Gun control activists are ramping up spending to elect presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris president and help Democrats capture the House of Representatives in November. 

GIFFORDS, a gun violence prevention group founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, on Friday announced a $15 million campaign targeting battleground state voters. The ad buy is for television, digital advertising and direct mail, as well as for sending Giffords and surrogates to stump for Harris and down-ballot candidates who support tougher gun laws. 

"With just over 100 days until election day, GIFFORDS will redouble its efforts to support champions who are committed to saving lives — including ensuring that Vice President Kamala Harris becomes the next president of the United States," said Emma Brown, executive director for GIFFORDS.

The multi-million dollar campaign will focus on swing states like Michigan and Arizona for the presidential election, and swing congressional districts in California and New York, which could determine control of the House of Representatives next year, NBC News first reported.

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"Across the country, Americans are crystal clear: they want elected leaders who stand up to the gun lobby and put public safety first," said Brown.

GIFFORDS pointed to internal polling conducted in June that found 70% of American voters in battleground districts are "extremely" or "very" concerned about gun violence. The group argues that key groups of voters — particularly women, Latino and Black Americans — strongly support tougher gun laws and will make the difference in close races if motivated to get to the polls.

"This year is critically important, and we look forward to supporting allies committed to preventing gun violence at every level of government — from the state legislative level to Congress, and giving Vice President Harris effective governing partners when she wins in November," Brown said. 

A Fox News poll conducted in June found that 45% of Americans ranked guns as an "extremely important" issue, making it the 7th most "extremely important" to voters out of a list of 10 issues. The highest-ranked issues were "Future of American democracy" (68%), "Economy" (66%) and "Stability and normalcy" (58%). 

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Erich Pratt, the senior vice president for Gun Owners of America, a Second Amendment group, cast doubt on the contention that gun control is a motivating issue for large swathes of voters.

"It’s undeniable that the policies of Kamala Harris and this administration are responsible for the crime crisis our nation currently faces. Threatened confiscation of common self-defense firearms, coupled with soft on crime officials at the state and local levels in major urban centers across the country, have not helped Americans feel safe," Pratt told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

"If groups like GIFFORDS really cared about reducing violence, they’d be urging Harris, a former prosecutor herself, to mobilize U.S. attorneys offices against violent criminals. But instead, they would prefer to push unconstitutional disarmament that leaves everyday Americans defenseless. That won’t play well with swing state voters."

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Gabrielle Giffords, a former Democratic representative from Arizona, was grievously wounded in a 2011 assassination attempt when a gunman shot her in the head at an event in her district. The former congresswoman co-founded her eponymous group a decade ago to "end the gun lobby's stranglehold on our political system," according to the GIFFORDS website. 

Her husband is Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., who is reportedly one of the top contenders to be Harris' running mate. 

Giffords appeared at an event for Harris on Thursday at the Salt & Light church in Pennsylvania, where she met with community activists in Philadelphia. The predominantly Black neighborhood where she spoke has been impacted by gun violence, including an incident last weekend in which three people were killed and at least six others wounded. 

Giffords spoke briefly about her long recovery from the shooting in 2011, which killed six people during a meeting with constituents at a Tucson grocery store. Harris’ other surrogates, including Pennsylvania House Speaker Joanna McClinton, framed the November presidential contest as a choice between Harris, who would sign a ban on assault weapons, and more gun violence under Republican Donald Trump, who gun-rights groups back.

"We are overwhelmed with violence all across America from rural Pennsylvania to inner city neighborhoods like where we are today," McClinton said. "We as voters can make a decision on having a more violent United States or safer communities in every part of America."

Both Giffords and McClinton, an ally to Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is also under consideration for the Democratic vice presidential nomination — dodged questions about the veepstakes. Giffords aides told the Associated Press the event had long been planned before President Biden dropped out and endorsed Harris for his job, and certainly before her husband emerged as a potential candidate to run on the 2024 ticket. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A federal judge on Friday permanently blocked part of Florida's "Stop Woke Act" that was pushed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and other GOP lawmakers to ban critical race theory training in the workplace and in education.

Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker granted a permanent injunction against the part of the law that prohibited race-related training in private workplaces, ruling that the 2022 law violated the First Amendment.

The "Stop Wrongs To Our Kids and Employees Act," otherwise known as the "Stop WOKE Act," sought to ban teachings or business practices that tell individuals that members of one ethnic group are inherently racist and should feel guilty of past actions committed by people of that ethnic group. 

It also prohibits pushing the idea that a person was either privileged or oppressed based on their race or gender. The law further bars the notion that discrimination is acceptable to achieve diversity.

FEDERAL APPEALS COURT BLOCKS PART OF DESANTIS' 'STOP WOKE ACT' ON CONSTITUTIONAL GROUNDS

It said a mandated training program or other activity that "espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates, or compels such individual (an employee) to believe any of the following concepts constitutes discrimination based on race, color, sex, or national origin," citing eight race-related concepts.

"[This is] a powerful reminder that the First Amendment cannot be warped to serve the interests of elected officials," read a statement from counsel Shalini Goel Agarwal of Protect Democracy, which represented the plaintiffs in this case.

The portion of the law focused on education is unaffected by the ruling.

DeSantis has often referred to the law when saying that Florida was where "woke goes to die."

FEDERAL JUDGE HANDS DESANTIS ADMIN WIN OVER 'STOP WOKE ACT'

Walker previously issued a preliminary injunction in 2022 when he ruled the workplace portion of the law unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds, and the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling in March.

Separately, Walker has also issued a preliminary injunction against the part of the law that would restrict how race-related concepts can be taught in Florida's colleges and universities, according to Fox 35. An appeals court panel held a hearing in that case last month.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Former President Donald Trump criticized Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday as a "bum" responsible for the influx of migrants flowing across the U.S.-Mexico border during her tenure in the Biden administration.

Trump made the comments about Harris at the Turning Point USA Believers Summit in West Palm Beach, Florida. This comes after Harris secured enough delegates for the Democratic Party's top nomination after President Joe Biden dropped his re-election effort, although the party's candidate will not formally be nominated until next month's convention.

"Three weeks ago, she was a bum, a failed vice president and a failed administration with millions of people crossing. And she was the border czar, now they're trying to say she never was," Trump said, referring to recent claims by some media outlets that Harris was never the border czar, although several of the same outlets previously described her as such.

"They're deleting it all over the place," he added. "They want to take it [down] because we have the worst border in history. And three and a half years ago, we had the best border that we've ever had."

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President Biden tapped Harris in 2021 to address the root causes of mass migration from Central and South America.

Biden said in March 2021 that Harris was leading the effort to coordinate with Mexico and other Northern Triangle nations — Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — to address issues such as the surge of migrants at the southern border.

Earlier this week, the House passed a resolution condemning Harris as the border czar over her handling of the mass migration crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border. The resolution passed by a 220-196 vote, with at least six Democrats joining Republicans to condemn Harris.

During his remarks on Friday, Trump botched Harris' name. He appeared to struggle to pronounce "Harris" and said there are multiple ways to pronounce her first name.

"By the way, there are numerous ways of saying her name … It doesn't matter what I say. I couldn't care less if I mispronounce it or not. I couldn't care less," he said. "Some people think I mispronounce it on purpose, but actually I've heard it said about seven different ways. There are a lot of ways."

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Additionally, Trump said Harris must be defeated in a "land slade," a mispronunciation of "landslide." 

The former president also again purported that Democrats are trying to steal elections and claimed to the Christians in the crowd that Americans will not have to vote at the end of his presidency because "it'll be fixed" by then, a comment Democrats are criticizing as fascist and an attempt to refuse to leave office.

"If you want to save America, get your friends, get your family, get everyone you know and vote," Trump said. "Vote early. Vote absentee. Vote on Election Day. I don't care how, but you have to get out and vote. And again, Christians get out and vote just this time."

Trump also highlighted that he appointed three Supreme Court justices — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — and that he "will once again appoint rock solid conservative judges who will protect religious liberty and not let Marxist lunatics rewrite our constitution."

The Harris campaign criticized Trump's speech as "bitter" and "bizarre."

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"Tonight, Donald Trump couldn't pronounce words, insulted the faith of Jewish and Catholic Americans, lied about the election (again), lied about other stuff, bragged about repealing Roe, proposed cutting billions in education funding, announced he would appoint more extremist judges, revealed he planned to fill a second Trump term with more criminals like himself, attacked lawful voting, went on and on and on, and generally sounded like someone you wouldn’t want to sit near at a restaurant – let alone be President of the United States," Harris campaign spokesperson James Singer said in a statement.

"America can do better than the bitter, bizarre, and backward looking delusions of criminal Donald Trump," Singer continued. "Vice President Kamala Harris offers a vision for America's future focused on freedom, opportunity, and security."

Sunday marks 100 days until Election Day 2024.

It also marks one week since President Biden's political landscape-altering announcement that he was suspending his re-election rematch against former President Trump.

Biden made his move amid mounting pressure from within the Democratic Party for him to drop out after a disastrous performance in last month's first presidential debate with Trump.

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The embattled president's immediate backing of Vice President Kamala Harris last Sunday ignited a surge of endorsements for the vice president by Democratic governors, senators, House members and other party leaders. Within 36 hours, Harris announced that she had locked up her party's nomination by landing the verbal backing of a majority of the nearly 4,000 delegates to next month's Democratic National Convention. 

ICING ON THE DEMOCRATS' 2024 CAKE - THE OBAMAS ENDORSE HARRIS

Former President Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama on Friday became the final major party leaders to endorse the vice president.

Harris also hauled in a staggering $129 million in fundraising following Biden's announcement, which her campaign touted on Thursday morning.

"It’s go-time for both sides," longtime Republican consultant David Kochel told Fox News.

Besides uniting and exciting Democrats, the replacement of Biden by his vice president as the party's standard-bearer - which is expected to become official during a virtual roll call of convention delegates that starts on Aug. 1 - has given Harris a bump in public opinion polling.

What was once a margin-of-error race between Biden and Trump had turned into a clear edge for the former president in the weeks after their June 27 debate showdown in Atlanta. However, with Harris now at the top of the ticket and Biden out of the race, surveys indicate it is back to a margin-of-error race.

"Instead of what was shaping up to be a Trump win, America has a real, bona fide race on its hands," veteran political scientist and New England College President Wayne Lesperance said. "Game on."

While Harris faces the monumental task of going from zero to 60 in an extremely condensed timeline, she is not starting from scratch, as she immediately inherited Biden's large campaign apparatus with its vast ground-game resources in the key swing states.

However, Harris does face a crucial immediate task - choosing a running mate - which could come as early as the next week or two.

Biden and Trump are both well-known commodities to American voters.

However, Kochel, a veteran of numerous GOP presidential campaigns who remained neutral in the 2024 Republican primary, emphasized that most Americans know so little about the vice president's record and that both the Trump and Harris campaigns are "in a race to define" Harris.

In his first campaign rally since the presidential race was upended, Trump did not waste any time in trying to define his new opponent.

At a rally in the crucial battleground state of North Carolina, the Republican presidential nominee repeatedly took aim at Harris, whom he derogatorily called "lying Kamala Harris."

Trump aimed to paint Harris as the "most incompetent and far-left vice president in American history."

The former president charged that Harris "has been the ultra-liberal driving force behind every single Biden catastrophe. She is a radical left lunatic who will destroy our country if she ever gets the chance to get into office." 

Additionally, pointing to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent, a far-left champion and two-time runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination, Trump argued that Harris is "more liberal than Bernie Sanders. Can you believe it?"

Throughout his more than an hour and a half stream of comments, Trump repeatedly slammed the vice president over border security and crime, two top issues in the 2024 election.

Trump campaign spokesman and senior adviser Steven Cheung said that the former president's team was ready to go on offense the moment Harris succeeded Biden as the Democrats' standard-bearer.

"There wasn’t any surprise. We were prepared for it. We had all our assets ready. We had all our content ready. It didn’t surprise anyone," Cheung told reporters ahead of the Trump rally.

Harris, pushing back, is pointing to her hefty law enforcement résumé as she spotlights Trump's numerous legal controversies, including his 34 felony convictions two months ago in the first criminal trial of a former or current president.

"As many of you know, before I was elected as vice president, before I was elected as a United States senator, I was the elected attorney general of California. Before that, I was a courtroom prosecutor. In those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds," Harris said Monday at an event at her campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware.

"Predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So, hear me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type," she emphasized as she pointed to Trump's multiple lawsuits and criminal cases, many of which are ongoing.

Harris repeated the line of attack the next day at a rally in Milwaukee.

With 100 days to go until Election Day, the rhetoric this past week on the campaign trail is just an appetizer of things to come.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

The House of Representatives is officially off to an early start for its summer recess – a five-week period when lawmakers are back home in their districts focusing on local issues and their own re-election bids.

They will return on Sept. 9 – exactly three weeks from the deadline to fund the government in the next fiscal year.

That means the GOP-run House will have to compromise with the Democrat-controlled Senate or risk a partial government shutdown, with some federal offices shuttered and potentially thousands of government employees furloughed.

It’s all but certain at this point that a short-term extension of the current year’s funding, known as a "continuing resolution" (CR), will be needed to avoid a partial shutdown.

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"I've always said we'd have to do a CR," House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., told reporters earlier this week. "And then whoever wins the election will make the decision. Do you want a deal by the end of the year, or do you want to kick them to the next Congress? I hope, my advice to whoever wins, would be do it by the end of the year." 

House GOP leaders had laid out an ambitious plan to finish their 12 individual appropriations bills before the current recess, momentum that was derailed by intraparty disagreements about where Republicans’ starting point should be.

GOP rebels pushed for spending bills rife with culture war amendments on issues like transgender surgeries and abortion, arguing that it was the Republicans’ right as a majority to leverage from the most conservative starting point.

Rank-and-file Republicans, however, were uneasy about being forced to take politically unpopular votes on measures that would not become law anyway, with no chance of passing the Democrat-controlled Senate.

So far, six of 12 bills have passed the House floor, while the Senate has not passed any.

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The main discussion when lawmakers return in September will likely surround what a CR would look like in terms of length and what, if any, riders are attached.

Allies of former President Trump have pushed for a CR to extend into the new year in the hopes that Republicans will take back the White House and Senate. But senior GOP lawmakers expressed concern that it would add unnecessary drama to what’s already expected to be an action-packed first 100 days of the new administration. 

Some Trump allies are now also pushing for any CR to be paired with the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE Act), a GOP-backed bill that would add a proof-of-citizenship requirement to the voter registration process.

"We have been in session week after week for months after Speaker Johnson passed a two part omnibus, fully funding the Biden/Harris agenda in May…For what? Messaging? When the reality that we ALL know is that we will be forced to vote on a CR by Sept 30th which is the government funding deadline," Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., wrote on X.

"And since we all know a CR is coming you would think we would be working on one that makes an impact like attaching the SAVE Act for example because our elections matter. But nope, we are up here voting at 9 pm tonight on bills that won’t see the light of day in Schumer’s Senate for nothing."

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In his comments to reporters earlier this week, however, Cole signaled that he was not enthusiastic about the idea.

"I haven't really thought about it yet, it’s not a big deal to me. But again, if it can't pass the Senate, it isn't going to be an effective CR," Cole said. "So a real CR, you know, I'm more interested actually in disaster relief. That's something that I think the two sides can come together on."

When reached for comment earlier this week about GOP frustrations over the spending process, a spokesperson for Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told Fox News Digital: "The House has made significant progress in advancing FY25 appropriations bills. The House Appropriations Committee has diligently moved all 12 bills out of committee and the House has passed 75% of government funding for the upcoming fiscal year, while the Senate has yet to even consider a single appropriations bill. The House will continue its successful effort to responsibly fund the government for FY25 when it returns from its district work period."