Toomey's record on guns could help him attract a slice of Democratic voters needed to clinch a second term. | Getty Gun-rights group takes on Toomey The Republican senator is being watched for whether he'll try to revive background check legislation.

As Sen. Pat Toomey officially launched his reelection campaign over the weekend, a gun rights group was planning to interrupt the festivities by protesting the Pennsylvania Republican’s support for universal background checks.

At the last minute, though, Pennsylvanians for Self Protection canceled the protest. A group official said it was scrapped after a Toomey staffer promised the senator would not reintroduce the high-profile gun control bill known as the Toomey-Manchin proposal that stalled in the Senate two years ago.


Toomey’s aide denied that account, saying no such assurance was made. But the incident highlights the high wire the freshman senator is walking as he tries to reconcile the signature bipartisan effort of his term with vehement conservative opposition to new gun controls.

Toomey, one of several Republicans in blue-leaning states up for reelection next year, needs to attract a slice of Democratic voters to clinch a second term. His record on guns could help, but Pennsylvania also has a large and vocal gun-rights community.

Democrats are seizing on the issue.

A spokesman for Democratic Senate candidate Katie McGinty, a former official with the administration of Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, accused Toomey of telling gun-control advocates one thing and gun rights advocates another and said he is “playing politics with the issue of gun safety instead of being honest with the people of Pennsylvania.”

Former Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.), who narrowly lost to Toomey in 2010 and is running again, touted his own support for an assault weapons ban while accusing Toomey of talking big but not following through on gun legislation.

“Do you want a warrior who is beside you all the time, or a guy who deserts after one lost battle?” Sestak said in an email on Monday. “Despite repeatedly claiming he is ‘looking for opportunities’ to reintroduce the bill, either Sen. Toomey lacks the courage to simply reintroduce it or his true conviction remains the same as when he said, ‘My idea of gun control is a steady aim.’”

Tom Campione, the legislative affairs director for Pennsylvanians for Self Protection, and Bob DeSousa, the senator’s state director, offered conflicting accounts of the conversations between the two sides.

Campione said in an interview that Toomey’s aide “was very reluctant” about committing to not reviving the background checks bill, but “he came around finally. And when he did, he said: ‘What I can tell you is it appears there is no intention any longer to move on Toomey-Manchin or anything similar.’”

According to Campione, DeSousa did say that if another senator introduces a similar measure, “the senator would likely support it.”

In an email on Monday, DeSousa flatly denied that account of the exchange.

“No, that is not what I said,” DeSousa said.

Toomey’s office would not say whether he plans to reintroduce the background checks proposal around the third anniversary of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. And DeSousa did not offer a different account of his exchanges with Pennsylvanians for Self Protection.

E.R. Anderson, a spokeswoman for Toomey, said the senator is “open to legislative efforts to advance this common sense idea” of background checks for firearms.

“Sen. Toomey has always been a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. He has long believed, and continues to believe, that background checks for commercial sales of firearms are consistent with the Second Amendment and a reasonable way to help to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the dangerously mentally ill,” Anderson said.

That’s not what Pennsylvanians for Self Protection wants to hear. Though the group canceled the protest planned for Sunday, it is still not endorsing Toomey until he fully retracts his previous position on guns, which seems highly unlikely.

Campione says his group wants to help the first-term senator, who will face a stern Democratic challenge next year. But that can happen only if Toomey takes a “hard line” on the Second Amendment, he said.

“Look, the Second Amendment community is very concerned with this. If the senator thinks he’s going to pick up votes by moving to the left a bit, he’s going to lose those [conservative] votes,” Campione said. “Don’t believe us, talk to Tom Corbett,” referring to the Republican governor who was ousted in 2014.

On the other side, Everytown for Gun Safety, a group started in the aftermath of Newtown, is clearly relying on Toomey to have its back.

"Everytown for Gun Safety is grateful for all the leadership Sen. Toomey has shown in working to reduce the country's epidemic of gun violence. We look forward to continuing to work with Sen. Toomey and other lawmakers on this critically important issue," said Kate Folmar, a spokeswoman for Everytown.

Though Toomey’s political predicament is delighting Democrats, he does have one major advantage right now: No significant primary challenger. Toomey would like to keep it that way, and leaning too hard into his advocacy for background checks could be just enough to rile up conservatives and attract a primary opponent.

National Republicans want Toomey to do everything he can to emphasize his work across the aisle. A rock-ribbed fiscal conservative who’s often led the charge on Congress’ budget fights, Toomey has also sought to emphasize his support for moderating on social issues like ending discrimination in the workplace and expanding access to contraception.

But the background checks bill is clearly the centerpiece of his bipartisan cred. And since Manchin has no plans to reintroduce the guns bill until it could pass the Senate, there could be a reward for Toomey by taking a leap and reintroducing the bill, including the potential for support from gun-control groups backed by Michael Bloomberg, Hill sources said. Mayors against Illegal Guns spent money praising Toomey for his advocacy in 2013.

So GOP strategists are warning Toomey not to look like he’s abandoning Manchin-Toomey, even as Pennsylvania conservatives demand the opposite of him.

“Protecting Pennsylvania families and working across the aisle [is] one of the main points Toomey discusses on the campaign trail and that is what is going to separate himself from the anti-incumbent mood,” said one GOP operative. “He can’t walk away from it. He is running in a state where he will need a lot of Democrat support, and this issue could help him with that.”

