The country’s latest mass shooting, at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, cast a shadow over many election parties in Georgia on Tuesday.
As they waited for results to come in, many candidates stopped to express their sadness at the situation, which left at least 19 children and two adults dead.
Gov. Brian Kemp said he was “heartbroken.”
“We are lifting up the families of these victims, the first responders on the scene, and the entire community in prayer,” he said in a written statement.
Earlier this year, Kemp signed a bill that expanded gun rights by allowing Georgians to carry concealed handguns without first getting a license from the state.
Many Republican candidates on Tuesday staked out similar positions to Kemp’s, signaling that their thoughts and prayers were with the victims’ families without calling for changing course on gun control.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Daniel Varnado
Credit: Daniel Varnado
At their watch parties later in the evening, both Kemp and Republican U.S. Senate nominee Herschel Walker held moments of silence for the victims and waited until after President Joe Biden finished his televised response before launching into their victory speeches.
At Walker’s gathering, the crowd grew hushed as Biden began to speak. But they booed when he mentioned the need for gun control. And when Tucker Carlson came back on Fox News and called Biden “frail,” they laughed.
Many Democrats, meanwhile, pressed for the passage of long-stalled gun control legislation.
Congresswoman Lucy McBath, whose son was fatally shot in 2012 and has made gun control her central focus on Capitol Hill, reworked her victory speech at the last minute to address the issue.
“I came to give one speech, but I am now forced to make another because just hours ago, we paid for the weapons of war on our streets again with the blood of little children sitting in our schools,” she told the crowd.
She added: “We paid for unfettered gun access with phone calls to mothers and fathers who have gasped for air when their desperation would not let them breathe. Who have sunk to their knees when their agony just would not let them stand. It was a phone call that every parent fears.”
McBath said her victory Tuesday in the 7th Congressional District’s Democratic primary was not the culmination of her work but the beginning of a new challenge.
Other Democrats echoed McBath’s sentiments, calling for renewed urgency to pass gun control policies at the state and national levels.
Staff writers Tia Mitchell and Shannon McCaffrey contributed to this article.
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