Democrats believe that Tuesday’s elections in a handful of states tagged gun control as a key and potentially winning issue in the 2020 presidential election.
“I think this is going to be a really important issue,” said Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez.
He credited “young people” and “mothers” for pushing gun control in a handful of key races where it made a difference, including in Virginia where the legislature shifted from GOP to Democratic control.
Races in the backyard of the National Rifle Association went to the Democrats, and in some, guns were a big issue.
Perez said he expects Democrats running for president to make “commonsense” gun control a 2020 issue. That would include universal background checks and possibly limits on the types of weapons and accessories people can buy.
But, he added, the party is also likely to raise President Trump’s prior suggestion that he would consider some gun control measures. After the August shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, Trump said, “I’m looking to do background checks.”
Since, however, there has been no White House action on guns or background checks.
Perez said that his party will raise that broken promise to voters.
“This is an example of so many issues where this president makes promises and breaks promises,” he said at a media breakfast hosted this week by the Christian Science Monitor.
“He has a record now and that record is what people are going to vote on. And they are going to ask the question: ‘Can I trust him to keep his promises? I think the answer is a resounding no,” said Perez.
[Read more: Democrats ask Trump to revive stalled gun control legislation]
