Lucy McBath

Lucy McBath won election to Congress in 2018. Georgia District 6.

Background

Lucia Kay Holman was born in Joliet, Illinois on June 1, 1960. Her mother Wilma Holman worked as a nurse, and her father, Lucien Holman, was a dentist. Her father also owned an African-American newspaper called The Black Voice, and served as president for the Illinois chapter of the NAACP. Her father’s job afforded her the opportunity to attend rallies, protests, and marches alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in her youth. Holman attended local schools in Joliet and then graduated with a B.S. in political science in 1982 from Virginia State University.

After graduation, Holman worked as an intern for Virginia lawyer and politician Doug Wilder, who became the first elected African American governor elected since the Reconstruction Era in 1990. She then became a flight attendant for Delta Airlines and moved to Atlanta, Georgia, remaining with the company for 30 years.

Holman married Ron Davis, and the couple had three sons before eventually divorcing. Holman then married Curtis McBath. Her passion for social justice and public service was reignited by the tragic shooting of her 17-year-old son Jordan Russell Davis in Jacksonville, Florida on November 23, 2012. Davis was shot and killed by a white customer at a gas station who complained about the loud music coming from Davis’s car.

Losing her son in such a senseless way plunged McBath into the national gun control debate. McBath became a national gun control spokesperson, holding dual leadership roles with Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. McBath traveled across the country speaking at pro-gun control rallies, including one on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. She also testified before both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives on this issue. She spoke at the White House summit on Educational Excellence for African Americans and served on the 2016 Hillary Clinton for President campaign as the representative for the Mothers of the Movement gun control advocacy group. She also created the Champion in the Making Legacy Foundation, which provides charitable and educational assistance to graduating high school students.

McBath planned to run for the Georgia State House in 2017, but after the Parkland High School Shooting on February 14, 2018, she decided to run for Georgia’s 6th Congressional District Seat in the U.S. Congress. McBath defeated Republican incumbent Karen Handel, 159,268 votes to 156,396 votes, becoming the first Democrat elected since 1993 in a district once represented by former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, current U.S. Senator John Hardy Isakson, and Tom Price, who briefly served as Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Trump Administration. Although McBath’s primary focus is gun control, she often speaks about the importance of healthcare to women, as she is a two-time breast cancer survivor.

McBath’s work has been recognized widely. She was named “Mother of the Year 2016” by VH1 TV and she received the Chairman’s Award from the Georgia Democratic Party in 2017. McBath serves as lead usher at Trinity Chapel (Seven Springs Church) and is active with the Marietta/Roswell Alumni Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.

President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law

ATLANTA (Feb. 13, 2023) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced $54,572,000 from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to address emerging contaminants, like Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in drinking water in Georgia. This investment, which is allocated to states and territories, will be made available to communities as grants through EPA’s Emerging Contaminants in Small or Disadvantaged Communities (EC-SDC) Grant Program and will promote access to safe and clean water in small, rural, and disadvantaged communities while supporting local economies.

“EPA’s Emerging Contaminants Grant Program is a solid community investment for the Southeast region,” said EPA Region 4 Administrator Daniel Blackman. “The expansion of safe and clean water access to small, rural, and disadvantaged communities is crucial to the protection of human health and the environment.”

“Access to clean drinking water goes to the very core of living a happy, healthy life, and affects us all,” said Rep. Hank Johnson (GA-04). “The rise in forever chemicals — also known as polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances — have been linked to cancers, immune system suppression, elevated cholesterol, and other health problems. I’m pleased the bipartisan infrastructure law that I supported will be used in part to help us address emerging contaminants, particularly to protect our young mothers and their children living in the Atlanta area.”

“Families across America deserve access to clean drinking water, and this funding will help reduce contaminants and improve local water infrastructure for millions of Georgians,” said Congresswoman Lucy McBath (GA-07). “I am so proud to have fought with President Biden to ensure that Georgia gets the funding it needs, and immensely pleased that the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will bring another $54 million to our communities.”

Asian American Advocacy Fund

Senator Raphael Warnock, Rep. Nikema Williams, Rep. Lucy McBath, Nabilah Islam, Ruwa Romman, Bentley Hudgins.

NRDC Action

In 2022 the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund endorsed Lucy McBath.

Common Defense endorsement

Common Defense endorsed Lucy McBath in 2022.

Support from Onward Together

Onward Together supported Lucy McBath as a candidate for the 2018 midterm elections.

Collective PAC

The Collective PAC endorsed Lucy McBath in 2022.

Launched in August of 2016, the Collective PAC is backing several candidates in 2018, including Lucy McBath GA (6)

BlackPAC

PowerPAC+ Top 10 Priority Districts to take back House in 2018

From Steve Phillips:

Here are my recommendations for the top ten congressional district races to support to take back the House in 2018. To learn more about how I came up with this list, read my full explanation in my September 2018 column in The Nation magazine.

• CA-39 Gil Cisneros - OC Civic Engagement Table Action Fund
• CA-50 Ammar Campa-Najjar - Alliance San Diego Mobilization Fund
• GA-06 Lucy McBath - New Georgia Project
• GA-07 Carolyn Bourdeaux - New Georgia Project
• NM-02 Xochitl Torres Small - Organizers in the Land of Enchantment
• TX-07 Lizzie Pannill Fletcher - Texas Organizing Project
• TX-23 Gina Ortiz Jones - Texas Organizing Project
• TX-32 Colin Allred - Texas Organizing Project
• VA-02 Elaine Luria - New Virginia Majority
• VA-07 Abigail Spanberger - New Virginia Majority

If you would prefer to donate to one source, the PAC that I have created, PowerPAC+, will be distributing resources between all of these organizations.

Democracy Alliance

Freshly elected Reps.-elect Lucy McBath of Georgia and Deb Haaland and Xochitl Torres Small of New Mexico attended the Democracy Alliance conference’s closing dinner on Friday night November 16 2018 in Washington DC.

Black to the Future endorsement

In 2018 Lucy McBath was endorsed by the Black to the Future Action Fund.

DSA help

In 2017 Jeff Corkill, seeing fascism and white supremacy on the rise due to the election of 45 and recognizing that the DNC held as much blame for this outcome as bigotry did by undemocratically pushing a toxic and unpopular candidate with no hopes of winning on the American electorate, decided he must try to change the Democratic Party from within.

So I showed up one December night to a meeting of the DeKalb County Democratic Party that was even more dysfunctional and unorganized than I had expected. Luckily, I was not alone in recognizing the crisis taking place within the Democratic Party. Amid the throngs of desperate yet determined citizens were two comrades who, with myself and others, would spend the next two years trying to turn what had become a dysfunctional social club into an organization that could fight against fascism in DeKalb Co., Georgia, and at the national level.

While it sometimes felt like our efforts were as effective as banging our heads against the wall to affect change, the three of us quickly worked our way onto the Steering Committee, the executive body, of the county party and tirelessly worked to create a functional party that would both represent and be able to fight for the progressive views of the people and not the elitist views of the party leaders of the DPG and DNC. Two years later we are starting to see our hard work paying off. Not only were we recently able to unseat Republicans from various GA State House and Senate seats which they had held for years, as well as flipping Newt Gringrich’s old seat in the 6th Congressional District, we did so by first defeating centrist Democrats in many of the primaries, proving that left and progressive policies and candidates are better able to defeat Republicans than milquetoast, centrist liberals are.

DSA Lobbying

At Metro Atlanta Democratic Socialists of America's January 2019 general meeting member Marshall Rancifer reported on efforts to help homeless Atlantans survive the winter. Jeff Corkill reported on the upcoming action to oppose a KKK presence at Stone Mountain Feb. 2, and Alexander Hernandez urged members to join our allies and our Immigrant Justice working group at a lobby day at the state capitol Feb. 20. Lisa Ashway reported on our canvassing and phone banking in the 6th Congressional district to urge Representative Lucy McBath to support Medicare for All, which will take place again Feb. 9.

Orrock connection

Van Jones show

Rep Jahana Hayes March 9 2019:

Tune into The Van Jones Show on @cnn at 7:00PM. — with Rep. Ro Khanna, Congresswoman Deb Haaland, Van Jones, Rep. Lucy McBath and Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger.