Lucy McBath: Victory in 2018 Election After the Loss of Her Son
“I never planned to run for office. After my son Jordan was shot and killed, my life completely changed,” Lucy McBath posted in a Tweet earlier this year. Lucy McBath is the mother of Jordan Davis, who was killed at 17 years old by Michael Dunn at a Gate gas station in Jacksonville, Florida on November 23, 2012, after an argument over the loud music he and his friends were playing. A jury ultimately found Dunn guilty of first-degree murder, despite his defense that his actions were justified by Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, and he will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Last week, Lucy McBath, who ran as a Democrat, defeated Karen Handel, the Republican incumbent, in Georgia’s Congressional race. McBath won the election by only 3,193 votes. According to Astead W. Herndon of The New York Times, McBath “will be the first nonwhite person to represent Georgia’s Sixth District, a section of the state overwhelmingly filled with white and affluent voters”– a huge milestone.
McBath advocates gun control and racial justice. Her website describes that she has emphasized “reform that will make our communities safer and better for every American of every background.” The murder of Jordan Davis took place only nine months after Trayvon Martin, a black 17-year-old, was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, a white man, also in Florida, and just three weeks before 26 people were shot and killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. Quickly after the atrocity, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America was created by Shannon Watts, who reached out to Lucy McBath to ask if she would want to be involved with a group working to end gun violence. Lucy McBath knew she wanted to take action, as she expressed, “The work was calling me,” and emphasized that she “wanted to be speaking about violence prevention” and “challenging our legislators and our civil leaders.” Further, McBath later stated, regarding her decision to run for office, “After Parkland, I was compelled to enter this race for Congress to provide leadership that would be about the business of putting lives over profit.”
Lucy McBath will never be able to get her son back and will never be able to eliminate the pain of losing her child. However, she has been working to make changes so that others do not need to go through the same pain she has been forced to face that comes from horrible tragedies that could have been prevented. She will now be able to take this goal into Congress to represent Georgia’s Sixth District and many other Americans whose lives have been affected by the issues McBath represents.
https://twitter.com/lucywins2018/status/1039930734352494592?lang=en
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Jordan_Davis
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/08/us/politics/lucy-mcbath-georgia.html
https://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/georgia-house-district-6
https://www.miamitimesonline.com/news/jordan-davis-mom-lucy-mcbath-wins-close-congressional-race/article_cf24ca2c-e68f-11e8-ad57-5f93b6f92ffc.html
https://lucyforcongress.com/
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/02/a-white-man-shot-and-killed-her-only-son-now-lucy-mcbath-is-running-so-it-doesnt-happen-to-anyone-else/
http://www.kunc.org/post/after-gun-groups-spend-big-dozens-gun-control-advocates-head-us-house#stream/0
Sharing the story of this grieving mother turning a heartbreaking situation into a fight for reform. This is very inspiring to me, as it shows someone making real change in the community and in government. The actions that were taken by Michael Dunn are truly crimes against humanity, and no mother should ever have to lose their son under those circumstances.
ReplyDeleteWhat an empowering woman! I wonder what her largest voting audience was, it being a primarily white affluent area and all. And I am compelled to continue following her story - see what she does with gun reform.
ReplyDeleteThis is amazing, she saw her sons potential as a young child to possibly become a community activist, and as he did not get the opportunity to live a life to do so, she made sure she did it for him. Turning her very unfortunate situation into what she has done by running and becoming a representative Georgia's 6th district will do nothing but the best for the children in Georgia, she is very promising as she mentions to preserve the lives of each child so the same situation does not happen twice. She will definitely fight for the best.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad that she was able to turn around from the awful tragedy that she experienced and try to make changes in the world. Thanks for sharing this, as most of what we read/learn about in this class is pretty negative, and this is a positive outcome to a really negative case!
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty impressed that she managed to win in a state like Georgia that's predominately Republican. She must have had a very powerful message. I remember that I was also interested in her during the documentary; she had a kind of strength that was clear, even when forced to recall her only son's death. I wonder what the rest of her campaign was based off of, besides gun control and racial equality.
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