Everytown for Gun Safety, a group that advocates for stricter gun laws, is teaming up with House Democrats on a $10 million ad campaign to boost former gun safety advocates now running for Congress, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: That's a significant sum at a moment when Democrats are raising alarm bells about being outgunned financially in the midterm elections.
- The candidates boosted by the campaign are all former volunteers for another gun safety group, Moms Demand Action.
- The candidates include: JoAnna Mendoza of Arizona, Pia Dandiya of Florida, Christina Bohannan and Lindsay James of Iowa, Christina Hines and Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet of Michigan, and Paige Cognetti of Pennsylvania.
"For nearly two years, a MAGA House has rubber-stamped the Trump administration as it tore up federal gun safety laws, and flipping these eight seats is how we put a stop to it," Everytown president John Feinblatt said in a statement first shared with Axios.
- "There's a Moms Demand Action volunteer on the ballot in every one of these districts, and we're partnering with House Majority PAC to turn them into majority makers."
- Mike Smith, the president of House Democrats' main super PAC, House Majority PAC, said in a statement: "Every seat on this map is a chance to put a check on a Trump administration and a MAGA House that have spent two years putting the gun lobby ahead of American families."
Between the lines: The money will go to fund TV and digital ads focused broadly on "public safety," referencing not just gun control but drug trafficking, immigration, crime, and police funding.
- The Bohannan ad says she is "running for Congress to put public safety first. That means working with both parties to secure our border, hire more police officers and keep illegal guns and fentanyl off our streets."
- The Cognetti ad mostly focuses on her broader anti-corruption message but lauds how "she got millions for police and cut violent crime by 80%" as mayor of Scranton.
The other side: "House Democrats have fully embraced the radical socialist agenda of abolishing prisons, releasing criminals back on the streets, and defunding the police," NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella told Axios in a statement.
- "Voters won't buy their lies about Republicans who have fought to protect our communities."