ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo—When Trudy Busch Valentine launched her candidacy for the U.S. Senate earlier this spring, the Democrat highlighted her family tie to one of Missouri’s most visible tourist attractions, Grant’s Farm, and that her family includes a variety of political points of view.

Those two factors came together and dealt her campaign a public relations problem Tuesday when she revealed that Grant’s Farm, the site of her childhood home in South St. Louis County which she now owns with siblings, will host a fundraiser for the foundation connected to the National Rifle Association.

Tonight, she Tweeted that after learning of that connection, she did what she would do in the Senate, and persuaded the attraction's Board to cancel the event. 

 

 

 

 

While it’s unclear when the event was booked, it comes as the nation grapples with what will happen in the wake of the school shooting massacre in Uvalde, Texas and the grocery store shooting spree in Buffalo, NY.

The NRA convention in Houston this weekend pushed back at the idea of any form of gun control legislation.

Earlier Tuesday, Valentine tweeted she had made a personal donation to Moms Demand Action, a group focused on gun violence, that exceeds the amount Grant’s Farm charged the NRA to rent facilities.

Her campaign did not respond to an interview request Tuesday, but Valentine has come out in support of background checks and red flag laws, and also supports ending the Senate filibuster to pass gun control legislation, measures supported by at least two other contenders for the nomination, Lucas Kunce and Spencer Toder.

A Kunce campaign spokesperson said Tuesday that Kunce “would never take a single penny from the NRA. Not in his personal life. Not in his campaign.”

Toder pointed out how Kunce was trying to fundraise off of the news, while Toder held a previously scheduled online meeting with activists and others on gun violence.