Bloomberg-backed gun group spending $5M in Iowa, North Carolina Senate races

James Arkin
·2 min read

Everytown for Gun Safety, the group co-founded by former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, is launching a $5 million TV ad buy in Iowa and North Carolina this week, marking the first major round of spending from the organization in Senate races this year.

The group, which promotes stricter gun laws, announced earlier this year it would spend at least $60 million on elections in 2020, with a focus on flipping Republican-held Senate seats. Iowa and North Carolina represent two of the most critical states in the country for determining which party controls the Senate next year, and both have seen massive investments in TV ads from outside groups in both parties.

The ads start running Tuesday and are negative spots criticizing GOP Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. They aren't specifically about gun control measures, but rather accuse both senators of being beholden to "special interests" including the "gun lobby" and the insurance industry. Everytown for Gun Safety Victory Fund is spending nearly $3.2 million on TV and digital platforms in North Carolina, and nearly $2.2 million in Iowa.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., attends a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on police use of force and community relations on on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, June 16, 2020 in Washington. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Pool via AP)
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., attends a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on police use of force and community relations on on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, June 16, 2020 in Washington. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Pool via AP)

"Last year, we saw historic movement on gun safety from the U.S. House, but without gun safety champions in the Senate and changing the composition of that chamber, the House legislation will just continue to collect dust on [Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell's desk," Charlie Kelly, Everytown's senior political adviser, said in an interview.

Everytown endorsed 11 Democrats in Senate races earlier this year, including Cal Cunningham in North Carolina and Theresa Greenfield in Iowa, along with challengers in other critical battlegrounds.

The group's ads in Iowa and in North Carolina have similar themes. In the North Carolina spot, a narrator says lobbyists "got what they wanted" from Tillis. In Iowa, the ad riffs on Ernst's famous ad from her 2014 campaign in which she said she would go to Washington to "make 'em squeal."

"She said she'd go to Washington and make them squeal. Joni Ernst broke that promise to Iowa and made the special interests her top priority," a narrator says in the ad.

Brendan Conley, a spokesman for Ernst, in a statement called Bloomberg an "anti-farmer billionaire" and said that the ad campaign showed Greenfield "is already in his liberal special interest pocket."