Earlier this year, the gun control group Everytown launched a new program to train its volunteers to run for office. More than 100 people are participating in Demand A Seat this year.
Among them is Mia Livas Porter, who is running for a California Assembly seat, and whose brother, Junior, took his own life with a gun after battling mental illness. She said that for years she felt powerless — but that changed when she joined Moms Demand Action, an arm of Everytown.
“I felt empowered to use my voice as a survivor. And I saw how it could make legislative change,” Livas Porter said.
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