He’s known to most people as a classic rock ‘n’ roller, but for those who hunt, Ted Nugent is also considered a god in the archery world who preaches being one with the arrow.
In recent election years, he’s also stepped up to the altar of politics to preach, and sometimes bark, at his fellow hunters who complain about city hall to Washington but don’t vote.
In an interview to promote his latest effort for Hunt the Vote, which seeks to push 500,000 hunters to the polls, he recalled asking about voting at his regular hunting camps.
“I started asking people how many voted,” he said. When few hands raised, Nugent in his typically colorful language said, “I felt like William Wallace in Braveheart when he had the opportunity to kill the punk-ass king.”
He told one campfire group, “You guys got to be f****** kidding me. You’re going to sit here and squawk about more gun restrictions that enhance evildoers and disarm victims, but you don’t vote for people who would stand with us?”
That led to Hunter Nation and Hunt the Vote, which commenced its 2022 effort tonight.
“Hunter Nation was founded on the concern that American hunters were not a fully engaged voting population in the country. Frankly, we would rather spend time in a deer stand or duck blind than in a ballot box,” said Hunter Nation CEO Luke Hilgemann. “We are especially excited about the official launch of our 2022 effort because we truly believe that we will convince a record number of hunters this year to vote their values of God, family, and country.”
Nugent said the effort pushed about 400,000 to the polls in 2020 and helped to elect pro-hunting lawmakers at a time when he said hunting “is under attack.”
Said the Nuge, “We won. It’s because of Hunt the Vote and Hunter Nation and Uncle Ted’s scolding orgy.”
The group does not recommend candidates but collects pledges to vote then keeps in touch with those pledges to push them to the polls.
“We’ve got the attention of this core army of conservatives. They’re registering to vote,” added Nugent.
Since 2020, that army of armed Americans has grown, especially with women and minorities concerned about safety, and he hopes they also join his movement in 2022 and 2024.
“Oh, if you’re not into politics, then go ahead, pay five bucks a gallon for gas. That’s politics, man. Again, I’m just a guitar player, and I never went to college. I was just too busy learning stuff. The ultimate compliment a person can receive is that he’s down to earth. He’s grounded. And as a hunter all my life — as a resource steward, a guy who’s planted tens of thousands of trees — I know what quality air, soil, and water come from. That’s the hunting conservation lifestyle. And those people are intensely passionate, but they weren’t voting. We have reversed that trend. And I think if there’s going to be a take back [of] America, it will pivot upon that voting army, and we’re banking on that again,” said Nugent.
