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Everytown Launches More Than $2.2 Million In Digital Ads and Direct Mail to Flip Texas House to A Gun Sense Majority

9.22.2020

Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund Spending Nearly $1.1 Million on Digital Ads and More Than $1.1 Million on Direct Mail Primarily Targeting Republicans in the Texas State House for Their Inaction in the Face of the Gun Violence Crisis

AUSTIN, Texas – Today, Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund (“Everytown”) launched more than $2.2 million in digital ads and direct mail in order to elect a gun sense majority to the Texas House. As part of the effort, Everytown will spend nearly $1.1 million to run digital video, radio and static ads, and more than $1.1 million to send candidate-specific direct mailers to voters in a dozen state House districts. The digital ads and direct mailers will primarily highlight the failures of Republicans in the state House to address gun violence, and fight for the health and economic security of Texas families. 

As part of this effort, Everytown will target the following Texas House districts:

HD-26; HD-64; HD-66; HD-67; HD-92; HD-94; HD-96; HD-108; HD-112; HD-121; HD-134; HD-138

“For years now, Republican leaders in the Texas House have chosen to put gun lobby interests ahead of public safety, but now the choice lies with the people,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “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.”

“Our lawmakers have had their chance to pass common-sense gun safety laws, but at every turn, they’ve failed,” said Gaby Diaz, a volunteer with Texas Moms Demand Action. “Failure isn’t an option when it comes to our lives – that’s why we’re going to elect a gun sense majority in the Texas House this November.”

WATCH “SAFER,” “DREAM,” AND “TWO CRISES

View a sample of the static ads here

View a sampling of the mail pieces below:

Polling regularly finds that the vast majority of voters in Texas support common-sense gun safety laws.

  • Texas voters support stronger gun laws by a 5:1 margin (51% stronger/9% less strong). And in battleground districts, voters support stronger gun laws by an even larger 54% to 10% margin. 
  • Over three-quarters of Texas voters (78% statewide; 86% of battleground voters), including 84% of voters who support stronger gun laws, consider a candidate’s position on guns “very important” to their vote in 2020.
  • Vast majorities of voters statewide and in battleground districts — including undecided voters, gun owners, Latino voters and suburban women — support individual gun safety measures, including blocking domestic abusers from having guns (91% statewide; 89% in battleground districts), requiring background checks on all gun sales (87% statewide; 82% in battleground districts), and red flag laws (80% statewide; 77% in battleground districts).
  • Sixty percent of voters, including a majority of Republican women (57%) and voters in battleground districts (58%) say they would never vote for a candidate who doesn’t support background checks on all gun sales. 
  • Compared with other candidate positions on issues like health care, national security and immigration, opposition to background checks on all gun sales is the single most disqualifying candidate position among suburban women by a nine-point margin, and tied for the top among Latino voters.

Moms Demand Action Gun Sense Candidates flipped 9 seats in the State House in 2018. Similar to Virginia in 2019, nearly all of the battleground seats in Texas are housed in the fast-growing suburbs, where Everytown polling shows gun safety is a winning issue. More than 80% of Everytown’s offensive targets are in the Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston metro areas. 

This year, Everytown for Gun Safety Victory Fund and Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund will spend $60 million on the 2020 elections, doubling what they spent during the 2018 elections.