Prominently featured on Republican Trey Terry’s website is the NRA logo above a picture of Terry, bragging about his “A” rating. The rating, among the highest given by the NRA to elected officials with sterling 2nd Amendment voting records, is quite a prize, particularly during Republican primaries.
The problem with Trey Terry’s NRA rating is that it doesn’t appear to be real.
There is no record of Terry ever receiving an “A” rating from the NRA and 2nd Amendment activists in Arizona say that because Terry has lost all of his previous runs for the Legislature and therefore has no voting record, it wouldn’t be possible for him to get such a rating.
“If you fill out the survey and say all the right things, the very best you can hope for is an AQ rating that tells NRA members that you have no record of doing good things, but that you promise to do good things if elected.” said a member of the Arizona Citizens Defense League, another prominent 2nd Amendment group.
A review of the NRA’s own website shows that they have issued no grades whatsoever to Arizona candidates yet, so Terry could not even be AQ rated for the 2022 election.
Terry’s false claim caught the attention and ire of two of his opponents – Austin Smith and Steve Montenegro. Montenegro is a former lawmaker who has actually earned an “A+” rating and neither were happy that Terry was attempting to claim an honor he had not earned. The two candidates, who are running as a team, called on Terry to stop claiming the false “A” rating, to correct or remove the graphics he features on his website alongside the NRA’s own logo, and to refrain from making this false claim on the campaign trail.
ADI reached out to Terry for a comment or explanation and he has not responded. So far, Terry’s website is unchanged, and the palm cards he is handing out when he is going door-to-door continue to claim the “A” rating.
