McBath speaks about gun violence in victory speech: 'We are exhausted'
Addressing supporters at an election watch party on Tuesday night, Rep. Lucy McBath, the projected winner in Georgia's 7th Congressional District, used the moment to discuss gun violence after a mass shooting at an elementary school left at least 19 children and two adults dead in Uvalde, Texas.
"Tonight I came to give one speech but I am now forced to make another," McBath said after briefly thanking voters and volunteers, "because just hours ago, we paid for the weapons of war on our streets again with the blood of little children sitting in our schools."
McBath rose to national prominence in 2018, becoming a leading advocate for gun control after her son, Jordan, was shot and killed at a gas station in Florida. She described on Tuesday night the "all-consuming fear" that parents feel about their children’s safety.
"The violence that took my soon has been replayed with casual callousness and despicable frequency," McBath said, citing the recent shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, that left 10 people dead, as well as past tragedies in Newton, Connecticut, and Charleston, South Carolina.
"We cannot be the only nation where one party sits on their hands as children are forced to cover their faces in fear," McBath said. "We are exhausted, all of us, the American majority."