Gun Safety Victory in Colorado: Giffords Celebrates Senator Michael Bennet’s Reelection
Denver, CO — Today, Giffords PAC, the gun violence prevention organization founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, congratulated Senator Michael Bennet for winning reelection to the United States Senate. Giffords PAC endorsed Senator Bennet in January, and has been deeply involved on the ground in Colorado throughout the 2022 cycle. Giffords PAC invested $2.5 million in a series of ads that highlighted gun lobby-backed candidate Joe O’Dea’s opposition to commonsense gun safety measures across television and digital platforms. Giffords PAC also hosted a gun safety roundtable with Senator Bennet in Denver’s Montbello neighborhood.
Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords:
“For over a decade, Senator Michael Bennet has been a gun safety champion for Coloradans in the US Senate. His state knows the pain of gun violence better than most—and he’s never backed down from the fight to save lives and prevent tragedies like the shootings in Boulder, Aurora, and Columbine. Throughout his career, Senator Bennet has been stalwart in his opposition to the gun lobby’s harmful practices and rhetoric, supported the historic Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, and worked across the aisle to come up with real solutions to end his state’s epidemic of violence. Giffords PAC is proud to help send Senator Bennet back to Washington, and we congratulate him on his victory!”
More on Giffords’s work in Colorado:
This fall, Giffords PAC spent $2.5 million to air the ads on broadcast, cable, and digital platforms in Colorado to educate voters about Joe O’Dea’s refusal to stand up to the gun lobby. The first ad mentions several mass shootings that have taken the lives of Coloradans, including Columbine, Aurora, and Highland Park. The other ads feature local voices that represent trusted messengers in the gun violence debate: a veteran and a mother.
In 2020, Giffords PAC focused on then-Sen. Cory Gardner’s $4 million in contributions from the NRA after he repeatedly opposed any gun violence prevention legislation and helped to elect John Hickenlooper, a longtime gun safety champion from his time as governor. In 2018, Giffords PAC ran an aggressive independent expenditure campaign to take on Republican incumbents in suburban battleground districts after they sided with the gun lobby, helping to flip CO-06 and send Rep. Jason Crow to Washington.
More on Senator Michael Bennet:
Senator Michael Bennet has been a longstanding advocate for commonsense gun safety. As Colorado’s senior senator, he has consistently pushed for commonsense solutions to the issues impacting people of all walks of life across his state, and Colorado residents have sent him back to the Senate to continue this important work—reelecting him to a full term in 2010 and again in 2016. After tragic mass shootings like those in Aurora and Boulder, Senator Bennet has passionately called for comprehensive, bipartisan solutions to stop the violence plaguing cities and towns across our country.
After the Colorado legislature took decisive action by closing dangerous loopholes in its own gun laws, Senator Bennet called for the US Senate to follow his state’s example by expanding universal background checks to all gun sales at the federal level. During his nearly 13 years in the Senate, he has championed legislation to bar perpetrators of domestic violence from being able to access firearms and repeatedly urged his colleagues to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act.
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