Gun Control Group Reveals List of Anti-Gun Candidates, Will Be Targeting Texas

By: Teresa Mull

Everytown for Gun Safety, a Bloomberg-backed gun control group, has released the list of candidates it’s endorsing this coming election season.

According to The Hill, Everytown is spending $60 million on elections to support the following candidates:

Rep. Tom O’Halleran (D-Ariz.); Hiral Tipirneni, who is running in Arizona’s 6th District; Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.); Rep. Josh Harder (D-Calif.); Rep. TJ Cox (D-Calif.); Rep. Gil Cisneros (D-Calif.); Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.); Rep. Harley Rouda (D-Calif.); Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.); Crow; Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.); Mucarsel-Powell; McBath; Rep. Abby Finkenauer (D-Iowa); Rep. Cindy Axne (D-Iowa); Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.); Betsy Dirksen Londrigan, who is running in Illinois’s 13th District; Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.); Christina Hale, who is running in Indiana’s 5th District; Davids; Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.); House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.); Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.); Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.); Dan Feehan, who is running in Minnesota’s 1st District; Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.); Jill Schupp, who is running in Missouri’s 2nd District; Kara Eastman, who is running in Nebraska’s 2nd District; Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.); Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.); Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.); Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.); Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.); Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nev.); Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.); Jackie Gordon, who is running in New York’s 2nd District; Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.); Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.); Rep. Max Rose (D-N.Y.); Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.); Rep. Antonio Delgado (D-N.Y.); Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.); Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.); Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.); Eugene DePasquale, who is running in Pennsylvania’s 10th District; Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Pa.); Rep. Joe Cunningham (D-S.C.); House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.); Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D-Texas); Davis; Sri Kulkarni, who is running in Texas’s 22nd District; Ortiz- ones; Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas); Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.); Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.); Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Wash.); and Carolyn Long, who is running in Washington’s 3rd District.

Charles Kelly, Everytown’s political advisor, told The Hill:

“Texas is going to be a huge focus for us. The gun sense majority effort there is huge both in the state House and in the U.S. House.”

GPM reported previously The Everytown for Gun Safety Victory Fund had launched a $250,000 ad campaign targeting Republican congressional seats in Texas.
The anti-Second Amendment group’s ads ran in the districts of Congressmen Dan Crenshaw, Michael McCaul, John Carter, and Chip Roy. Ads were also deployed in Texas’ 24th Congressional District, where former Irving, Texas mayor Beth Van Duyne is running for Congress.

These ads are part of the group’s $8 million campaign to undermine Republican candidates in the Lone Star state. Everytown titled this effort, "Gun Sense Majority: Texas” and is focusing its efforts on 20 state legislature races as well. According to the anti-gun group, it needs to emerge victorious in nine Republican-held seats to attain a "gun sense majority."

“We’re investing in Texas because this state has one of the highest rates of gun violence deaths in the country,” Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, a group within Everytown for Gun Safety’s umbrella, said to reporters back in February.

The group also announced plans to spend $5 million in Arizona to support Democrats at all levels of government— from the U.S. Senate race to state legislature races. If anti-gun Democrats are successful in flipping the Arizona legislature, it would be the first time they would be in control of both chambers of the Arizona state government since the mid-1960s.

Earlier this year, the group attacked U.S. Senator Martha McSally with a $43,000 ad campaign over her allegedly “pro-gun” voting record. The campaign launched against McSally is part of a broader effort to elect candidates who support gun control legislation. Mark Kelly is running against McSally and has positioned himself as the gun control candidate. Kelly gained notoriety for co-founding Gifford Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

“It’s clear Arizonans are fed up with lawmakers who refuse to put public safety first,” Everytown for Gun Safety President John Feinblatt declared on a conference call with reporters.

Teresa Mull is editor of Gunpowder Magazine. Contact her at [email protected].