WASHINGTON — Gun safety group Giffords is launching a $15 million campaign to help the de facto Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris defeat Republican rival donald trumpas well as helping House candidates in swing districts who support stricter gun laws.
The new spending campaign, first reported by NBC News, will cover pay TV and digital ads, direct mail (in English and Spanish), new research to help allies hone their messages, and the deployment of staff and substitutes, including a co-founder of the group, former Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz., to persuade and attract voters. The group is focusing those resources on swing states like Michigan and Arizona, as well as California and New York, where a series of competitive races could decide control of the House.
“Voters in swing states consistently rank gun violence as one of their top concerns,” said Emma Brown, executive director of Giffords, in a phone interview. “The issue is actually moving votes and being able to really affect electoral results. Therefore, we are planning to use our resources this year, especially the $15 million, to support gun safety advocates and to communicate directly with voters who are uniquely mobilized by guns in key races across the country.”
Brown declined to comment on the fact that Harris is vetting a co-founder of the group, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., husband of former Rep. Giffords, saying she is not engaging “in vice presidential speculation. ”
With mass shootings now a regular feature of American life, Giffords’ internal investigation found not only that gun legislation has broad support, but also that it appeals to groups of voters with the power to decide elections – particularly suburban women, Latinos and black voters. Perceptions of Democrats improved “when we included messaging about guns,” Brown said.
The contrast between the presidential candidates is stark. Harris is already addressing the issue, saying in his launch video that his campaign is about “the freedom to be safe from gun violence.” In a speech Thursday to the American Federation of Teachers, she said of Republicans: “We want to ban assault weapons and they want to ban books.” In 2019, Harris endorsed a mandatory buyback program for military-style weaponswhich Republicans attacked as “gun confiscation.”
Trump, by contrast, has secured the support of the National Rifle Association and has campaigned as a staunch supporter of protecting gun rights. He has called himself “the most pro-gun, pro-Second Amendment president you’ve ever had in the White House” and argued that mass shootings are not “a gun problem.”
But in a sign that Republicans are beginning to view the cause they have long celebrated as a political loser, the party Platform 2024 It makes no mention of guns or the Second Amendment. O platform section of Trump’s website also ignores the problem.
Harris and Democrats have called for requiring universal background checks for gun sales, reinstating the ban on semiautomatic weapons and restoring the ban on stock accessories. Trump and most Republicans have rejected those proposals, although some Republican senators have supported modest new measures in 2022 to include juvenile registrations in background checks and limits on domestic abusers.
Trump has nominated Supreme Court justices and justices who are skeptical of gun restrictions, while Harris would likely choose judicial nominees who believe the Second Amendment does not prohibit significant restrictions on firearms.
This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
