When Politicians Pretend to be Hunters

A certain red-hatted former president might contest that lofty claim, but the message behind the camo “Harris/Walz” headgear is clear: Tim Walz is a hunter, and he’s proud of it.

In this, Walz joins a long line of politicians who have leaned into their backgrounds as hunters to make themselves more appealing to that subset of American voters. “I’m just a regular guy like you,” they say, “and my hunter’s orange vest proves it.”

Problem is, a lot of them are full of crap. Walz has identified as a hunter and angler throughout his political career, and his last few years of social media posts indicate that he at least participates in the annual Governor’s pheasant and whitetail hunts. But not all politicians have done even this. From two-hour photo ops to gun control PR, our representatives in D.C. have used hunting for almost everything except as an opportunity to appreciate the natural world.

John Kerry, 2004

In 2004, presidential hopeful John Kerry went goose hunting in Ohio. At least, that’s what he wanted voters to believe.

The urbane Massachusetts senator began his excursion by walking into a grocery store in the Buckeye State and asking, “Can I get me a hunting license here?”

Things went downhill from there.

The two-hour cornfield hunt was reportedly a tightly choreographed event, with Kerry’s hunting companions doing most of the shooting and bird-carrying. When the lifetime politician got some goose blood on his hand, he was careful to tuck it into his jacket before speaking with the two dozen invited reporters.

NBC News reported at the time that Kerry had hunted the previous year in Iowa, but that event was also a campaign photo op. He said elsewhere that he’s “shot birds off and on through my life” along with small game and deer, but he doesn’t appear to have mentioned his deep and abiding love of hunting after losing the 2004 presidential election.

Mitt Romney, 2007

John Kerry isn’t the only milquetoast politician to stretch the truth in an effort to secure the hunt vote. In 2007, Utah Senator and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney (what is it with Massachusetts politicians?) caught some flack for calling himself a lifelong hunter even though he’s never purchased a hunting license or owned a gun.

Romney made the remark at a campaign stop, which his team had to walk back the next day. They admitted that Romney had only been hunting twice in his life: as a teenager in Idaho and again in 2006 with GOP donors in Georgia. But rather than letting the story die, Romney came back the next day and contradicted his own campaign.

“The report that I only hunted twice is incorrect,” Romney said in a statement. “I've hunted small game numerous times, as a young man and as an adult. I'm by no means a big game hunter. I'm more Jed Clampett than Teddy Roosevelt.”

This is how Romney tried to get around the fact that he never bought a hunting license in any of the states he’s lived in. Michigan, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire did not require a license to hunt small game, so there wasn’t any way for his claims to be confirmed via public record.

“I've always been a rodent and rabbit hunter, small varmints, if you will,” he added. “I began when I was 15 or so and I have hunted those kinds of varmints since then. More than two times.”

Congratulations to everyone who’s been hunting three times. You can be a lifelong hunter and run for president.

The Clintons, 1995, 2008

Bill and Hillary Clinton may not claim to be lifelong hunters, but that hasn’t stopped them from using the pastime to advance their own political agenda. In 2008, Hillary responded to a question about gun control with a previously unknown anecdote about shooting a banded duck in Arkansas.

“I've hunted. My father taught me how to hunt. I went duck hunting in Arkansas. I remember standing in that cold water, so cold, at first light. I was with a bunch of my friends, all men. The sun's up, the ducks are flying and they are playing a trick on me. They said, 'we're not going to shoot, you shoot.' They wanted to embarrass me. The pressure was on. So I shot, and I shot a banded duck and they were surprised as I was," Clinton said.

Just a few days previously, Hillary had leaned into her experience as a hunter to argue that criminal violence can be limited without infringing on gun rights. In this, she was taking a page from her husband’s playbook. In 1995, Bill went on a duck hunt in Arkansas to prove to sportsmen that the recent gun control bill passed by Congress would not limit opportunities in the field.

“We all shot them with weapons, I might add, that were not affected by the crime bill,” he told the gathered reporters. “I just want to make that point to all the sportsmen and women that are watching this.”

Bill comes across as more knowledgeable about hunting than some of his colleagues, but he, like many politicians, isn’t shy about using hunting to justify further restrictions on gun ownership.

Jesse Reising, 2022

Most recently, a congressional candidate in Illinois found himself under the microscope during the 2022 midterms when he posted videos and images of himself toting a shotgun and wearing an orange vest.

Jesse Reising was running for Illinois’ 13th congressional district. His identity as a hunter wasn’t central to his campaign message, but he did include a brief shot of himself out in the field. Unfortunately for him, the intrepid journalists over at 5 On Your Side could smell a forgery from a mile away (or they got a tip from his opponent). They submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, which confirmed, sure enough, Reising didn’t have a hunting license.

“We shot a shot that day,” Reising told 5 On Your Side. “We were out doing some pheasant hunting with the crew. I didn’t actually go out that day. But we got the…got the photos and then that’s what they are.”

Turns out, Reising hadn’t been hunting since he was a kid. He had sustained a serious neck injury in college, and he hasn’t been able to hold and fire a shotgun since then. When asked whether the ad portrays him in a false light, he responded, “No, I don't think so,” he said. “I grew up hunting.”

Illinois voters apparently didn’t agree. He lost his primary by 1.7%.

Hunting > Politics

Here’s a hot tip for all the political animals out there: hunters can see a poser coming from a mile away. If you’re a genuine hunter, great. We need more of those in Washington.

But if not, don’t use our way of life—not to mention our natural resources—to garner rural support, push for gun control, or punch your ticket to the White House. As we’ve seen over the last twenty-odd years, it’s more likely to backfire than anything else.

*Feature image via Bossa Nova Strategies.