These mothers groups are planning to have some serious political influence on the 2014 midterm elections, creating PACs, registering themselves as 501(c)4 organizations and running ads on the local level.
“We’re going to be a force to be reckoned with in the 2014 midterms, moms are so engaged in this they’re just not going away,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, a group formed after December’s Newtown, Conn. shootings that killed 20 first graders and six adults.
Moms Demand Action has teamed up with Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns Action Fund, placing an ad on the homepage of Thursday’s USA Today website, calling for signatures to a petition to “declare your independence from gun violence.” More than 85,000 people have signed the petition as of Thursday.
“We believe that by 2014 it will be impossible to avoid our presence,” Watts said, adding that their six-month-old group has more than 100,000 members across the country. “If you aren’t willing to speak with us or aren’t willing to hear from us, I think it will really impact their chances at election or reelection.”
