Mike Bloomberg unveils Super Bowl commercial focused on gun control
Mike Bloomberg on Thursday released his presidential campaign’s 60-second Super Bowl commercial — in which he targets gun violence in a message costing the billionaire former New York City mayor at least $10 million.
The spot tells the story of Calandrian Simpson Kemp, a Texas mom whose 20-year-old son, George, an aspiring pro football player, was gunned down outside Houston in September 2013.
“I just kept saying, you cannot tell me that the child I gave birth to is no longer here,” Kemp says in the ad, which displays text that reads: “2,900 children die from gun violence every year.”
“Lives are being lost every day. It is a national crisis. I heard Mike Bloomberg speak. He’s been in this fight for so long. He heard mothers crying, so he started fighting,” she continues.
“When I heard Mike was stepping into the ring, I thought, ‘Now we have a dog in the fight,’” Kemp continues. “I know Mike is not afraid of the gun lobby. They’re scared of him, and they should be.”
She concludes: “Mike’s fighting for every child. Because you have a right to live. No one has a right to take your hopes and dreams.”
Bloomberg said he decided to devote the entire ad to gun safety “because it matters to communities across the country and it will be a top priority for me as president,” according to Politico.
“Calandrian’s story is a powerful reminder of the urgency of this issue and the failure of Washington to address it,” he added in a statement.
“People will be rooting for different teams in the Super Bowl, but virtually all Americans — including people in both parties and a majority of gun owners — support universal background checks and other common sense gun laws,” Bloomberg said.
His campaign said it plans to share more videos featuring survivors of gun violence before the Democratic candidate visits states next week to commemorate National Gun Violence Survivors Week, according to CNBC.
In 2014, Bloomberg helped found Everytown for Gun Safety to “end gun violence and counter the Washington gun lobby,” pledging to spend at least $50 million for the cause.
Bloomberg — who officially announced his campaign for president Nov. 24 and has spent more than $225 million on self-funded ads — isn’t competing in the first four primary and caucus states, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.
Instead, he is running a nationally focused campaign with an eye on states holding contests on Super Tuesday, March 3, including California and Texas.
President Trump — whose re-election campaign reportedly is spending $10 million for ad time for a Super Bowl spot — has accused Bloomberg of skipping the Democratic primary debates for fear of embarrassing himself on stage.
The former mayor did not take part in a debate in Iowa because the Democratic National Committee requires candidates to collect thousands of small-dollar donations to qualify and he is self-financing his campaign.
