Gun Ads

At Politico Morning Score, Zach Montellaro reports that anti-gun groups such as Giffords PAC are working suburban battleground districts.

The messaging does not skirt guns; instead, ads in these suburban districts call for more gun control and challenge the NRA. “Today, our children huddle in supply closets, hoping the next school shooter doesn’t take aim at them,” a Giffords ad in TX-07 says. “Why? Because Washington politicians like [GOP Rep.] John Culberson take tens of thousands from the NRA and then vote against our safety.”

On the airwaves, pro-gun control groups are vastly outspending the NRA in the battle for the House. Giffords PAC has spent just under $5 million in airtime in four districts (CO-06, TX-07, MN-02, VA-10) in the general election through the end of this week, according to data provided to Score by Advertising Analytics. Meanwhile, the NRA Political Victory Fund has dropped just over $480,000 in four districts (TX-07, NC-13, MN-08 and VA-05) in the same timeframe, per Advertising Analytics. Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund, a pro-gun control group backed by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has also dropped $1.4 million in general election airwave spending in GA-06, backing Lucy McBath, a gun control activist who has worked with the group, according to Advertising Analytics.

This is a change of tune from past elections, where the battlegrounds were often focused in places where Democrats did not want to talk about, or side with, gun control. This year, a number of suburban Democrats are picking up this messaging in their ads. “I’ll stand up to the NRA to protect our community,” Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, who is running in FL-26, says in an emotional ad detailing her father’s death. The NRA’s ratings have also been used as a scarlet letter of sorts for Republicans, like Democrat Mike Levin’s ad in CA-49. Republican “Diane Harkey has an A rating from the NRA. She stands with the gun lobby, not us,” the ad says, before featuring former Rep. Gabby Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly endorsing him.