As One of the Largest Outside Spenders, Everytown Invested $1M to Elect Spanberger as Virginia’s Next Governor
Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action Volunteers Contacted Nearly 250,000 Virginia Voters
WASHINGTON — Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund and its grassroots networks, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, released the following statements celebrating former Moms Demand Action volunteer Abigail Spanberger’s election as Virginia’s next governor.
“In electing former Moms Demand Action volunteer Abigail Spanberger, Virginians just sent a message to every candidate eyeing the 2026 midterms: If you’re serious about winning, you need to be serious about gun safety,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “This is a banner day for both Virginians and Moms Demand Action, which played a crucial role in helping one of their own win the Governorship.”
“Abigail Spanberger’s victory proves what we’ve long known—gun safety is a winning issue,” said Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action. “As a former Moms Demand Action volunteer, she knows exactly what it takes to keep Virginia families safe. We couldn’t be prouder to see a leader from our movement bring that commitment to the governor’s mansion.”
Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund ran a $1 million paid media campaign to elect Abigail Spanberger as Virginia’s next governor. The ads highlighted Spanberger’s record of — and commitment to — combating gun violence and keeping Virginia communities, families, and children safe. Since April, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action volunteers contacted nearly 250,000 Virginia voters. Everytown has made Virginia a proving ground for the gun safety movement, outspending the NRA over the last several election cycles to build strong, durable gun sense majorities. Despite the NRA’s claims that they were “pounding the pavement” and “deploying staff and resources to push pro-gun candidates in Virginia to victory,” as of last week, total NRA spending on Virginia’s 2025 elections was just over $31,500. Everytown is on track to outspend them by more than 55-to-1.
In 2023, Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund and the Everytown for Gun Safety Victory Fund spent seven figures to help gun sense candidates flip the House of Delegates, defend the Senate, and elect our Moms Demand Action volunteers-turned-candidates up and down the ballot. Our messaging framed weak gun laws and MAGA extremism as direct threats to community safety, successfully flipping the script on misleading crime attacks and winning battleground voters who named crime as a top concern.