With less than 70 days to go until election day, the nation’s most prominent gun-control groups have stepped up their fundraising lead in the political battle over firearms.
Political Action Committees run by Everytown, Giffords, and Brady collectively brought in just under $810,000 in July, according to Federal Election Commission filings released last week. By contrast, the National Rifle Association’s Political Victory Fund took in just under $435,000 for the month. Overall, gun-rights PACs raised about $528,000.
July’s fundraising totals highlight the spending advantage gun-control advocates have right now, largely due to the NRA’s diminished capacity as a political force. In both 2020 and 2016, the NRA outraised and outspent the big three gun-control groups put together. Faced with a drastic downturn in membership since then, primarily driven by its ongoing multi-year corruption scandal, the group has a smaller pool of potential donors from which to raise funds for its political operation. As a result, the group now, at times, struggles to achieve fundraising parity with even individual gun-control groups.
Giffords PAC, the political arm of the country’s second-largest gun control group, outraised the NRA on its own with its $603,636.50 July haul. The group easily led the pack on the gun control side, followed by a total of $122,563.51 from Everytown for Gun Safety’s SuperPAC. Everytown’s PAC took in an additional $17,581.62, while the Brady PAC rounded out the big three with a $65,275.56 month. Together, the groups increased their collective fundraising by nearly a quarter of a million dollars from the previous month.
The NRA’s July haul of $434,935.87 was also down nearly $80,000 from its June results. It not only trailed its political adversaries for the second month in a row, but the fundraising total was also down significantly from its own performance in past presidential election cycles. In July 2020, the group’s PAC took in $628,404.29, while its super PAC raised an additional $3,041,118.76 (it raised just $400 this July). In July 2016, before the NRA created a super PAC, its PAC raised $1,101,739.56.
Gun-control groups were more mixed on that front as well. Giffords bested its July 2020 and July 2016 fundraising totals–by more than a quarter of a million dollars in the former case. On the other hand, both Everytown and Brady raised hundreds of thousands of dollars less last month than they did in July 2020.
Despite failing to outraise the gun control groups, the NRA did maintain its cash-on-hand advantage. The NRA reported having roughly $13.3 million in cash on hand between its PAC and super PAC by the end of July. The gun-control groups, meanwhile, collectively reported having a little over $10.5 million.
However, Everytown and Giffords have announced plans to spend significantly more money than they currently have on hand. Giffords told NBC News on July 28th that it plans to spend an additional $15 million to support Kamala Harris over Donald Trump but didn’t say how much money would run through its PAC. A few days later, Everytown pledged to spend $45 million in the election without detailing how that money would be spent.
The NRA also continued to dwarf its counterparts in the gun-rights space in terms of fundraising. The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) PAC raised $46,494.91 in July. The Gun Owners of America super PAC brought in $43,628.89, while its regular PAC raised just $588. The National Association for Gun Rights PAC brought in $2,225.91. NSSF’s Protect Liberty PAC and the United States Concealed Carry Association’s PAC only report results on a quarterly basis. So, there were no July figures for them.
UPDATE 8-30-2024 11:42 AM EASTERN: This piece has been updated to include the fundraising total for the Gun Owners of America super PAC.
