One of the nation’s largest gun-control groups is spending $600,000 in one of the most costly–and consequential–judicial races in the nation.
Last week, Everytown for Gun Safety announced an ad buy in the Wisconsin race that will determine the ideological balance of the state’s Supreme Court. The group is targeting Republican-backed candidate Brad Schimel. The ad, titled 87, attacks Schimel over what Everytown describes as his “extreme agenda,” but while it mentions gun background checks, it leads with other issues.
“There have been 87 justices on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and Brad Schimel would be the most extreme,” the ad said. “He wants to bring back the 1849 law that bans abortions, with no exceptions for rape or incest. He let domestic abusers walk with no jail time.”
For its part, the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) Political Victory Fund has endorsed Schimel. But it is spending at a much smaller scale. It has spent just $1,575 in a race that’s racked up a nearly $67 million price tag thus far, according to a tracker from the Brennan Center.
The Wisconsin race is one of the first major elections in the wake of Donald Trump and the Republican Party’s successes in 2024, and the ad buy suggests Everytown is willing to spend big despite setbacks in the 2024 race. It also indicates they still retain an election spending advantage over the NRA, which is just emerging from its six-year corruption scandal. However, Everytown, long funded in large part by billionaire Michael Bloomberg, lags well behind other major groups involved in the race and still leans on issues beyond gun policy in its messaging. That includes Elon Musk’s newly-dominant political operation, which has dumbed over $10 million into the race to boost Schimel.
The race’s outcome will determine whether the Wisconsin Supreme Court will retain its slim liberal majority or flip to a narrow conservative majority, likely impacting how it views challenges to state gun laws. That was the focus of the NRA’s endorsement of Schimel.
“Brad Schimel is an ardent supporter of the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding gun owners and sportsmen in Wisconsin,” John Commerford, chairman of the group’s political action committee, said in a statement. “As Attorney General, he consistently and continuously defended Constitutional freedoms, especially the individual right to keep and bear arms. The Second Amendment rights of Wisconsinites will be protected with Brad Schimel on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.”
He argued state gun-rights protections are at stake in the election.
“The Wisconsin State Constitution states that, ‘The people have the right to keep and bear arms for security, defense, hunting, recreation, or any lawful purpose,'” Commerford said. “Brad Schimel has demonstrated his respect for that provision of the state constitution and is the best candidate for the highest court in Wisconsin to uphold the Second Amendment rights of peaceable gun owners.”
Everytown, on the other hand, has emphasized going after Schimel over building up his opponent, Susan Crawford, and it has fused guns with other issues in the race.
“Brad Schimel wants to take away women’s abortion rights, while giving criminals a free pass to buy guns,” John Feinblatt, the group’s president, said in a statement. “Everytown will ensure Wisconsinites have the facts about Schimel’s extremist agenda and the threat he poses to the health, safety and freedom of their communities.”
Voters will make their choice between Schimel and Crawford on April 1st.
