Everytown Launched $400k Campaign for Michigan Supreme Court
LANSING — Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund and its grassroots networks, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, and Everytown for Gun Safety Victory Fund released the following statements after Kyra Harris Bolden and Kimberly Ann Thomas won their Michigan Supreme Court races:
“In expanding the Michigan Supreme Court’s gun sense majority, voters just made it clear they’re looking for Justices who will safeguard common-sense laws,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “Everytown was proud to support Justice Kyra Harris Bolden and Kimberly Ann Thompson, who are the kinds of judges who understand that the Second Amendment and gun safety laws go hand-in-hand.”
“These victories mark another step forward for our movement in Michigan,” said Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action. “With Justice Bolden and Kimberly Ann Thompson on the bench, Michigan’s Supreme Court can uphold common-sense gun safety laws that will save lives. We’ve made incredible progress in Michigan over the last few years, and this outcome is proof.”
“We know just how important judges are to protecting our communities from gun violence, and we couldn’t be more excited to be sending Justice Ann Thomas to the Michigan Supreme Court to do just that,” said Eunice Benavidez, a gun violence survivor and volunteer with the Michigan chapter of Moms Demand Action. “With this gun sense majority on the bench, we will continue to fight against the gun lobby’s ‘guns everywhere’ agenda and towards a safer future in Michigan.”
Everytown for Gun Safety Victory Fund launched a $400,000 effort in the Michigan Supreme Court race to re-elect Justice Kyra Harris Bolden and elect Kimberly Ann Thomas. This effort was part of a larger $2.1 million direct mail program targeting key persuasion and motivation targets, highlighting judicial candidates Patrick O’Grady and Andrew Fink’s support from organizations that oppose gun safety policies and abortion rights.
Today’s victory in Michigan joins the ranks of recent gun sense victories in state Supreme Courts. In 2023, in addition to activating its grassroot network, Everytown launched two $500,000 independent expenditure media campaigns in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, resulting in the election of gun sense judges Daniel McCaffery and Janet Protasiewicz. In 2022, Everytown launched a successful $700,000 effort to elect Richard Bernstein and Kyra Harris Bolden to the Michigan Supreme Court, and Elizabeth Rochford and Mary O’Brien to the Illinois Supreme Court.
Earlier this year, Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund and Victory Fund announced a $45 million major electoral program, which included launching a new grassroots voter contact program to help elect gun sense candidates and defeat gun extremists up and down the ballot in key swing districts and states. These efforts focused on young voters on college campuses, voters of color, and suburban women in Arizona, California, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. As part of the electoral program, Everytown hired and deployed 36 field organizers across the ten states. In Philadelphia, Detroit, and Tempe, Everytown opened field offices to support overall efforts.