How would you describe U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath to someone who is not from Georgia? Retired Atlanta Journal-Constitution political columnist Jim Galloway started this way:
There are two important things to know about Lucy McBath. First, she is a rarity in Georgia politics, Galloway wrote in 2019. She is a movement politician, elected in large part on the strength of her anti-gun violence message.
She entered politics after her 17-year-old son Jordan was shot and killed while sitting in a car with friends at a gas station in Jacksonville, Florida.
“Jordan’s death had everything to do with me running for office,” McBath told a CBS interviewer in 2019. “My mother’s mission here is to take all of that concern and support and nurturing that I still would be doing for my son — I’m just channeling it to the people that I live among every single day.”
The second thing to know about McBath, Galloway wrote, is that she is one of Congress’ more impromptu members. In early 2018, she was a first-time candidate with her eyes on a Marietta-based state House seat. This was a logical, safe first step for a retired flight attendant-turned-gun control advocate who was eager to inject herself into a public policy debate.
Then came the massacre at a Parkland, Florida, high school.
With no warning to her party’s hierarchy, Galloway wrote, McBath entered the Democratic race to face down Republican U.S. Rep. Karen Handel. McBath won that primary. And with substantial backing from a well-heeled anti-gun violence movement, McBath beat Handel that November, winning a 6th Congressional District seat once held by both Newt Gingrich and Johnny Isakson.
Here are some additional things to know about McBath:
1. Because of redistricting by the Republican-led Georgia Legislature, she has twice changed congressional seats — after GOP leaders redrew her out of her seat — and easily defeated the other candidates, including fellow incumbent Carolyn Bordeaux. She was elected to the 6th Congressional District in 2018 and 2020, the 7th District in 2022 and this year will be on the November ballot in a redrawn 6th District. The Republican candidate for the seat is Jeff Criswell.
2. She has been mentioned as a potential candidate for governor in 2026.
3. She is a former flight attendant for Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines.
4. How she describes herself links back to her son’s death in 2012, often telling audiences, “I’m still always going to be Jordan’s mom.”
