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Everytown For Gun Safety Adds Two Veteran Campaign Managers to Roster

4.9.2015

NEW YORK – Everytown For Gun Safety, the largest gun violence prevention organization in the country, today announced the addition of two seasoned campaign managers to their senior team this month. Jon Blair, former campaign manager to Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy, will serve as Director of Elections, and Matt Burgess, former campaign manager to U.S. Senator Al Franken will serve as Political Director.

“I am happy to welcome Jon and Matt to Everytown for Gun Safety – their addition to our team is another sign of how we are going toe-to-toe with the gun lobby in Washington DC and in statehouses and at ballot boxes across the country,” said John Feinblatt, President of Everytown for Gun Safety. “Their robust political knowledge and acumen for running winning campaigns – combined with their passion for creating a country safe from gun violence – makes them an invaluable asset to the gun violence prevention movement.”

Blair, a veteran campaign strategist, most recently ran Connecticut Governor Malloy’s re-election campaign. Prior to that, he ran a successful special election campaign for Congresswoman Robin Kelly. Both of these high-profile races serve as examples of how candidates with strong gun safety records can win.

“I am excited to join a team of people who are dedicated to saving lives by upending the gun lobby’s perceived political dominance in Washington and statehouses across the country,” said Blair. “I’m eager to put my political experience to the test with an aggressive program to elect candidates who will work to prevent gun violence.”

Burgess most recently managed U.S. Senator Al Franken’s reelection in Minnesota. In 2012, he managed Maggie Hassan’s winning campaign for governor of New Hampshire. Additionally, he served in EMILY’s List’s political department for four years recruiting and advising candidates for U.S. House, Senate and Governor, and in senior positions on campaigns in half a dozen states.

“Everytown for Gun Safety has been at the forefront of this important fight at a crucial time in our nation’s history,” said Burgess. “I am passionate about this movement and am looking forward to building a dynamic political operation that helps change the politics of gun violence prevention in America.”

Last year Everytown for Gun Safety signed up more than one million Americans to vote for gun safety and won pivotal political battles in key states including in Washington State, where a comprehensive background check ballot initiative – I-594 – passed by popular vote in a state with a strong tradition of gun ownership. In governor races in states that passed background check legislation since Newtown, candidates who support gun safety were victorious – Malloy (CT), Cuomo (NY), and Hickenlooper (CO). And a year after the gun lobby used a brief moment in a 2013 low turnout election to recall a pair of state senators who supported Colorado’s background check bill, gun safety candidates took back both seats in the midterm elections – one of which was a former Mayors Against Illegal Guns staffer.