In the mid 1990s the founder of the
Center for Genetics and Society, Rich Hayes (a wonderful guy) and I
divided up the job of informing the political world about the dangers
of human genetic engineering. Rich took the Democrats and I took the
Republicans.
It took me a few weeks to make the phone calls and find out that all the main Republican thinkers already understood the issue and would support a policy to prevent the engineering of the human genome.
Rich found that the Democrats didn't understand the issue so he had to raise the money and start a non-profit foundation (CGS) to educate them. 
When the first vote on the issue came up, about 2001, the Republicans voted 52 for the right side of the issue the Democrats in the Senate voted 48 for the wrong side. Nothing has changed since that date. The Dems mistakenly confused the issue with abortion and have never gotten around that perception.
At one point, early in the campaign, I offered Rich the chance to run an ad signed by all the prominent Black ministers in the U.S. The black ministers were strongly against human genetic engineering.
I also believed that the Democrats were in the thrall of the black community and would be moved by such an ad. Rich came from a Saul Alinsky organizing background and believed that ordinary grassroots organizing was the correct approach, so he didn't put up money for the ad. I still think Rich was mistaken and the world would be different today if he hadn't been trained in the Alinsky method.
Just a piece of history for your consideration.