Major gun control PAC endorses US Rep. Robin Kelly's Senate bid
'What we need are more lawmakers like her who are not only going to vote the right way, but contextualize this issue,' said Kris Brown, president of the gun violence prevention organization Brady, whose political action committee will announce its endorsement of Kelly on Wednesday.
The endorsement comes as Kelly looks to position herself as the most experienced candidate for the Senate seat, having served in Congress since 2013 after voters elected her following a campaign that focused on gun violence. Her congressional career has been built in large part on her advocacy for gun control legislation.
'She connects the dots in a very material way because she's a subject matter expert,' Brown said of Kelly, who represents parts of the South Side and south suburbs. 'What we want are leaders who are capable of connecting all these dots and who will lobby their colleagues and bring others along.'
The other top Democratic candidates for the Senate seat are U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Schaumburg, one of the most prolific fundraisers in Congress, and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, who has Gov. JB Pritzker's backing.
The Brady PAC is named after James Brady — who was President Ronald Reagan's press secretary and was permanently disabled after being shot during the 1981 assassination attempt on Reagan — and his wife, Sarah. The PAC considers a candidate's experience with gun violence in making its primary endorsements, Brown said.
The group chose Kelly over Stratton, who at a news conference touting new state gun control laws on Monday said she has 'been personally impacted by gun violence.'
A spokesperson for the lieutenant governor later said Stratton and her daughters were outside a church one evening about 15 years ago when a shooter killed another member of the congregation nearby.
Brown said her group looks at 'true lived experience' but also experience as 'a champion' of fighting gun violence, in the 'Robin Kelly kind of mold.'
Kelly won her seat in 2013 after garnering the support of gun control advocates including former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, amid the fallout from the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012 and a rash of violence in Chicago neighborhoods. A former congresswoman Kelly defeated in that race, Debbie Halverson, had an A-plus rating from the National Rifle Association, the Tribune reported at the time.
After her first year in office, Kelly authored the so-called 'Kelly Report,' one of the earliest congressional documents that framed gun violence as a public health issue, according to the Brady organization. Kelly pushed to include support for community violence prevention in bipartisan public safety legislation in 2022, which both Brown and Kelly said was one of the congresswoman's top accomplishments.
'It's been something in my heart for a long time, but in Congress, I'm known as a leader, or the leader on gun violence prevention,' Kelly said in an interview, while also acknowledging the roles of several other legislators on the issue. 'This is what I ran on.'
The Brady PAC plans to support Kelly financially as well as with help on voter turnout, Brown said.
So far, Krishnamoorthi is far ahead of his opponents in terms of cash on hand ahead of the March primary, according to federal elections reports released this month. While Stratton trailed behind Kelly, according to those reports, the lieutenant governor could eventually receive more from organizations associated with Pritzker, the billionaire governor.
Both Krishnamoorthi and Stratton have supported stricter gun control measures in their elected roles.
Pritzker, with Stratton as his deputy since 2019, has signed a suite of gun violence prevention measures into law, including safer storage legislation and a sweeping ban on high-powered firearms and ammunition magazines that remains under legal challenge.
Krishnamoorthi, a member of Congress since 2017, recently reintroduced legislation to establish a three-day waiting period for handgun purchases.
Though gun violence persists in the city, Chicago has seen a double-digit percentage drop so far in 2025 compared with a year earlier. Statewide, monthly firearm injury rates are also down compared with the upswings during the pandemic, and this year have dipped below comparable months in 2018 and 2019, according to data published by the Illinois Department of Public Health.
And nationally, homicides and gun assaults in cities also declined this year compared with recent years, according to a report released this month from the Council on Criminal Justice.
Kelly said advocates see her at the forefront of gun violence prevention even as her opponents might share some of her views.
'I think my reputation around this precedes me,' she said, 'and I don't think they can say that.'
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