In a list updated on May 26, Republican Congressman Ted Cruz leads the Top 20 with $442,343 received, this without counting outside expenses. The contributions stem from lobbying led by the National Rifle Association to defend gun rights and to prevent stricter regulations.
“Gun rights advocates (lobbyists) gave more than $50.5 million to federal candidates, parties, and groups, in outside spending, from 1989 through the first quarter of 2022, with 90% of funds contributed to candidates and parties went to the Republicans, indicates Open Secrets.
“What is my link with drug trafficking in Mexico? I am not Felipe Calderón, even if they don’t like it.”
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador
Texas is one of the deadliest states for mass shootings, and yet three of its representatives are on the list: Ted Cruz (1), John Cornyn (3) and Pete Sessions (9). Together, Axios notes, they have raised more than $1 million from the gun lobby since they first led to Congress. Axios also points out that the numbers are much higher if indirect contributions, such as the NRA’s purchase of attack ads against opponents, are counted.
“The National Rifle Association (NRA) spent $29.1 million in the 2020 federal election, most of it supporting Trump in the last few months of the cycle,” says Open Secrets, in an example of how much money can spend the association that most promotes the acquisition of arms in the United States.
Brady, an association against violence with firearms, collected data from the 2020 electoral cycle , in which he estimates that the National Rifle Association spent $176,274 lobbying for Ted Cruz. But not only that, it also makes the contrast: Each year in Texas, up to that date, there were 3,647 deaths by firearms.
Marco Rubio also received money
Brady also placed Marco Rubio in the Top 10 legislators who received the most money from the NRA. According to his estimates, this Republican of Cuban origin and representative of Florida received 3,303,355 dollars in said electoral cycle, for defending the right to arms.
Marco Rubio assured that López Obrador “has handed over sections of Mexico to the drug cartels.”