Chris Murphy speaks during a press conference held by Democratic senators calling for action on gun violence June 16. | Getty Congress Sen. Murphy leading effort to raise cash for pro-gun control candidates

Sen. Chris Murphy, backed by other Democratic lawmakers who led headline-grabbing filibusters and sit-ins demanding action on guns, is launching a new fundraising initiative aimed at raising cash for congressional candidates who pledge to make gun control a marquee priority.

The new effort, called the “Fund to End Gun Violence,” will be directed through the Connecticut Democrat’s campaign operation. In addition to Murphy, other Senate Democrats joining in the new gun control push include Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, the social-media guru who accompanied Murphy for his nearly 15-hour gun filibuster last month, and Sen. Chuck Schumer, the powerful New York Democrat and prodigious fundraiser who is poised to become the top Senate Democrat next year.


From the House Democratic ranks, Reps. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Robin Kelly of Illinois are lending their names to the effort — and both, as well as Murphy, are already scoping out pro-gun control candidates they want to help with campaign cash through the new group.

“It’s clear we’ve got to turn all this new activism around the issue of guns into a 2016 political movement,” Murphy said in an interview with POLITICO. “There’s more energy around this issue than ever before, and I want my colleagues to be focused on channeling it to candidates who are going to make a difference and tip the balance in January.”

The Democrats’ new fundraising effort, which will be formally announced later Thursday, is the first major sign that lawmakers who led the aggressive floor tactics on guns are now pivoting to the battle for control of Congress this November.

Shortly after the Orlando shootings on June 12, a frustrated Murphy — who’s been a top gun control advocate since the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut — waged the lengthy filibuster backed by nearly 40 other Senate Democrats. Four days after the filibuster ended, the Senate voted on four gun measures, but all failed to advance.

Meanwhile, House Democrats commandeered their chamber the following week and launched an unprecedented sit-in that lasted for more than 24 hours and forced Republican leadership to adjourn early.

There’s been no gun vote in the House. Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) wanted to bring up an anti-terror package that included language halting a gun sale only if a judge found probable cause that the person attempting to purchase the firearm was involved in terrorism activity, but it likely didn’t have the votes amid opposition from conservatives, including the House Freedom Caucus.

Murphy said he felt the galvanized political activism around gun policy after the Orlando shootings could translate into a significant campaign boost for Democrats nationwide engaged on the issue. Though he didn’t send any fundraising solicitations during the filibuster, about $100,000 poured in through his campaign website in the day and a half after Murphy’s talk-a-thon, he said.

The first-term senator is not up for reelection until 2018.

“There are a lot of people out there who don’t know what to do with their energy right now,” Murphy said in the interview. Though gun control groups such as Americans for Responsible Solutions and Moms Demand Action are “great places to park their money,” Murphy added: “We think we have a unique voice having been part of the filibuster.”

To gauge whether a candidate will be backed by the group, Democrats will use three key criteria: whether the person supports universal background checks on all commercial gun sales; measures to ban those tied to terrorism from purchasing firearms, and an end to a 20-year-old ban at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention barring research funded by taxpayers into gun violence.

Though the new fundraising effort isn’t a separate legal entity because it’s run through Murphy’s campaign, the senator said the initiative could spin off as its own independent group in the future. The fundraising effort is primarily a digital one focused on grassroots voters, with Democratic lawmakers leading the initiative using their lists to raise cash for the chosen congressional candidates.

Democrats leading the effort have not yet formally selected the candidates for whom they’ll fundraise. But Murphy pointed to Senate races in New Hampshire, where Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte is facing Democrat Maggie Hassan, and Nevada, with Republican Rep. Joe Heck squaring off against Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto, as examples where the group may get involved.

Both races, Murphy said, have a “clear contrast between the two candidates” when it comes to gun policy.

New Hampshire — with one of the most competitive Senate races this cycle — has already become a battleground for gun politics. Americans for Responsible Solutions PAC, the advocacy group led by former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.), has already aired two ads against Ayotte, including one this week.

That ad accuses Ayotte of misleading New Hampshire voters on her stance on background checks legislation and measures barring suspected terrorists from purchasing firearms. The 30-second ad—a “significant” six-figure buy—is running in the Manchester, N.H., market and on cable statewide.

Ayotte campaign spokeswoman Liz Johnson dismissed the ads as part of an effort from Hassan’s “third party special interest allies [that] have spent millions of dollars on misleading attacks against Kelly in the past three years.”

“Kelly’s record is clear,” Johnson said in a statement. “She has voted to strengthen the current background check system and encourage states to submit relevant mental health records, increase prosecutions for those who try to buy guns illegally, and prevent terrorists from buying firearms while protecting the rights of law-abiding American citizens.”

Ayotte opposed legislation mandating universal background checks. But in last month’s series of gun votes, she voted to advance a Democratic-written measure barring suspected terrorists from buying firearms, while also supporting a compromise measure spearheaded by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).

Meanwhile, both Clark and Kelly said they want to support Val Demings, the former Orlando police chief who is running in Florida’s 10th Congressional District.

“We can sit in, filibuster, call for the vote,” Kelly said. “But unless we have the right people in place for the vote when the vote is called for these measures, we’re not gonna get anywhere fast.”

Added Clark: “We are going to take this message home to our districts across the country and make sure that their voices are heard when we come back in September. If that’s not effective, they’ll be heard at the polls in November.”

The Fund to End Gun Violence will back Democratic candidates only, though a handful of Republicans — mostly moderates and GOP lawmakers facing tough reelection battles this fall — have made moves to tout their pro-gun control bona fides as the debate in Congress heated up over the last several weeks.

One is Rep. Bob Dold (R-Ill.), who hails from a suburban Chicago district and is one of the most vulnerable Republicans in the House this fall. In a recent mailer from Dold and obtained by POLITICO, the lawmaker touts his work on gun control — noting Dold is “breaking with his own party” to get gun measures passed. The mailer also features a photo with Dold and Giffords, who has become one of the most influential gun control advocates nationwide since the January 2011 shooting at a constituent event in Tucson, Arizona, that nearly killed Giffords and left six people dead.

A Dold spokesman said the mailer also discussed other policies separate from gun control. Nevertheless, the Giffords group doesn’t seem to mind, with an ARS spokesman noting Dold has “stood up to the gun lobby, and been a champion for safer communities and bipartisan leader on reducing gun violence.

“I think Republicans for the first time are feeling real grass-roots political pressure to get more reasonable on this issue. This effort is designed to increase that pressure,” Murphy said. “I think Republicans are very fearful that this is becoming a voting issue and we’re going to help make it a voting issue by raising the voices of candidate who want to run on background checks and closing the terrorist loophole.”

