Politics

One Week After Supporting AR-15 Ban, Republican Rep. Chris Jacobs Announces He Won’t Run For Re-Election

Screenshot via Twitter/RyanWhalenCT

Michael Ginsberg Congressional Correspondent
Font Size:

Just one week after announcing he would support banning AR-15s and other “assault weapons,” Republican New York Rep. Chris Jacobs announced that he would not run for re-election.

Jacobs, a first-term congressman, said May 27 that he would vote for “an assault weapons ban bill… that would ban something like an AR-15.” His promise was widely criticized by conservatives, including Donald Trump Jr. Several New York elected officials publicly considered challenging him in a primary, while others noted that “assault weapon” is not a category of firearm, and that the AR-15 is one of the most sporting rifles on the market.

“I truly believe I could win this election, but it would be an incredibly divisive election for both the Republican Party and the 23rd District, many of whom I have not ever represented. 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 guns and gun violence and gun control,” Jacobs said at a press conference.

The National Rifle Association had endorsed Jacobs in 2020, citing his previous opposition to red flag laws and New York’s ban on magazines that carry more than seven rounds.

Jacobs currently represents the 27th District, which runs along New York’s northwestern border with Canada from the suburbs of Buffalo to Rochester. He was moved to the 23rd as a result of redistricting. (RELATED: Judge Throws Out New York Dems’ Dream Redistricting Map)

Jacobs is the 48th member of the House of Representatives to decline to run for re-election in November, and the 17th Republican. Nine other members have resigned before finishing out their terms, including two members of New York’s delegation, Republican Tom Reed and Democrat Antonio Delgado.

Before entering Congress, Jacobs served as a New York State Senator and in the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) during the George H.W. Bush administration.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel