ENDORSED
BY GIFFORDS
Candidate
Missy Cotter Smasal
US House
Virginia
— 2nd District Democrat
Challenger2024
Missy Cotter Smasal has always put service to others first—as a mother, as a Navy veteran, and as the head of a nonprofit focused on uplifting the stories of servicewomen. In Congress, she’ll continue to do just that by working to keep Virginians across the Second Congressional District safe from the scourge of gun violence, which has already inflicted so much pain and loss of life on cities like Virginia Beach and Chesapeake.
Like so many veterans, Cotter Smasal understands the power weapons of war can wield and knows they have no place on the streets of Virginia. If elected to the US House, she’ll be a strong voice for expanding background checks to all gun sales, properly funding lifesaving community violence intervention programs, and mandating the safe storage of firearms in situations where children are present. Cotter Smasal will also work to address the areas of America’s epidemic of violence that disproportionately impact veterans, like high rates of firearm suicide, by fighting to pass federal extreme risk protection order legislation that will give families and law enforcement officers the power to petition courts to remove guns from those exhibiting signs of wanting to harm themselves or others in moments of crisis.
As a longtime volunteer for Moms Demand Action, Cotter Smasal is no stranger to getting results on this issue—in fact, she organized a petition campaign to demand the Virginia Beach City Council invest in much-needed safety and security measures to protect our public schools, and her organizing and advocacy campaigns successfully led to over 80 public schools in Virginia Beach installing additional security measures such as locks on all doors, cameras, and buzzers. It’s clear she’ll always put public safety over partisan politics and will not stop fighting until every child can live free from the threat of gun violence. Voters must mobilize like never before to ensure that Missy Cotter Smasal can flip this seat and bring this tenacity to Capitol Hill come 2025.
Like so many veterans, Cotter Smasal understands the power weapons of war can wield and knows they have no place on the streets of Virginia. If elected to the US House, she’ll be a strong voice for expanding background checks to all gun sales, properly funding lifesaving community violence intervention programs, and mandating the safe storage of firearms in situations where children are present. Cotter Smasal will also work to address the areas of America’s epidemic of violence that disproportionately impact veterans, like high rates of firearm suicide, by fighting to pass federal extreme risk protection order legislation that will give families and law enforcement officers the power to petition courts to remove guns from those exhibiting signs of wanting to harm themselves or others in moments of crisis.
As a longtime volunteer for Moms Demand Action, Cotter Smasal is no stranger to getting results on this issue—in fact, she organized a petition campaign to demand the Virginia Beach City Council invest in much-needed safety and security measures to protect our public schools, and her organizing and advocacy campaigns successfully led to over 80 public schools in Virginia Beach installing additional security measures such as locks on all doors, cameras, and buzzers. It’s clear she’ll always put public safety over partisan politics and will not stop fighting until every child can live free from the threat of gun violence. Voters must mobilize like never before to ensure that Missy Cotter Smasal can flip this seat and bring this tenacity to Capitol Hill come 2025.
We are proud to endorse Missy Cotter Smasal for the US House of Representatives.
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