Much has been said about the Harris campaign’s inability to win support among men. Vice President Kamala Harris has bet the farm on the abortion matter. In fact, as former President Donald Trump is set to sit down with podcaster Joe Rogan on Friday, Harris will be in Texas campaigning with Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) opponent, Colin Allred. She is campaigning in a state she cannot win, with a Democratic candidate who will almost certainly lose, handedly, to the Republican senator. All of this is because she is aiming to highlight Texas’s abortion ban in order to appeal to women on the one matter on which she enjoys a polling lead over Trump.
Old-school Democrats, such as James Carville, have spoken out against the Harris campaign’s decision to appeal almost exclusively to women. However, recent attempts by Democrats to make inroads with male voters have failed so spectacularly that the wise choice may be to bail on the male vote altogether. Democrats are fortunate to have escaped their recent male-centric photo ops in one piece: I mean physically, not electorally.
Democratic Missouri Senate candidate Lucas Kunce and former Republican congressman turned Democratic hack Adam Kinzinger thought it wise this week to stage a photo op at a gun range. You could be forgiven if you thought that a Marine Corps lieutenant colonel and an Air National Guard lieutenant colonel could handle a leisurely afternoon at the range without risking the life and limb of the innocent bystanders around them, but you would be sorely mistaken.
The photos painted a picture of a series of horrifically irresponsible decisions by the Democratic duo. For starters, the two men were firing AR-15-style rifles at steel plates at what appeared to be a range of 5 to 7 yards. Anyone with any shooting experience can tell you that this is a profoundly bad idea that can, and (spoiler alert) did, result in dangerous shrapnel flying up range. Firearms were strewn about tables, pointed in various directions. To his credit, Kinzinger brought eye protection, but he forgot that his eyes are not, in fact, on the top of his head. Shooting form left a lot to be desired, and Kinzinger was shooting a rifle with a high-powered scope (at least 3 to 9x magnification, from the looks of it), a terrible choice for close-range work.
The stunt resulted in a local TV journalist catching shrapnel in the arm. The journalist, Ryan Gamboa, is fortunate to be alive and should probably consider suing Kunce and Kinzinger into oblivion. The most comical part of the near-tragedy is Kunce’s decision to post about the ordeal, insisting that they had a “great day at the range.”
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The Harris-Walz campaign’s attempts to reach men have been equally inept, albeit considerably less bloody. Gov. Tim Walz’s (D-MN) pheasant hunting photo op earlier this month was a disaster if his goal was to win hunters’ votes. Walz showed up with a $2,000-plus Beretta shotgun that he had seemingly no idea how to operate. The barrel of his 12-gauge swung irresponsibly through the air as the Minnesota governor and Chinese communism enthusiast struggled to load shells into his magazine. Luckily, no journalists were harmed in the making of an endless supply of Republican memes. No birds were harmed either.
It turns out that men are into responsible hunting and shooting, not whatever we just witnessed from the Democrats. Rural Americans are taught firearm safety from a young age, and irresponsible handling of firearms is a great way to get you thrown out of a gun range or disinvited from a hunting camp. Please, Democrats, stop trying to appeal to men before people start getting killed.
Brady Leonard (@bradyleonard) is a musician, political strategist, and host of The No Gimmicks Podcast.