Republican Chris Jacobs Won’t Seek Re-Election After Voicing Support for Gun-Control

[wew3]

From the WSJ:

New York congressman says he has lost the backing of local GOP leadership

U.S. Rep. Chris Jacobs (R., N.Y.) said Friday that he wouldn’t seek another term in Congress, saying backlash over his support for gun-control proposals proved too divisive ahead of an expected primary.

Mr. Jacobs, who was first elected in 2020, said he had lost support from state GOP officials and committees over the past week.

The 55-year-old lawmaker represents areas around Buffalo, N.Y., where 10 people were killed last month in a mass shooting at a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood.

Two weeks after the attack, Mr. Jacobs said he backed a federal assault-weapons ban, a proposal that isn’t under consideration in bipartisan congressional talks over new gun laws. Payton Gendron, 18, is accused of carrying out the Buffalo attack with an AR-15 style rifle that he bought legally, law-enforcement officials have said. Mr. Gendron has pleaded not guilty to charges of domestic terrorism and 13 counts of second-degree murder and attempted murder as a hate crime.

“The last thing we need is an incredibly negative, half-truth filled media attack funded by millions of dollars of special interest money coming into our community around this issue of gun violence and gun control,” Mr. Jacobs said during a Friday news conference in which he said he was dropping his re-election bid.

Republican leaders including New York Republican State Committee Chairman Nick Langworthy said they were surprised by Mr. Jacobs’s change of heart on gun control, kicking off talks about changing their support. New York State Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar said Friday that Mr. Jacobs’s new positions were “well outside the mainstream of the Republican Party, the Conservative Party, and the voters” in the new 23rd District, which differs from the area Mr. Jacobs now represents.

“Abandoning core principles that voters trusted you to protect has consequences,” said Chris Grant, a Buffalo-based political consultant.

Mr. Jacobs said he thought he could have prevailed in the election and that he would finish his current term. He will seek to build bridges between parties after he leaves elective office, he said.

Marc Cenedella, founder of a career-services site, had already said he would challenge Mr. Jacobs in the primary, which was moved to Aug. 23 after a state court redrew New York’s congressional districts. Carl Paladino, a Buffalo real-estate developer who won the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 2010, said Friday that he would also launch a campaign.

The winner of the GOP primary will face Max Della Pia, a retired U.S. Air Force officer and chairman of the Tioga County Democratic Committee.

The new 23rd District includes portions of seven counties along New York’s southern border with Pennsylvania. It is considered a solidly Republican seat that former President Donald Trump carried by 18 percentage points in 2020.

Siobhan Hughes contributed to this article.

Write to Jimmy Vielkind at Jimmy.Vielkind@wsj.com

Appeared in the June 4, 2022, print edition as 'Congressman Won’t Seek Another Term'.

[philadelphia patriot]

That*s great, but now he also has nothing to lose until then by endorsing gun control.