Gun regulation advocates hope to flip the U.S. Senate this November. But they want to influence local elections in North Carolina, too.
To win, they're targeting suburban women with a new campaign.
Everytown for Gun Safety says it wants to repeat a strategy that worked last year in Virginia. That General Assembly flipped from Republican to Democrat, and in the following session, passed background checks on all gun sales, as well as a red flag law.
Polling shows that more than 90% of suburban North Carolina women support those measures. And beginning Monday, Everytown will target statehouse suburban districts with a $1.6 million advertising campaign. If successful in flipping the General Assembly here, Everytown leaders say they would hope to see similar legislation passed.
The spending breakdown includes $750,000 on digital video, radio and static ads, and $900,000 to send candidate-specific direct mailers to voters in more than a dozen State House and Senate districts. The districts are mostly in suburban areas including
- House districts: HD-01; HD-09; HD-20; HD-45; HD-59; HD-63; HD-74; HD-82; HD-83; HD-98
- Senate districts: SD-01; SD-11; SD-24; SD-31
"For years now, Republican leaders in the North Carolina General Assembly have chosen to put gun lobby interests ahead of public safety, but now the choice lies with the people," John Feinblatt, the president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said in a statement. "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."
Everytown has previously announced it will spend $60 million on the 2020 election.
