Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) sent a fundraising email Monday on the heels of two mass shootings, urging donations to Democratic Senate campaigns.
Shooters in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, over the weekend killed a combined 29 people, reigniting a fierce debate over gun rights.
Warren, a 2020 presidential candidate, didn't solicit donations for her campaign, but rather for Sens. Doug Jones (D., Ala.), Tina Smith (D., Minn.), and the eventual Democratic nominees in states holding Senate elections in 2020.
Warren blasted the lack of action on gun control in the Republican-led Senate, lamenting its "inexusable" failure to pick up legislation passed by Democrats in the House expanding background checks and waiting times.
"It's clear Republicans don't have the courage to do something about this crisis. We can't wait for them to act — because they won't," she wrote. "If we're going to address the gun violence epidemic in our country, we need to take back the Senate in 2020. I'll fight my heart out to make sure Democrats win up and down the ballot in 2020—but if we're going to beat Republicans and the gun lobby, it's going to take a grassroots movement."
Warren and her fellow 2020 nominees have called for gun control action in the wake of the shootings.
"It's happening every single day. It happens in neighborhoods," she told CNN on Sunday. "It happens on sidewalks. It happens on playgrounds. It happens in back yards that our children are at risk. It happens in communities of color, and it doesn't get headlines, but our children are dying. Our friends are dying, our families are dying, and Americans want to see real change."
President Donald Trump called for increased background checks married to immigration reform in a tweet on Monday.
He also addressed the nation on Monday, condemning the white supremacist ideology of the El Paso killer but remarking "mental illness and hatred" pulled the trigger, not the gun.