Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund and Victory Fund Spending $800,000 on Digital Ads and More Than $850,000 on Direct Mail Primarily Targeting Republicans in Arizona Legislature for Their Inaction in the Face of the Gun Violence Crisis
Everytown Polling Found Arizonans Support Stronger Gun Laws by an 8:1 Margin
PHOENIX – Today, Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund and Everytown for Gun Safety Victory Fund (together, “Everytown”) launched the first stage of $1.6 million in digital ads and direct mail in order to elect a gun sense majority to the Arizona legislature. As part of the effort, Everytown will spend $800,000 to run digital video, radio and static ads, and more than $850,000 to send candidate-specific direct mailers to voters in six battleground state legislative races. The digital ads and direct mailers will primarily highlight the failures of Republicans in the state legislature to address gun violence, and fight for the health and economic security of Arizona families.
As part of this effort, Everytown will target the following House and Senate districts:
LD 6 Senate, LD 6 House, LD 17 Senate, LD 20 Senate, LD 20 House, LD 21 House
“For years now, Republican leaders in Arizona’s legislature have chosen to put gun lobby interests ahead of public safety, but now the choice lies with the people,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “Everytown is going all out to help voters hold gun lobby lawmakers accountable for their refusal to pass common sense laws to keep our families safe.”
“Arizona Republicans have failed to protect our families and our communities time and time again – we’ve had enough,” said Kara Waite, a volunteer leader with Arizona Moms Demand Action. “This election, we have a choice to elect leaders who will stand with us instead of siding with the gun lobby and special interests. We’re rolling up our sleeves and pulling out all the stops to ensure that we flip the Arizona state legislature to a gun sense majority.”
WATCH “MY SPECIAL INTEREST,” “DREAM,” “PRIORITY.”
View a sample of the static ads here.
View a sampling of the mail pieces below:
A February survey found that the majority of voters in Arizona support stronger gun safety laws
- By a more than eight-to-one margin, Arizonans want stronger versus weaker gun laws (50% stronger/6% less strong).
- Overwhelming majorities of voters support specific gun violence prevention policies, including blocking domestic abusers from owning guns (89%) and requiring background checks on all gun sales (85%).
- The majority of Arizona voters (57%) say they would never vote for a candidate who opposes background checks on all gun sales, including 58% of independent voters, 50% of Republican women, and 59% of Maricopa County voters.
This spend comes after a legislative session in which both chambers refused to take up legislation to disarm domestic abusers, for the second year in a row. Instead, lawmakers in the legislature once again prioritized and tried to push through risky legislation that would jeopardize the safety of Arizonans, such as a policy to arm teachers and other school employees and a bill that would have created new liability for public entities that choose to prohibit firearms — both of which were ultimately defeated.
In May, Everytown announced “Gun Sense Majority: Arizona” — a significant financial and grassroots effort dedicated to electing gun sense candidates up and down the ballot. In April, Students Demand Action also launched Arizona’s new Students Demand Action Virtual Field Office, an office focused on registering young voters virtually across the state.
This year, Everytown for Gun Safety Victory Fund and Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund will spend $60 million on the 2020 elections, doubling what they spent during the 2018 elections.