The Biden administration’s fingerprints are all over several 2022 gubernatorial campaigns, and the candidates who once collected federal paychecks are now trying to scrub those résumés clean before voters notice. From policy aides who helped craft the ATF’s pistol-brace rule to former DOJ lawyers who defended magazine bans in court, these hopefuls are discovering that “I was just doing my job” doesn’t play well in states where gun owners still remember the 2021 ATF brace letter and the push for universal background checks. Their reluctance to own that record tells you everything about how toxic those policies remain outside the Beltway.

For the 2A community the takeaway is straightforward: yesterday’s federal regulator can become tomorrow’s state-level gun-grabber with a bigger budget and fewer checks. If these candidates win, expect renewed pressure on private sales, red-flag expansions, and quiet cooperation with any future national registry—moves that start in governors’ mansions long before they reach Congress. The campaigns that treat their Biden-era service as a liability rather than an asset are telegraphing exactly where the next battlefield will be, and it’s not inside the Beltway.