In the Pennsylvania Senate race between Republican Pat Toomey and Democrat Katie McGinty, politics take an unexpected turn in the gun control debate. Persuasive communication comes into play resulting in intriguing results. Supporters of gun control could possibly help the GOP maintain their influence on the United States Senate. Gun control advocates may possibly be backing Toomey in this controversial rac
e for Senate.
Toomey Can’t Please Everybody
Pat Toomey has done well in the Pennsylvania Senate race thus far. According to Erin Kelley from USA Today, “He won the endorsement of gun safety groups headed by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Democratic congresswoman Gabby Giffords of Arizona because of his unsuccessful quest to convince fellow Republicans to expand background checks of gun buyers”. Pat Toomey utilized key rhetorical strategies such as Identification to appeal to the opposite party on the topic of gun control to ultimately appeal to a broad spectrum of potential voters. However, this odd but effective approach at persuasion could not end up being that effective after all.
Republican candidate Toomey is taking a gamble in deciding to not endorse Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump. This decision along with Toomey’s crossing on the gun rights divide has led to skepticism from the Republican Party. Marc Levy from PBS NEWSHOUR reports, “Toomey, who also has separated himself from most of his GOP Senate colleagues by refusing to endorse Donald Trump, is facing questions from skeptical Republicans over his votes to expand background checks and prevent gun purchases by suspected terrorists as he campaigns in a state where Hillary Clinton leads Trump in polls by 10 points in the presidential race”. With polls exposing that this race is “virtually tied”, this newfound skepticism in the Republican vote in support of Pat Toomey could be detrimental. In this scenario, Toomey took a risk in using Identification as a rhetorical strategy to appeal towards the democratic vote, when consequently he only raised eyebrows in the potential voters of his own party.