On Monday, the Giffords group announced that Mr. Kelly would make a six-stop national tour in partnership with VoteVets, a liberal political action committee that supports veterans running for office.
According to the Federal Election Commission, the Giffords group had raised nearly $13 million as of this June, when it had nearly $6 million cash on hand.
The group has also donated more than $177,000 directly to federal candidates, including $2,000 to Mr. Lance and $1,000 to Mr. Smith. It has already spent more than $800,000 on digital ads, with plans to launch television campaigns around the country.
The group has also partnered with other national groups to launch the Our Lives, Our Vote initiative[1], which aims to register 50,000 new high schoolers to vote in this year’s elections[2].
What do the endorsements mean? Will they matter in either race?
Gun control is certainly an issue many New Jersey voters support.
Even before Gov. Philip D. Murphy took office in January, New Jersey boasted some of the strictest gun control laws in the country. A Rutgers University poll in December found 59 percent of state residents[3] supported strengthening gun control laws, and Mr. Murphy signed six gun control[4] laws earlier this year. Representative Rodney Frelinghuysen, a Republican, saw some donors flee[5] after he voted in favor of the concealed carry law.
So the risk of Republican backlash against Mr. Lance or Mr. Smith for taking tougher positions on gun control is small in New Jersey.
At the same time, Mr. Malinowski and Josh Welle, the Democrat who hopes to unseat Mr. Smith, also support gun control. So the Giffords group endorsements are limited in their potency
