The Ads Will Target Key Voter Constituencies, Including Young Voters, Black Voters, and Latino Voters
Everytown Has Made Significant Investments to Elect Gun Sense Candidates in Arizona, North Carolina, and Texas
NEW YORK — Today, Everytown for Gun Safety Victory Fund launched a new ad as part of a $700,000 TV and digital ad campaign to mobilize voters in the key battleground states of Arizona, North Carolina, and Texas. The ads will target key voter constituencies, including young voters, Black voters, and Latino voters, and will run on digital platforms in Arizona, North Carolina, and Texas, and on television in the Dallas and Houston media markets until election day.
The ad encourages voters to use their power to vote against politicians who are beholden to the gun lobby, and vote for gun sense candidates who will support common-sense gun safety laws like background checks on all gun sales.
WATCH THE AD:
“Arizona, North Carolina, and Texas are the new battlegrounds for gun safety, and voters in these states aren’t putting up with politicians who are beholden to the gun lobby anymore,” said Charlie Kelly, senior political advisor at Everytown for Gun Safety Victory Fund. “All cycle, we’ve been telling voters which of their lawmakers have chosen special interests over the safety of their families, and now we’re asking them to vote for gun sense candidates who will get us back on the right track.”
“I’m part of a new generation of voters who are sick of politicians who choose the gun lobby over our lives every single time, but we know it’s not enough just to speak out against gun violence — we also have to vote,” said Makayla Jordan, a volunteer leader with Birmingham Students Demand Action and a member of the Students Demand Action National Advisory Board. “I know that if every young person who cares about ending our gun violence crisis votes this year, we can get gun lobby-backed politicians out of office for good. We have spent the summer committed to registering as many voters as possible to make sure that happens.”
Earlier this year, Everytown announced major electoral initiatives in Texas, North Carolina, and Arizona — states where growing populations, diversifying suburbs, and a history of Republican inaction on gun violence have created new battlegrounds for gun safety.
Gun violence is a particularly motivating issue for young voters. In an effort to turn activism into voter turnout, Students Demand Action, a grassroots arm of Everytown for Gun Safety, spent the summer registering voters through its student volunteer-driven virtual organizing program. In all, more than 2,000 Students Demand Action volunteers have helped more than 100,000 young voters register by making more than 120,000 calls, sending more than 500,000 text messages, holding more than 500 phone banking shifts, and hosting more than 200 events. Volunteers have spent more than 58 days — or more than 84,000 minutes — worth of time on the phone.
Since January, Everytown has engaged in extensive voter research to guide its paid media campaign. Key findings include:
- Internal polling shows that voters have become more supportive of stronger gun laws since the pandemic.
- A survey of nearly 17,000 voters in battleground states found that messages saying comparing inaction on gun violence to inaction on COVID-19 was one of the most powerful messages at moving voters to Vice President Joe Biden.
- A July poll of Latino voters in Texas, Arizona, and Florida showed that 47% of Latino voters have become more supportive of common-sense gun laws since the shooting in El Paso. Messaging reminding voters of lawmakers’ inaction since mass shootings was one of the most salient messages tested.
- A July poll conducted in partnership with Higher Heights for America found that 86% of Black voters, including 84% of those less likely to turn out on Election Day and 88% of Black women, consider a candidate’s position on guns as more important than a candidate’s stance towards Trump.