As the 2024 election draws nearer, the chasm in political fundraising between the rival sides of the gun debate has only grown wider.
The Political Action Committees (PACs) for Everytown, Giffords, and Brady collectively brought in just under $6 million in August, according to updated Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings posted last week. By comparison, the National Rifle Association’s Political Victory Fund raised just over $376,000 for the month. Collectively, all of the gun-rights PACs that posted monthly FEC updates took in just over $420,000.
August’s fundraising totals mark the single largest monthly disparity in fundraising hauls between the gun-rights and gun-control groups in the 2024 election season. While the gun-control groups have consistently outraised the NRA and its allies so far this year, the monthly gap has not previously been several million dollars. It’s a trend that bodes well for candidates backing gun control and poorly for gun-rights advocates looking to ramp up their political activity in the home stretch of the election, when the capacity to spend on advertising and voter outreach is most vital.
Leading the pack on the gun-control side was the Everytown for Gun Safety Victory Fund. The super PAC brought in $5,166,928.03 in August, bolstered primarily by a $5,000,000 transfer from the same group’s Demand a Seat PAC. The Demand a Seat PAC, a new political arm created earlier this year with a $7,000,000 lump sum donation from Michael Bloomberg, only files quarterly and thus did not post any August numbers. Everytown’s third PAC, its Action Fund, raised an additional $25,014.51 last month.
Giffords PAC boasted a $718,612.89 monthly haul in August, nearly double what the NRA raised for the month. Brady PAC rounded out the big three with a $65,823.50 fundraising total, nearly identical to what the group brought in last month. Together, the groups increased their monthly totals by more than $5,000,000 from July ($166,000 without the Everytown PAC transfer).
Meanwhile, the NRA’s $376,114.17 total was down nearly $60,000 from its July haul, marking the second straight month of declining fundraising figures. It again marked a significant drop-off from the Political Victory Fund’s performance in past presidential election cycles. In August 2020, the PVF raised $1,725,700.27; in August 2016, it brought in $1,404,618.12. Meanwhile, the NRA’s super PAC continues to remain dormant. The NRA Victory Fund raised just $400 in August for the fifth straight month. By comparison, the Victory Fund raised a staggering $4,648,941.88 in August 2020–almost entirely in the form of transfers from the NRA’s other political arms.
August also saw the NRA lose its advantage over the gun-control groups in terms of remaining available funds for political activities. By the end of the month, the NRA had roughly $13.45 million cash on hand between its PAC and super PAC. Meanwhile, the gun-control groups collectively had $14.6 million cash on hand among their monthly reporting PACs.
The fundraising and cash-on-hand disparity likely explain the different strategic approaches to political spending each group has been taking this cycle.
The NRA began investing heavily in the Montana Senate race earlier this month and has continued to release new ads boosting Republican challenger Tim Sheehy over incumbent Democrat Jon Tester in a contest that will likely decide the balance of power in the US Senate. Elsewhere, however, the group has pared back its spending. The NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action appears to have cut off its Facebook ad spending for North Carolina Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson and against his Democratic opponent Josh Stein. Robinson, who is an NRA board member and rose to political prominence after an impassioned speech supporting gun rights at a city council meeting went viral, has recently come under fire after a series of lewd and racist comments he made on a pornography website several years ago came to light.
On the other hand, the gun-control groups have continued to boast splashy spending totals and pledges to remain highly involved in the presidential race as well as down-ballot contests in battleground states across the country. Everytown on Tuesday announced it would spend $7.5 million through its Demand a Seat PAC on candidate and grassroots volunteer training. That comes after the group pledged to spend $45 million over the course of the election back in July. Likewise, Giffords announced its plan to spend $15 million to support Kamala Harris and down-ballot Democrats. Thus far, however, those totals have not been reflected in available FEC data.
Despite the NRA’s increasing lack of parity with the gun-control groups, it remains by far the most significant political force amongst gun-rights advocates. The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) PAC raised $9,702.60 in August, according to FEC data. The Gun Owners of America super PAC brought in $32,706.17, while its PAC collected $833. The National Association for Gun Rights PAC raised just $422.24 for the month. Other big gun-rights efforts, like NSSF’s Protect Liberty PAC and the United States Concealed Carry Association’s PAC, only file fundraising reports on a quarterly basis and have yet to publish new figures since July.
