Although election officials have not called the race for Georgia’s 6th Congressional District, Lucia “Lucy” McBath declared victory over incumbent Republican Rep. Karen Handel on Wednesday.
McBath is the mother of an unarmed teenager Jordan Davis, who was shot and killed in November of 2012, over loud music. She has a roughly 3,000-vote lead over Handel with 100 percent of the precincts reporting, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The results are within the 1 percent range that could trigger a recount. However, there are about 3,700 provisional ballots and approximately 1,000 overseas ballots that haven’t been counted. The uncounted ballots are in Fulton County, where voters tend to support Democrats.
“After a hard fought race, I am honored to announce that the people of Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District have put their trust in my vision for the future of our district and nation,” a statement from McBath said. She also vowed to make gun control her “top priority” in Congress.
However, Handel said she has no intention of admitting defeat “given the close results of our race.”
McBath, a political neophyte, won her primary in May to secure the Democratic nomination to run for Georgia’s sixth congressional district.
Her son, 17-year-old Jordan Davis, was shot to death at a gas station in Jacksonville, Florida, in 2012 when a white man opened fire into the car he was sitting in with friends over complaints about their loud music. McBath, who ran on a gun control platform in a very pro-gun state, credited her son for propelling her political career to the doorsteps of Congress after she won her primary.
“I am at a loss for words,” she said in a tweet after her primary was called. “Thank you to my supporters, friends & family. And I want to thank my dear Jordan, my rock & inspiration. We deserve better representation in DC, and I intend to show the good people of #GA06 what a tough, determined mother can do. On to November!”
It was after Davis’ death that McBath decided to get more involved with politics.
“We have been extremely successful in discussions with members of the Congressional Black Caucus. I have spent considerable time in Washington, D.C, speaking with legislators for, as well as against, common sense gun control legislation,” she said in 2013. “I have now begun to work on gun control legislation in Georgia. I have been a supporter of State Senator Vincent Fort and now am a member of Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense in America. I am actively working with them to place pressure on Georgia senators Chambliss and Isaacson to vote for measures that would amend the current gun laws for national background checks.”
She expressed similar sentiments this week to ABC News:
“I’m sure you’ll continue to see more parents like myself who are losing their children standing up,” McBath said. “It’s just going to happen.”
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