Bloomberg-backed gun regulation group pledges $45 million for election
The political arm of Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun regulation group founded by former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg, plans to spend $45 million over the coming months to elect favored candidates in eight of the states that could determine control of the White House, House, Senate and local offices.
The effort will include a new student organizing drive, with plans to hire 30 new organizers for volunteer recruitment drives at 32 college and university campuses in Arizona, California, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The group’s leaders said the effort will focus on younger voters, voters of color and suburban women, with new field offices in Arizona, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
“With MAGA Republicans pushing an extreme ‘guns everywhere’ agenda, this election is a life-or-death moment — so Everytown is going all-out to mobilize the majority of Americans who want to live free from the fear of gun violence,” Everytown for Gun Safety president John Feinblatt said in a statement. “From sending Vice President Harris to the Oval Office to helping our own volunteers win office, we’ll elect gun sense champions up and down the ballot.”
The group — along with its grass-roots networks, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action — endorsed Harris for president last week.
About 80 percent of the $45 million will go to television and digital advertising, according to a person familiar with the spending who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The full list of candidates that the money will support will be determined over the coming weeks. Some of the money is expected to support local candidates Everytown has recruited through its “Demand a Seat” program, which encourages activists and survivors of gun violence to run for public office.
Bloomberg, one of the biggest donors to Democratic politics, gave $19 million this year to Future Forward, a super PAC supporting Harris, and nearly $1 million to the coordinated Democratic presidential campaign, which at the time was supporting President Biden before he left the presidential race. Bloomberg remains a donor to Everytown, but the group also raises money from its grass-roots efforts.
Everytown announced a $60 million spending plan before the 2020 election aimed at defeating then-President Donald Trump and electing more Democrats who support gun regulations.