Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund Launches $550,000 Digital Ad Offensive in 15 Republican-held Virginia House and Senate Districts

Massive Digital Spend Will Include Ads on YouTube Pre-roll, Pandora, Roku, Facebook, Instagram, Plus Banner and Google Search Ads

Ads Are Part of Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund’s $2.5 Million Effort to Elect a Gun Sense Majority in Virginia’s General Assembly

NEW YORK — Today, Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund announced that it is launching a $550,000 digital ad offensive in 15 Republican-held Virginia House and Senate districts in order to elect gun sense champions and flip Virginia’s General Assembly to a gun sense majority. The ad campaign is part of Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund and Everytown for Gun Safety Victory Fund’s $2.5 million spending effort in Virginia’s 2019 election — Everytown’s most robust commitment ever in the Commonwealth.

“After the Virginia Beach mass shooting, Republican politicians chose to stand with the gun lobby — so now Virginia voters are looking for leaders who will stand up for their safety,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “Everytown is going all out to reach voters where they are, and make sure they know which lawmakers are refusing to consider common-sense gun safety laws.”

The ads will target: Roxann Robinson in HD-27; Paul Milde in HD 28; Tim Hugo in HD-40; Kirk Cox in HD-66; Chris Jones in HD-76; Barry Knight in HD-81; Chris Stolle in HD-83; Glenn Davis in HD-84; Colleen Holcomb in HD-91; David Yancey in HD-94; Jen Kiggans in SD-7; Bill DeSteph in SD-8; Glen Sturtevant in SD-10; Siobhan Dunnavant in SD-12; and Geary Higgins in SD-13. Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund has endorsed the Democratic challengers in each of those races.

As part of the digital offensive, 30 and 15 second video ads will run on Youtube pre-roll, Pandora and Roku. Different versions of static advertisements will run on Facebook, Instagram and as banner ads. The ads will focus on persuasion and mobilization targets across the districts, including women and low-propensity voters.

Examples of some of the ads are below:

• 30 second video version of “Stand Up”
• 15 second video version of “Stand Up”
• Static ad targeting House Speaker Kirk Cox
• Static ad targeting Senator Bill DeSteph
• Static ad targeting Republicans 

Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund’s previously announced electoral work in Virginia’s 2019 elections includes:

• A commitment to spend $2.5 million in Virginia’s 2019 elections.
• Donating $175,000 to the campaigns of Sheila Bynum-Coleman in HD-66 and John Bell in SD-13 to help air each candidate’s gun safety themed TV ads.
• Endorsing 25 candidates — 22 running in the most competitive districts in the commonwealth — and making $113,000 in direct contributions to endorsed candidates.
• Contributing $125,000 to the Virginia Senate Democratic Caucus, $100,000 to the Virginia House Democratic Caucus and $100,000 to Take the Majority (Democratic Party of Virginia).
• Launching $135,000 in digital ads in 14 Republican-held Virginia state-House and Senate districts.
• Unveiling results of a battleground message poll, which found gun safety to be a top issue among voters in swing areas of Virginia.