A more extreme gun rights movement is emerging in the NRA's wake

[View in browser]( [Mother Jones Daily Newsletter]( December 2, 2020 Democrat Mark Kelly of Arizona was [sworn in]( to the US Senate today, narrowing the Republican majority in the upper chamber to 52–48. I've been watching the race between Kelly and incumbent Republican Sen. Martha McSally with interest from afar. When John McCain died in August 2018 (doesn't it feel like so much longer ago?), Arizona's Republican governor appointed Jon Kyl to take his place. When Kyl resigned in December of that year, Gov. Doug Ducey got to pick again, this time appointing McSally, who had lost the 2018 race for Arizona's other Senate seat to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema. But when the special election to fill McCain's Senate seat came around in 2020, Kelly was as close to a shoo-in as a Democrat could be in the historically Republican state of Arizona. He's a distinguished Navy captain who fought in the Gulf War, and voters tend to have a soft spot for vets. He (along with his twin brother) is an astronaut, and everyone likes astronauts. And he's married to Gabby Giffords, the former Democratic representative from Arizona who suffered a traumatic brain injury and nearly lost her life in an assassination attempt. His opponent, McSally, is an ardent supporter of the man who said that McCain—who in 1967 was shot from his aircraft over North Vietnam, tortured, and held as a prisoner of war for more than five years—was "not a war hero." McCain's wife, Cindy, a lifelong Republican, endorsed Joe Biden. Now, Biden has won Arizona, and the state is represented by two Democratic senators for the first time since the 1950s. Go figure. —Abigail Weinberg [Tisbest]( [Top Story] [Top Story]( [A More Extreme Gun Rights Movement Is Emerging in the NRA’s Wake]( Meet the right-wing gun groups eager to take its place. BY MATT COHEN [Trending] [CDC panel suggests first vaccinating health care workers and nursing home residents]( BY MADISON PAULY [States with few coronavirus restrictions are spreading the virus beyond their borders]( BY DAVID ARMSTRONG [Here's what I'd do if I could wave a magic wand with progressive policies]( BY KEVIN DRUM ["It's all gone too far": A Georgia election official is fed up with violent threats]( BY ABIGAIL WEINBERG [Tisbest]( [The Mother Jones Podcast] [Special Feature]( [New Podcast: Will Joe Biden Finally Fix America's Crippling Student Debt Crisis?]( The President-elect is promising a renewed urgency, as pressure mounts. JAMES WEST [Fiercely Independent] Support from readers allows Mother Jones to do journalism that doesn't just follow the pack. [Donate]( [Recharge] SOME GOOD NEWS, FOR ONCE [If There’s One Creative Livestream You Join All Week, Month, or Year, Make This It]( In celebration of the interdisciplinary artist and historian Thulani Davis’ new poetry collection, [Nothing But the Music](, a launch party of performances and conversations is set for tomorrow, December 3, at 7:30 p.m. ET. The occasion is as historic and thrilling as the lineup of artists joining the livestream: Roscoe Mitchell of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Greg Tate of Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber, Pulitzer-winning composer Anthony Davis, author Tobi Haslett, Yale theater professor Daphne A. Brooks, playwright Jessica Hagedorn, and NYU performance studies professor Fred Moten. Davis’ poetry is as vivid and profound as her subjects: the sounds, contours, and characters of avant-garde jazz and soul of the ’70s and ’80s. The many instruments and registers she excels at—playwright, journalist, librettist, novelist, and screenwriter—converge in her current role as Afro-American Studies professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. But she’s been a public educator since long before the academy, awards, and articles. For Davis, a pioneering Village Voice editor and essayist, the act of writing is an act of discovery and recovery. It’s also an act of documentation in a democratic sense. Her genealogy-memoir, [My Confederate Kinfolk: A 21st-Century Freedwoman Discovers Her Roots](, reveals the entrenched dynamics of power around family, race, and gender. Though best known for her librettos in Amistad and Malcom X and her Maker of Saints and 1959, she’s increasingly recognized as a visionary in the Black Arts Movement alongside Jayne Cortez, Sonia Sanchez, and Davis’ [longtime friend]( Ntozake Shange. I could go on—about the care, the craft, the eye for joy, grief, and resilience—and I will in an upcoming dive into Davis’ works. For now, [register for the Zoom](. Pick up Nothing But the Music from [Blank Forms Editions](. —Daniel King Did you enjoy this newsletter? Help us out by [forwarding]( it to a friend or sharing it on [Facebook]( and [Twitter](. [Mother Jones]( [Donate]( [Subscribe]( This message was sent to {EMAIL}. To change the messages you receive from us, you can [edit your email preferences]( or [unsubscribe from all mailings.]( For advertising opportunities see our online [media kit.]( Were you forwarded this email? [Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today.]( [www.MotherJones.com]( PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755