About PVF

Mission Statement

The NRA Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF) is NRA's political action committee. The NRA-PVF  ranks political candidates - irrespective of party affiliation - based on voting records, public statements and their responses to an NRA-PVF questionnaire.

In 2008, NRA-PVF was involved in 271 campaigns for the U.S. House and Senate, winning in 230 of those races (85%). NRA-PVF also endorsed thousands of state legislative candidates that same year and achieved an 84% success rate in those elections.

NRA resources in the 2008 elections were more widely deployed in more critical battles than ever before. Millions of dollars were spent on direct campaign donations, independent campaign expenditures and on mobilizing the most aggressive grassroots operation in NRA history.

In 2009 and '10, NRA-ILA has continued to build upon that grassroots organization with programs that work to effectively communicate with NRA members and others.

NRA relies on a very simple premise: when provided with the facts, the nation's elected officials will recognize that "gun control" schemes are an infringement on the Second Amendment and a proven failure in fighting crime. The importance of this premise lies in the knowledge that, as one U.S. Congressman put it: "The gun lobby is people."



 

About The Chairman

Chris CoxChris Cox

Chairman, NRA-PVF

Chris W. Cox was appointed chief lobbyist and principal political strategist for the political and lobbying arm of the NRA in April of 2002. He oversees eight ILA divisions: Federal Affairs; State & Local Government Affairs; Public Affairs; Grassroots; Finance; Research; Conservation, Wildlife & Natural Resources and Office of Legislative Counsel. Chris also serves as chairman of NRA's Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF, the Association's political action committee). Prior to joining the NRA, he served as a senior legislative aide for a member of Congress, managing judiciary issues including criminal justice reforms and firearm-related matters.

Directing NRA's nationwide legislative and political effort, Chris develops and executes independent political campaign and legislative initiatives, coordinates national advertising and direct-mail programs, and has administrative responsibility over ILA's $20 million budget. He also serves as the Association's principal contact with the administration and congressional leaders. During the 2002 election cycle, Chris' first as NRA's chief lobbyist, he led efforts that resulted in one of the most successful election cycles on record for the NRA.

The significant successes of 2002 were overshadowed in 2004. Chris led the winning battle to retire the decade-old, deceptively labeled "Assault Weapons Ban." The forced expiration of this law on September 13, 2004, was a major blow to the gun-control lobby and their allies. NRA delivered yet another setback to the gun-control lobby during the 2004 elections. Ninety-five percent of the NRA-PVF-endorsed federal candidates and 86 percent of the endorsed state candidates prevailed. These margins of victory were unprecedented in the history of NRA-ILA. Chris also oversaw an aggressive plan to mobilize grassroots voters with a hard-hitting earned-media campaign, resulting in a higher gun owner turnout for the presidential election campaign than in 2000.

He led NRA's successful fight for the passage of the "Protection of Lawful Commerce In Arms Act," designed to halt bankrupting lawsuits brought by big-city mayors and lawyers that blamed law-abiding firearms manufacturers for the acts of violent criminals. In October 2005, President Bush signed this landmark bill into law, and many industry observers say it will save American firearm manufacturers from bankruptcy.

The chaos and civil disorder following Hurricane Katrina confirmed every law-abiding gun owner's worst fear: that their guns could be forcibly confiscated right here in America. Chris led efforts to address this matter at the federal and state levels. In less than a year, NRA secured congressional passage of the "Disaster Recovery Personal Protection Act" that President Bush signed into law in October 2006. This measure was also enacted in 10 states the same year.

Chris is a graduate of Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn., where he earned a bachelor's degree in history and minored in business administration. He grew up hunting and fishing with his father and three brothers in west Tennessee.