Democratic Rep. Lucy McBath, who became a national advocate for gun safety following the murder of her teenage son, has launched an exploratory bid for governor of Georgia.
“Georgians deserve a governor who understands what’s at stake — because they’ve lived it,’’ the Atlanta-area congresswoman said in a statement announcing her exploratory campaign Wednesday. “As a mom and breast cancer survivor, I’ve seen firsthand how regular people are too often left out of the political process. I look forward to continuing this conversation with my neighbors and fellow Georgians.”
Incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, is barred from seeking a third consecutive term next year under state law. He has been mentioned as a possible candidate to run against Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff.
Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the 2026 gubernatorial election in Georgia as a Battleground race.
Republicans could have a contested primary in the race to succeed Kemp. Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has already announced a campaign while Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a Donald Trump ally, is raising money ahead of a likely run, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
By forming an exploratory committee, McBath can begin the process of fundraising for a gubernatorial bid. If successful, she would be the nation’s first Black woman elected governor. Former Georgia state House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, the losing Democratic nominee in the previous two elections to Kemp, has not yet said if she would make a third run for an office Democrats last won in 1998.
McBath, a former flight attendant, first entered the national stage as an advocate for stricter gun regulations after her 17-year-old son Jordan Davis was shot and killed at a Florida gas station in 2012. She became the lead spokesperson for two national gun safety groups, Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.
In 2018, McBath flipped a suburban Atlanta district once represented by Newt Gingrich, narrowly unseating Republican Rep. Karen Handel during the so-called blue wave election. A prolific fundraiser, she won a rematch two years later and, when redistricting turned her seat into a Republican stronghold, she switched to a blue-leaning neighboring district in 2022 and defeated fellow Democratic Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux in the primary. She easily won a fourth term last year from a redrawn seat after another round of redistricting.
Originally from Joliet, Ill., McBath was exposed early to public service. Her father, a dentist and former African American newspaper owner, served as a leading voice and president of the Illinois chapter of the NAACP during the height of the Civil Rights Movement.
“I was the child in the stroller at the March on Washington,” McBath said in a 2022 statement.
During her college years, she interned with the NAACP on Capitol Hill. She also worked as an aide in the Virginia Senate for Democrat Douglas Wilder, who would go on to be the first African American governor of a state since Reconstruction. She relocated to Georgia in the 1990s after becoming a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines.
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