Former Rep. Gabby Giffords' gun-control organization is pouring money into the 2026 midterm elections, placing House districts long considered safe for Republicans into serious contention. With Republicans defending a narrow House majority and Democrats needing to flip only a handful of seats to take control of the chamber, outside spending in second-tier districts can carry added weight in the fight for the majority.

According to exclusive reporting from The Bulwark's Joe Perticone, reported on Tuesday, Giffords PAC — the pro-gun-control organization founded by former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.) — has released two new ads as part of a $10 million campaign in battleground House races ahead of the November elections. Perticone wrote that the campaign, "an unusually large intervention from an independent PAC," targets districts at the edges of Democrats' hopes for how far a blue wave this November might carry them. Under federal election law, independent expenditures are not subject to the contribution limits that apply to donations given directly to candidates, so long as the spending is not coordinated with the campaigns it supports.

In Michigan's 10th Congressional District, the PAC is spending $1 million on an ad that elevates Christina Hines, the Democratic nominee.

"I investigated cold cases that Christina Hines prosecuted: gun traffickers, domestic abusers, and murderers. I was always relieved when prosecutor Christina Hines was assigned to a case. She not only listened to me, she heard me. Christina Hines is a great partner to law enforcement. She's tough, she's honest, and I trust her," the ad states.

Giffords PAC has also spent money on ads on behalf of Democrat Leela Gray, who is challenging Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL).

"They give her thousands of dollars, then she votes their way," the ad reads. "Luna voted to weaken gun laws, making it easier for criminals and domestic abusers to get access to guns. She even voted to cut millions from law enforcement — putting our police and families at risk. The gun lobby can always count on Anna Paulina Luna. But Florida families can't"

Perticone concluded that the two races are interesting targets for Giffords PAC precisely because they are not the obvious high-profile contests that other Democrats typically designate as most crucial for retaking the House majority. The seat in Michigan's 10th District, now an open race, has been held by a Republican in recent years, while Luna's seat is rated "lean Republican" according to the Cook Political Report. The spending pattern indicates Giffords PAC is sending its resources to places national Democrats have been too thinly stretched to meaningfully contest in recent election cycles. How the group deploys the remainder of its $10 million budget across additional battleground districts in the run-up to the November elections will signal how far it extends that approach.

Giffords is married to Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), a veteran and former astronaut who has frequently been the target of Trump's wrath. Even though Trump has waged politically motivated and baseless prosecutions against Kelly, in particular after Kelly told the military that its soldiers should not follow illegal orders, Kelly has only become more popular rather than less so while being targeted by Trump. He began his political career after Giffords was nearly assassinated in 2011, when she was shot at a constituent event in Tucson in an attack that killed six people. Giffords resigned from the House in 2012 to focus on her recovery, and she and Kelly later founded the gun violence prevention organization that now bears her name.