2022 Midterm Scorecards
Our Scorecards
Our youth-led policy team developed one-of-a-kind criteria around gun violence prevention to rate candidates and their views in key races across the country. Take a look below to see how candidates rank up on this issue.
Paid for by March For Our Lives Action Fund and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
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Get the details on certain key races. Find your state, and see our scorecards.
What was our methodology?
We used our Policy Agenda, “It Ends with Us,” and our five policy priority areas within that to identify what was important to us in determining if a candidate should receive a good or bad grade from us. Based on that, we developed the following questions we wanted to know the candidates’ positions on.
Scorecard Criteria
CRITERIA 1- Holding the Gun Lobby and Gun Industry Accountable
- Will you be accepting/have you accepted any campaign funding from the gun lobby (i.e. the NRA)?
- Do you support or oppose PLCAA, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act which shields firearm gun manufacturers and sellers from civil liability?
CRITERIA 2- Knowing the Root Causes of Gun Violence and Addressing Them
- Do you support increasing funding for Community Violence Intervention Programs?
- SROs and other law enforcement in schools frequently result in the use of excessive force and incidents that cause students lasting trauma while contributing to the school-to-prison pipeline. Do you support removing SROs from schools and diverting funding to increase the number of counselors and health professionals in schools?
CRITERIA 3- Raising the Standards of Gun Ownership
- We know that between 70 and 90% of guns used in youth suicides, unintentional shootings among children, and school shootings perpetrated by shooters under the age of 18 are acquired from the home or the homes of relatives or friends Do you support a requirement to safely store firearms, including implementing national standards for locking devices on guns?
- A fatal loophole in our federal gun laws allows individuals to purchase firearms without passing a background check. Under current law, unlicensed sellers—people who sell guns online, at gun shows, or anywhere else without a federal dealer’s license—can transfer firearms without having to run any background check whatsoever. Do you support universal background checks?
CRITERIA 4- Protecting our Democracy
- The communities that shoulder the burden of our American flaws, including gun violence, have been historically marginalized and cut out of the democratic process- they suffer from extreme anti-voting laws. Do you support ensuring the right to vote for all citizens by implementing measures like automatic voter registration, campaign finance reform, restoring the right to vote for all incarcerated individuals, and banning voter ID laws?
- A “Jim Crow relic,” the filibuster has been used on numerous occasions in history to block critical legislation. If you were in office, would you actively support ending the filibuster?
CRITERIA 5- Leverage the Power of the Presidency
- In efforts to give this epidemic the necessary resources it deserves, gun violence prevention advocates and survivors demand that the President appoint a National Director of Gun Violence Prevention and declare gun violence a public health emergency. If you were in office, would you call on President Biden to appoint a National Director of Gun Violence Prevention and declare gun violence a public health emergency?
OPEN-ENDED QUESTION RE: Youth Engagement
- As one of the most important political forces in this country, Gen-Z organizers and activists deserve a seat at the table to create policy solutions for the issues young Americans face every day- delivering on the interests of one of the biggest voting blocs in our nation. Can you speak about how you plan to engage and advocate for young people if elected to office?
We gathered the information for each candidate based on candidate interviews with campaign staff and candidates themselves, reviewed press and media coverage, and also assessed social media activity and posts for candidates and what they have said or not said regarding the important policy positions listed above.
After gathering all the appropriate information and data, the policy team reviewed and analyzed the information presented on every single candidate and determined an overall letter grade for each one.