Gun Control Group Donates $15 Million to Harris as She Vets Cofounder for VP
Giffords, a gun control advocacy group, is slated to donate $15 million to Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign as the presumptive Democratic nominee vets one of the group’s founders for the vice presidential slot.
Giffords’s $15 million campaign, which is targeting key battleground states, comes as its cofounder Sen. Mark Kelly (D., Ariz.) surfaces as one of Harris's potential running mates, according to the New York Times, and a day after Gabrielle Giffords, another cofounder and Kelly's wife, campaigned for Harris in swing-state Pennsylvania.
Giffords’s executive director Emma Brown declined to comment on whether Harris is considering Kelly, telling NBC News in a phone interview that the group is not getting involved in "the vice president speculation."
"The [gun violence] issue is actually moving votes and able to really affect electoral outcomes," Brown added. "So we are planning to use our resources this year, particularly the $15 million, to support gun safety champions and to communicate directly with voters who are uniquely mobilized by guns in key battleground races across the country."
The gun control group has in recent years found itself embroiled in numerous controversies, including in 2019 when it launched a $300,000 advertising campaign containing misleading statistics to slam Virginia's Republican lawmakers, and earlier this summer when it endorsed Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D., N.M.), who reportedly harassed a black former colleague. After being fired from a call center for falsifying data, Vasquez phoned the center and asked to speak with "Chris, the n—er," according to a 2004 police report obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
Harris has been a vocal advocate for more stringent gun control policies, saying her campaign is about "the freedom to be safe from gun violence." During a Thursday speech to the American Federation of Teachers, Harris said, "We want to ban assault weapons, and they want to ban books."
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