Primary election season is winding down, and the final slates of candidates in most states have emerged ahead of the 2026 fall elections. Second Amendment issues may or may not have been front in center in every campaign, but they certainly remain a fundamental component of any candidate’s political platform moving forward. The emergence of a new, increasingly influential left-wing anti-gun faction tied to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) deserves close scrutiny before November. Regardless of how prominently these candidates have or will campaign on firearm-related positions, the new DSA-style candidates are taking issues so far left it is impossible (and foolhardy) to ignore this trend.
No matter how a candidate may dance around the extent of their allegiance to the DSA platform or positions, politically convenient labels matter less than the policies that are embraced. Not every socialist has the nerve to embrace the label quite like U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders does.
Take for one example Abdul El Sayed, candidate for United States Senate in Michigan. Sayed claims he is not DSA yet headlined six events for DSA and helped to raise thousands of dollars for the group. While Sayed cannot erase his past attendance as a headliner, he apparently can scrub hundreds of old YouTube videos where he questioned the possibility of repealing the Second Amendment or replacing it with a “right” to free healthcare.
Sound familiar? If not, check out a still remaining post on the DSA website titled “The Second Amendment is a Threat to Us All,” calling for the repeal of the Second Amendment as it is currently written. While the information on Second Amendment jurisprudence is certainly outdated, the authors argue that our society requires removing guns entirely with only an allowance of manually operated firearms that load only one round of ammunition at a time.
Our friends at Bearing Arms reported more on Sayed in their recent post, “The Second Amendment Stance El-Sayed Doesn't Want Voters to Hear,” which included the uncovered transcripts of the scrubbed YouTube video. Among the lowlights:
Folks who believe in "gun rights," they lean on the Constitution; specifically, the Second Amendment, which they say protects the right to bear arms. Never mind the fact that this wasn't really about having a gun on your person. Instead, it was about being able to sponsor a militia at the state level to protect against tyranny from the federal government.
The rise of DSA-style candidates isn’t a surprise. The Zohran Mamdani mayoral win in New York City didn’t just energize the DSA’ers, it apparently convinced them they had discovered a blueprint to take the socialist show nationwide. By DSA’s own account, the democratic socialists are entering the 2026 elections with an unprecedented level of electoral ambition, seeking to translate recent wins into political power at local, state, and federal levels. According to their election tracker, they claim nearly 170-officially endorsed candidates reporting 61 wins thus far.
Yet when it comes to the right to bear arms, their ongoing contradiction is especially stark for a movement that presents itself as a champion of minorities, women, and the vulnerable. Restricting the right to keep and bear arms very obviously does not empower those groups; it actually deprives them of one of the most immediate and effective means of protecting themselves. The Second Amendment places the means of lawful self-defense in the hands of individuals regardless of sex, wealth, race, political affiliation, status, or influence. And the very groups the DSA are targeting for support have been embracing their Second Amendment rights in increasing numbers in recent years.
But is it them or well-heeled donors the DSA answers to on guns?
Candidates have become more savvy about how they approach Second Amendment issues on the campaign trail particularly when running in states or districts where an openly anti-gun platform can carry a hefty political price. They may soften the rhetoric, substitute poll tested phrases like “gun safety” for gun control or simply avoid the subject altogether. But that political caution should not be mistaken for a change in philosophy.
When a “new” socialist adopts the same ideological framework and supports the same sweeping restrictions on our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms favored by the likes of Hillary Clinton, the practical consequences for the Second Amendment are the same regardless of what they call themselves or the degree to which they formally affiliate. The danger is not simply whether a candidate carries a DSA endorsement or a membership card but whether an increasingly influential political movement is producing candidates whose governing agendas completely diminish an individual and constitutional right.
None of this is new. The hostility for the Second Amendment by the political left, and all renditions of it under that umbrella, whether they openly admit it or not, is not a sudden development for an election year. DSA is simply the latest ideological manifestation, one packaged for a specific segment of the electorate.
NRA has long warned that the re-emergence of overt socialism in American politics would carry serious consequences for individual firearm ownership. What once could be dismissed as rhetoric from a political fringe is increasingly appearing in campaigns, legislative proposals, and demands for broader restrictions on firearms. Names and faces may be new; the agenda is all too familiar.
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