“We’ve always said the millennials are the biggest and least politically represented group in the U.S. This is exactly why we’re doing what we’re doing,” said Tom Steyer, the Democratic billionaire activist. | Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo Tom Steyer, gun safety groups plan voter registration drive for high school students

In response to last week’s deadly shooting in Florida, two prominent gun safety groups are joining with Tom Steyer, the Democratic billionaire activist, in a push ahead of the midterm elections to register high school students to vote around gun issues.

Steyer’s NextGen America group is working with Giffords — the group founded by former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, after she was shot in 2011 — and Everytown for Gun Safety, founded by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The effort is kicking off with a $1 million donation from Steyer.


“In the wake of this shooting in Parkland, what we saw was [that] the difference between this shooting and other shootings is these were older kids, and they had a voice that was incredibly powerful on a topic where elected officials had been paid for years — or decades — to look the other way,” Steyer told POLITICO, referring to surviving students who have spoken out in favor of stricter gun laws.

The push will expand the footprint of NextGen America beyond the college campuses where it maintains a significant presence across the country.

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“We’ve always said the millennials are the biggest and least politically represented group in the U.S. This is exactly why we’re doing what we’re doing,” said Steyer, the hedge fund manager turned environmentalist turned megadonor.

The effort, which will include a national voter registration drive, will focus on states and districts represented by incumbent Republican lawmakers who have taken money from the National Rifle Association and voted against gun control measures.

The campaign is set to launch on March 25, the day after planned protests for gun safety spurred by the Parkland shooting.

“If this Congress won’t act to protect our kids, we must elect one that will,” Giffords said in a statement that the coalition was set to release on Thursday evening. “If the politicians who have benefited from millions of dollars in NRA cash won’t pass laws to make our schools and communities safer, we will vote them out. Today, students from Parkland and across the country are inspiring the country to be better. Come November, many of those young Americans will be making the difference themselves as they cast their votes for the first time.”

The effort, which will include digital and mail registration pushes, will also work to pre-register students who are not yet 18 in states where that is allowed.

The pledged money is on top of the $30 million Steyer has already committed to trying to flip the House of Representatives from GOP control. He announced that effort in January while revealing that he would not run for office back home in California.

Steyer is by far Democrats’ largest donor in recent election cycles, to the tune of nearly $200 million. But his profile has risen in recent months around his push to impeach President Donald Trump. That campaign has cost Steyer at least $20 million, including an investment in straight-to-camera nationwide television ads — spots that sparked speculation that Steyer himself may consider running for president in 2020.

