VICTORY FOR GUN SAFETY: Pamela Goodwine Wins Kentucky Supreme Court Seat

Everytown Supporters, Alongside Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action Volunteers, Made More Than 12 Million Voter Contacts To Support Gun Sense Candidates Nationwide

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund and its grassroots networks, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, released the following statements after Pamela Goodwine won her Kentucky Supreme Court race.

“Kentucky voters just further cemented a gun sense majority on the state Supreme Court, which will go a long way toward safeguarding common-sense laws to keep guns out of dangerous hands,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “Jurists like Judge Goodwine understand that the Second Amendment and gun safety laws go hand-in-hand, which is a big reason why voters just sent her to the state Supreme Court.”

“Judge Goodwine will use her seat on the state’s Supreme Court to keep all of Kentucky’s communities safe,” said Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action. “Our courts are where so many gun safety issues play out, and we’re grateful that Kentucky’s Supreme Court is poised to protect the state’s communities from gun violence.”

“We know just how important judges are to protecting common-sense gun safety laws, and we couldn’t be more excited to be sending Judge Goodwine to the Kentucky Supreme Court to do just that,” said Donna Counts, a volunteer with the Kentucky chapter of Moms Demand Action. “With this gun sense majority on the bench, we will continue to fight the gun lobby’s ‘guns everywhere’ agenda.” 

This victory in Kentucky joins the ranks of recent gun sense victories in state Supreme Courts. In 2023, in addition to activating its grassroot network, Everytown launched two $500,000 independent expenditure media campaigns in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, resulting in the election of gun sense judges Daniel McCaffery and Janet Protasiewicz. In 2022, Everytown launched a successful $700,000 effort to elect Richard Bernstein and Kyra Harris Bolden to the Michigan Supreme Court, and Elizabeth Rochford and Mary O’Brien to the Illinois Supreme Court.

Earlier this year, Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund and Victory Fund announced a $45 million major electoral program, which included launching a new grassroots voter contact program to help elect gun sense candidates and defeat gun extremists up and down the ballot in key swing districts and states.