THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

For years campaign cash from the NRA was the primary fuel behind the efforts to gut public safety laws across the land. In the last year and a half two major events have done much to turn that around. First the massacre at Stoneman High energized a younger generation to work against the NRA and their gunhumpers. And second the revelation that the NRA is a paid stooge of the Russian government took a lot of the shine of the organization. Added to the normal tribulations of an election year and some previously devoted NRA politicians are rethinkong their positions.

Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, who received campaign cash from the NRA four months after the Parkland shooting, distanced himself from the nation’s largest pro-gun lobby and sided with Democrats to expand background checks last week. Diaz-Balart’s new stance blunts a potential 2020 campaign talking point for Democrats, who hammered him on his gun record last year but still came up 21 percentage points short of unseating one of the most well-known figures in Miami politics.

Diaz-Balart says his support for expanding background checks does not represent a philosophical shift on guns, though he did not add his name as a co-sponsor for a background check bill in the last Congress that received the support of 210 lawmakers, including 14 Republicans. He also voted in favor of an NRA-backed bill in 2017 that would have made it easier for gun owners with concealed carry permits to transport their weapons across state lines.

“The bill is super flawed but I figured that it is actually the closest one to being a real effort to get something that might be able to get negotiations in the Senate,” Diaz-Balart said in an interview. “The concept of people having background checks is obviously something I support. The bill wasn’t well-drafted but I figured it’s not a bad place to start and we’ll see what happens.”

In 2018, Diaz-Balart was attacked over his stance on guns by Democratic opponent Mary Barzee Flores, Parkland parents and a host of national gun control groups. Diaz-Balart is also the single largest recipient of direct NRA campaign cash among Floridians in Congress since 1998, partially due to his status as the state’s longest-tenured Republican.

Though he easily won reelection last year, 2020 could be a different story for Miami’s only House Republican in a district where President Donald Trump is not popular.

The bill Diaz-Balart voted for would require a background check on every gun sale or transfer of a gun. While federal law already instructs licensed gun dealers to conduct background checks, the new bill would require gun sellers who are not licensed under the current system to perform background checks through licensed dealers. Currently, unlicensed gun sellers are allowed to legally sell guns at gun shows, online and in-person without conducting a background check.

The Giffords Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which spent $300,000 on radio ads against Diaz-Balart during his campaign last year, praised his vote.

“I think in terms of the Diaz-Balarts of the world, you look at the politics shifting and you see that in the past cycle, voters in these suburban districts are fed up with politicians who take money from the NRA,” Giffords executive director Peter Ambler said. “We weren’t able to beat him like we did so many others but clearly he is feeling the heat.”

Two other Florida Republicans, Reps. Brian Mast, R-Palm City, and Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, also voted for the background check bill. Mast garnered national attention when he came out in favor of a ban on assault weapons a few weeks after Parkland, while Buchanan was also targeted by national gun control groups during the 2018 campaign.

“Vern hasn’t voted on this issue before but has always been open to strengthening background checks to ensure that mentally unstable individuals or criminals can’t buy guns over the internet or at gun shows,” said Buchanan spokesperson Anthony Cruz. “And more than 90 percent of gun owners support Vern’s position, according to several respected polling organizations.

A successful politician can detect the smallest change in which way the political winds are blowing and these three demonstrate that the direction is changing.