Democrat presidential hopeful Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) praised the NRA when she could not win a congressional race without it.

Gillibrand offered praise for the NRA via a letter addressed to the NRA-ILA’s executive director, Chris Cox. The letter was dated September 19, 2008, a time when Gillibrand was still a U.S. representative. But now that she is locked in a 24-person race for who can be furthest left on guns in the Democrat Party, Gillibrand calls the NRA the “worst organization” in the United States.

The NRA responded to Gillibrand’s attempt to rebrand herself by releasing the two-page letter she wrote in 2008 to praise the group, attaching it to a tweet and highlighting an excerpt wherein Gillibrand wrote, “I appreciate the work that the NRA does to protect gun owners rights, and I look forward to working with you for many years in Congress.”

“I want to be very clear that I always have and always will believe that the correct interpretation of the 2nd amendment is that it applies to an individual’s right to carry guns,” Gillibrand also wrote, adding that it “does not apply generally to the National Guard or a group of individuals in a state.”

She also noted:

I agree with the NRA that sportsman should be allowed to hunt on federally-owned lands and that we need to do all we can to create more hunting lands. I even authored an amendment to the Farm Bill to provide matching grants to local communities that want to buy land to provide to sportsmen and women.

Gillibrand used the letter to praise the ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) and to assure the NRA she would oppose the use of “trace data” to compile information on firearm owners.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.