BFA PAC Aq-rated candidate sends anti-gun Republican packing

State Central Committee races aren't sexy. They're not races you'll see expensive TV ads for. In fact, there's a good chance nine out of ten voters won't even know what these elected positions do.

The Republican State Central Committee is the governing power of the Ohio Republican Party (ORP). It recruits and endorses candidates for federal and state offices. One man and one woman are elected as State Central Committee members in each Ohio Senate district.

If you want to know why the ORP keeps endorsing candidates many call "RINOs" (Republicans in Name Only), look no further than the State Central Committee.

To ensure we continue to restore our rights, we need true friends of gun owners sitting as State Central Committee members. But since few understand what these committee members do, and fewer still know how to research the names they find on their primary ballot, gun owners often find themselves either NOT voting in these contests, or unknowingly voting for anti-gun candidates.

This is why BFA PAC has been making recommendations in these races for many years now.

In this most recent primary election, held on Aug. 2, BFA PAC graded State Central Committee candidates in 15 Senate districts, and 13 were victorious.

Among those winners is Sabrina Warner, the owner of a burger and ice cream restaurant in Senate District 20, which is comprised of Licking, Fairfield and Perry counties.

Warner's opponent was none other than former Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery. For those who have been around Ohio politics for some time, and who care about Second Amendment rights, the name Betty Montgomery will be familiar. For others, she may be an unknown. But no matter how far her name recognition has fallen, her influence over Ohio politics as a State Central Committee member was still being felt.

Betty Montgomery is a Republican who once said "I'll never be the candidate of the NRA." Betty Montgomery fought to uphold Ohio's ban on concealed carry for years, and said that she would not have signed even the watered-down, poison pill-filled concealed carry bill that Bob Taft eventually did. Montgomery went so far as to say that "I don't want to live in a country where everyone is packing heat."

Proving her understanding of Second Amendment issues hasn't improved with age, Montgomery recently endorsed "STRONG Ohio water-carrier" Matt Dolan for U.S. Senate. (Dolan later came in third in a three-way race.)

Does that sound like a Republican to you? As a gun owner, does it bother you to know that she has, for many years, been sitting on the State Central Committee picking and endorsing candidates? Do you think her anti-gun sentiments affected her decisions on that committee? Of course they did.

And that is why BFA PAC has been seeking to unseat her for years, and why we're proud to finally be able to say that the job is done.

Congratulations to Sabrina Warner. We look forward to gun owners finally having representation from SD 20!

Chad D. Baus served as Buckeye Firearms Association Secretary from 2013-2019, and continues to serve on the Board of Directors. He is co-founder of BFA-PAC, and served as its Vice Chairman for 15 years. He is the editor of BuckeyeFirearms.org, which received the Outdoor Writers of Ohio 2013 Supporting Member Award for Best Website, and is also an NRA-certified firearms instructor.