, and the surveys of their challengers, we assembled a budget to fund the whole program.
Not surprisingly, the members of Iowa Gun Owners were incredibly generous and after a few months of work, we had our budget secured.
Of course, this was before the age of digital ads, Twitter, and sponsored social media posts. And so the bulk of our program was centered around direct mail and email blasts to our growing email list.
(IGO volunteers from Dubuque to Sibley worked for weeks in our office to hand stuff tens of thousands of pieces of direct mail, exposing anti-gun politicians who voted against Constitutional Carry during the 2009-2010 legislative session.)
In the weeks leading up to the November elections, the IGO office outside of Pleasant Hill was humming as volunteers from all over the state poured in to help us hand stuff almost 50,000 pieces of direct mail!
It cost almost $20,000 — but it was worth every penny.
DOZENS of gun grabbers were removed from office by angry gun owners who finally were told the truth about where their politicians stood on the Second Amendment, and Constitutional Carry law in particular!
Aaron and Chris focused IGO’s efforts on 18 races in the Iowa House alone….and gun owners removed the incumbent in 14 of those districts. This list includes House Districts 1, 8, 9, 14, 16, 20, 23, 31, 42, 75, 84, 89, 95 and 100.
In the State Senate, we focused on 9 races. Gun owners booted anti-gun politicians out of office in 6 of those races, including districts: 1, 5, 9, 37, 45 and 47.
Some of the most ferocious leaders that Iowa has ever had where our gun rights are concerned where elected during this election cycle including Senator Rick Bertrand from Sioux City and Representative Tom Shaw from Laurens.
Aaron Dorr reviews Constitutional Carry legislation with freshman Representative Tom Shaw in the opening days of the 2011 legislative session. Shaw won his race in 2010, after IGO dropped mountains of mail exposing Susan Bangert who said gun owners were terrorists.
Representative Kent Sorenson moved from the House to the Senate during this cycle, as well, after Iowa Gun Owners spent significant amounts of our donor dollars exposing Staci Appel, a leading voice for gun control in the Iowa Senate.
On election night, this 8 month long program resulted in the Iowa House and the Governor’s mansion flipping from Democrat control to Republican control, giving the Iowa House a 60-40 GOP majority, one of the biggest majorities they have ever had.
Former Governor Chet Culver, who received the endorsement from the NRA in an act of betrayal that outraged tens of thousands of gun owners in Iowa, was defeated by Terry Branstad.
And the Iowa Senate went from a solidly ‘blue’ chamber to a mere 26-24 Democratic held majority, with some of their biggest gun grabbers removed from office in spectacular fashion.
None of this would have happened had we been content with the compromised ‘Shall Issue’ bill that was passed earlier in the year.
None of this would have happened had we listened to the ridiculous endorsements and ratings from the out-of-touch NRA.
And none of this would have happened if we hadn’t spent most of 2010 raising money so that we would be in a position to strike at the right time that fall.
To read about the work that Iowa Gun Owners and the Dorr Brothers did in stopping town gun bans throughout Iowa, go here.
To read about the ‘Shall Issue’ legislation that passed in 2010 because of Iowa Gun Owners and the Dorr Brothers’ efforts, go here.
To read about the ‘Stand Your Ground legislation that passed in 2017 because of Iowa Gun Owners and the Dorr Brothers’ efforts, go here.
To read about the explosive 2016 election program that Iowa Gun Owners ran, which led to the flip of the Iowa Senate and the defeat of Mike Gronstal’s 34-year reign of hostility against gun owners, go here.