2020 General Election
The improbable story of electing gun control advocate, Lucy McBath to Congress from an Atlanta suburb.
Part I of the Story.
The 2017 special election for the sixth district in Georgia.The most expensive Congressional special election in history. Combined spending by the two candidates plus outsiders was more than $55 million.
For Democrats, it was a chance to signal the 2018 Mid-Term Blue Wave was coming.To a deep Red Congressional District. The Republican incumbent, Dr. Tom Price, was appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services. He’s gone now, resigned for embarrassing excessive spending on travel.
Jon Ossoff was the Democrat. He appeared to be local enough.He grew up nearby. He went to a nationally known, local private school. He had done an internship with Congressman John Lewis. He was a five year staffer for Congressman Hank Johnson.
Ossoff earned 48% of the vote in the non-partisan primary. In the run off, he earned 48% of the vote again. There was consolation in the loss. Georgia 06 was a +14 for Republicans. Ossoff did 10 points better than might have been expected. Democrats still thought the Blue Wave was coming. Donald Trump thought a Red Wave was coming.
Karen Handel defeated Ossoff. A former Georgia Secretary of State, she was Vice President of the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure charity. Handel was Vice President just long enough to oversee the charity’s decision to defund Planned Parenthood. That created a public relations disaster for the Race for the Cure. It created an opportunity for Handel to run for Congress.
Part II of the Story.
In 2018, Lucy McBath https://lucyforcongress.com/ ran to unseat Karen Handel. Lucy McBath had no intention to be in politics. She was a stewardess for Delta Airlines. She worked for Delta for thirty years.
Lucy McBath knew about politics. Her father owned The Black Voice — an African American newspaper. He was head of the Illinois Chapter of the NAACP. Lucy went to school in Virginia – the Historically Black University Virginia State. She had an internship with Governor Wilder, Virginia’s first African American Governor. Then she went to work for Delta.
The impetus for Lucy McBath to run for office was Hillary Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump. That was true for a lot of women. Lucy McBath was not a lot of women. Tragedy had made her political.
Lucy McBath had been living an apolitical life. She had two children with Ron Davis. One child died very young. The other, Jordan Davis, was murdered. The murder got national attention.
2012, the year Trayvon Martin was killed. In a Jacksonville, Florida convenience store parking lot, Jordan Davis’ car radio was too loud, his music was offensive. His music was too loud for and offended Michael Dunn, a white man in his 40s. A white man with a permit and a gun. Dunn told the teenagers in the car to turn the music down. One kid in front did. From the back, Jordan Davis told him to turn it back up again. Dunn didn’t like Jordan Davis’ attitude. So he shot him. He kept on shooting as the car drove away.
Jordan Davis died. Lucy McBath and her ex-husband Ron Davis won a civil lawsuit against Michael Dunn. Michael Dunn was convicted of attempted murder of the other three teenagers. There was a hung jury for murder. Dunn was convicted of murder in the next trial. Lucy McBath and Ron Davis asked there be no death penalty. They didn’t believe in it.
Part III of the Story.
Lucy McBath, with the support of her husband Curtis, became part of the anti-gun movement. She and Ron Davis made a film about the murder. Michael Bloomberg’s gun safety organizations found her. She became the national spokesperson for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. She was a spokesperson for Everytown for Gun Safety. She became active in Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, speaking on Clinton’s behalf about gun safety.
Hillary Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump found Lucy McBath at a crossroads. Renitta Shannon, a Georgia state representative, urged Lucy McBath to run for office. The target was a state legislative seat.
Then came Parkland. Lucy McBath wanted to make a bigger impact. She took a serious look at Georgia’s sixth Congressional District and Karen Handel. She led the field in the primary (this was a regular election, not a special, so the primary was partisan). She won the run off with 54% of the vote.
An African American woman whose principal focus was gun safety won election to Congress from this suburban district once represented by Newt Gingrich. Although the formerly south of Atlanta district had migrated to north of Atlanta, it was still predominantly white and predominantly Republican. Lucy McBath won by 3,193 votes – 1% of the vote.
Part IV of the Story.
Lucy McBath https://lucyforcongress.com/ will not sneak up on an unsuspecting Republican in 2020. She is the incumbent. She needs help to get reelected. Start now. Help her get a head start that is even stronger than the head start her incumbency gives her. Contribute. Contribute monthly. Even if it is only a little bit. This will be a long campaign.
