Gun control group rolls out first round of Senate endorsements

Everytown for Gun Safety on Tuesday rolled out its first round of Senate endorsements ahead of November’s crucial general election.

The gun-control advocacy group threw its support behind 11 Democratic Senate candidates including Mark Kelly in Arizona, former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, Theresa Greenfield in Iowa, Sara Gideon in Maine, Rep. Ben Ray Luján in New Mexico, Cal Cunningham in North Carolina, Jaime Harrison in South Carolina and MJ Hegar in Texas.

The endorsement of Gideon is particularly notable given the group endorsed incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins (D-Maine) in 2014. 

The group also backed incumbent Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin (Ill.), Gary Peters (Mich.) and Tina Smith (Minn.). 

Democrats are hoping to pick up three or four seats in order to seize control of the upper chamber.

The nonpartisan political website, the Cook Political Report, has rated the races in Arizona, Colorado, Maine, and North Carolina, all currently seats held by Republicans, as toss-ups. 

Everytown jumped into the 2020 electoral fray earlier this year, announcing its plan to spend a minimum of $60 million nationwide in the 2020 elections.

The group has targeted a number of key races in the House and Senate, emphasizing the need to protect what it calls a “gun sense majority,” which is mostly comprised of Democratic candidates. 

“Mitch McConnell is the single biggest obstacle to gun safety reform in Washington, so Everytown is going all-in to flip the Senate and elect leaders who will treat America’s gun violence epidemic like the crisis it is,” Everytown President John Feinblatt said in a statement on Tuesday.