Gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety plans to spend $ 3 million to recruit and train its volunteers for the candidacy, with the goal of getting 200 races in the next election cycle.
The program is the latest step in a year-long effort by groups supporting stricter gun laws to become politically competitive with the National Rifle Association, which has a strong grip on American politics amid the rise in mass shootings.
That dynamic has started to shift as the NRA loses its hold on moderate Democrats and more gun restrictions are passed by state lawmakers. But even proposals with broad bipartisan support among voters, such as universal background checks and red flag laws, have failed in Congress.
Everytown’s new program, called Demand a Seat, will begin this fall and will include training on the fundamentals of running a campaign, as well as instruction from lawyers who have become legislators, such as Rep. Lucy McBath, Democrat of Georgia. It is aimed at members of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, two branches of Everytown supported by Michael R. Bloomberg.
“Our volunteers have fought to have the people at the table listen to them, and some wouldn’t, so now our volunteers and gun violence survivors will be fighting to occupy those seats,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand action.
Everytown said more than 100 of its volunteers ran for office last year and 43 won.
The group said more than 50 former volunteers were elected to state parliaments, 18 to city or district councils, eight to school boards, and two to Congress: Ms. McBath and Marie Newman, Democrats of Illinois.
Ms McBath, who was first elected in 2018, said in an interview on Monday that as a lawyer for Moms Demand Action, she learned how to organize people, give speeches and talk about politics with different audiences. But she said, “I had no idea how to campaign.”
“I’ve never run for office,” said Ms. McBath, who joined Moms Demand Action after her son Jordan Davis was fatally shot. “I got a bit of help from people around me and went to bootcamp training over a weekend, but I wish I had this kind of structure, an ongoing structure that I could relate to all the time.”
State Representative Jo Ella Hoye, a Democrat, was elected to the Kansas Legislature in November after leading the chapter of Moms Demand Action in Kansas for about three years. She said she mostly staffed her campaign with other volunteers making more than 10,000 calls for her.
“You have this lightbulb moment: I used this database for our organization and I will use it for our campaign. We attend training on messaging and social media, ”said Ms. Hoye. “If you formalize it, the lightbulb will click just a little earlier.”
You and Ms. McBath will advise the participants in the program, as will, among others, the Mayoress Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta, a Democrat; former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, a Democrat; and former Florida MP David Jolly, who was Republican during his tenure but has since left the party.
