Lucy McBath, One of the 'Mothers of the Movement,' Advances in Congressional Run in Georgia

Lucy McBath, mother of 17-year-old Jordan Davis, who was gunned down by a violent white supremacist for playing music too loud in 2012, has advanced to become the Democratic candidate for Georgia’s 6th Congressional District.

Mother Jones reports that in May, McBath won 36 percent of the vote in a crowded Democratic primary, and on Tuesday defeated Kevin Abel, a small businessman who immigrated from South Africa, in a runoff.

Last week, McBath received the endorsement of Rep. John Lewis, who has represented Georgia’s neighboring 5th District for the past three decades, his time in Congress as long as McBath was a flight attendant for Delta.

That was before her son’s tragic death spurned her into another career.

Rep. Karen Handel, a Republican, in what has been a historically Republican and gun-friendly district, will face McBath in November’s general election.

Mother Jones reports that McBath became a staunch gun reform advocate after her son was killed: “testifying before Congress, sharing her story in two documentary films, and eventually stumping for Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign.”

She was one of the “Mothers of the Movement” Clinton brought onstage with her during the Democratic National Convention in 2016. Mother Jones reports that Gun control activists have given generously to McBath’s campaign: The Everytown for Gun Safety Action group—Moms Demand Action merged with billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety in 2013—spent more than $500,000 on ads for McBath during the primary.

“I’m not someone who’s spent my entire life trying to figure out how to be a politician,” McBath says. “But an ordinary person like myself, coming from very extraordinary circumstances and tragedies in my life, [gives] me a vision that’s based on my experiences.”

Between McBath, Mayor Keisha Bottoms of Atlanta; the black women in South Fulton, Ga., running—and reforming—that city’s criminal justice system; and Stacey Abrams, who put her hat in for governor, it looks like Georgia’s peach is ripe for biting.

And for black women to lead.