Everytown for Gun Safety endorsed Democratic Reps. Lucy McBath and Marie Newman on Wednesday over the Democratic incumbents they’re challenging in two pivotal primaries of the 2022 election cycle.
Both House lawmakers decided to run in 2022 in different districts than they currently represent due to their states’ redrawn congressional maps.
Everytown endorsed McBath over Democratic Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux in Georgia’s new 7th District and Newman over Rep. Sean Casten in Illinois’ new 6th District. Bordeaux and Casten had previously been endorsed by the gun control group.
Everytown considers McBath and Newman the “ultimate gun safety champions,” and before they were elected to office, both congresswomen were volunteers with Moms Demand Action, a grassroots arm of Everytown.
“I think it is extraordinarily important for this organization to honor those people who started as volunteer leaders and transformed themselves from people who are advocating for legislation to people who are writing legislation,” John Feinblatt, president of Everytown, told CNN.
Everytown had endorsed Casten and Bourdeaux in 2020, spending $ 1.2 million in partnership with the House majority PAC to back Bourdeaux. The group at the time called Bourdeaux a “committed gun sense candidate” and pointed to Casten’s advocacy for gun measures like background checks.
Asked why Everytown chose McBath and Newman to endorse in the 2022 primaries, Feinblatt said the endorsements were about “recognizing their roots as volunteer leaders with Moms Demand Action — and that’s important value to this organization.”
The group plans to announce a spending figure for McBath and Newman at a later date.
The two endorsements were the first of the 2022 election cycle for the gun control group that’s funded largely by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Newman, a freshman in Congress, was the spokesperson for Moms Demand Action’s Illinois chapter.
McBath, who was first elected in 2018, became an activist with Moms Demand Action after her teenage son Jordan was shot and killed at a gas station in 2012 by a man who complained about the volume of the music Jordan and his friends were playing in their car.
Since last year, Everytown has also been recruiting and training gun violence survivors to run for office.
