Among all the organizations advocating for gun control, Everytown for Gun Safety stands out for one reason: money. Funded primarily by Mike Bloomberg, the hybrid 501(c)(3)/501(c)(4) organization is by far the biggest spender of gun control cash on federal elections, and it also spends a great deal on state-level elections.
Those priorities reflect the realities of gun control advocacy: Though many activists dream of enacting policies at the federal level, repeated efforts in Congress to pass a universal background check bill or other reforms have foundered, even in the wake of mass shootings. That has led to an increased focus on state-level politics, a strategy that by now has a proven track record.
Everytown’s roots go back to 2006, when Bloomberg, then New York City mayor, co-founded Mayors Against Illegal Guns with then-Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. The organization called upon mayors to support policies to reduce gun violence, including gun safety legislation, policing strategies and violence interventions. Six years later, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting injected a new sense of urgency into the debate over gun control, and a stay-at-home mother of five named Shannon Watts was inspired to start Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. The two organizations merged in 2013, not long after Moms Demand Action’s founding, and became the most prominent and best-funded gun control group in the country.
Everytown’s ultimate goal is to be a counterweight to the NRA, which has traditionally put an enormous amount of money behind its pro-gun agenda. Everytown’s leaders have been candid that this is a long-term project, and have been quietly involved in a host of state-level races that typically aren’t on the national media radar. The results have been mixed, despite Bloomberg’s pledge to spend $50 million on the group’s activities in 2014. In 2015, for instance, the Maine legislature passed a bill to allow concealed carry without a permit, despite an Everytown ad blitz. And though the group helped gun control ballot measures win in Washington, Nevada and California in 2016, it’s hard to count that year as a victorious one. The NRA, by contrast, spent over $54 million on the 2016 elections, including over $30 million to back Donald Trump, and ultimately got its candidates in several Senate contests and the presidential race elected.
But the tide may be turning. In 2019, Everytown funneled $2.5 million to state and local races in Virginia, and when Democrats successfully took over the legislature (for the first time in decades) they passed a series of gun control measures that limited handgun purchases, mandated background checks on all purchases, and allowed the authorities to take guns from people deemed to be a risk.
Everytown is clearly benefiting from two trends. The first is that traditionally red states like Virginia and Arizona have turned against Republicans, making it possible for Democrats to win in new places. This may not show a sea change in public opinion around guns, but it makes it possible for candidates endorsing gun control to win elections and vote for Everytown-backed policies without fear. The second trend is that the NRA has been plagued by scandals and lawsuits in the last couple of years, limiting its ability to spend on elections in 2020.
In the 2020 elections, Everytown focused its efforts on states where the legislatures could potentially flip, including Texas, a state that is traditionally associated with gun rights. Undaunted, in February, Everytown announced an $8 million initiative called “Gun Sense Majority: Texas” aimed at flipping the legislature, a substantial portion of the $60 million overall that the organization planned to spend on elections in 2020. Everytown saw an opening i polling that showed a majority of Texas voters support stricter gun laws.
Along with ad buys in English and Spanish, Everytown built up a robust voter outreach program, with Moms Demand Action volunteers contacting thousands of Texas residents in the course of a single weekend. But the results reflected the hard truth that it's still tough for Democrats to win in Texas—the GOP retained power in the state legislature, defeating Bloomberg and the other Democratic donors hoping to flip the state.
The electoral arm of the organization is called the Everytown for Gun Safety Victory Fund, which spent a total of $20 million on federal races in 2020. The Victory Fund is a 501(c)(4) that is distinct from Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, a 501(c)(3) that conducts research into gun violence prevention and is limited by law from involving itself in politics directly. This structure is increasingly common in progressive circles, and many organizations divide their activities along C3/C4 lines in order to influence elections while retaining an advantageous C3 status for their nonpolitical operations.
Everytown also invested $5 million in Florida, where it ran ads opposing Trump (elsewhere, it ignored the presidential race) and over $5 million combined toward Senate races in Iowa and North Carolina, yet more places where they couldn't make gains in 2020. It also spent over $1.7 million defending former employee Lucy McBath as she fought off a Republican challenger in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District.
The spending reflects a blend of priorities. On one hand, the focus on state legislatures shows that Everytown is prepared to fight political battles on a district-by-district, block-by-block basis. Without control of the Senate, Democrats have no chance of advancing gun control on the federal level—even if they had won both chambers of Congress, it would likely have been a secondary priority at best. That leaves state capitals as the center of the action.
On the other hand, Everytown has so much money that it can peel off a casual $5 million to go after Trump, with whom fellow New York billionaire Bloomberg has a long-running feud.
Democrats are going to have to examine the 2020 results closely to see how they failed in so many down-ballot races. Everytown's defeats in Texas and elsewhere may be mainly a consequence of Democrats generally having a down year. Still, it's a setback for the gun control movement, which will have to redouble its efforts in blue-state legislatures, the only places where they have even a modicum of power.
