The House Republicans’ campaign arm accused a freshman congresswoman who ran for office on a gun-control platform after her teenage son was fatally shot at a gas station of politicizing the mass shootings in Texas and Ohio.
McBath responded on Twitter, writing over several tweets that running for Congress was never her life plan but that she was dedicated to combating gun violence after her son was murdered.
“I never could have imagined I would be serving in Congress. When I was a flight attendant, I always made sure to get home every night to see my son, Jordan. He was the joy of my life,” she wrote.
“Then in 2012, my 17-year-old son was senselessly murdered by a man with a gun at a gas station,” she continued. “Our nation’s dangerous gun laws are the reason that I was never able to take senior prom pictures and graduation pictures or send Jordan off to college.”
After her son’s death, McBath became a gun-control activist.
McBath decided to run for Congress in 2018 following the massacre of teenage students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and ran unapologetically on a gun-control platform in a district that traditionally leaned Republican, unseating the GOP incumbent.
“I refuse to apologize to National Republicans for calling out my opponents when they respond to mass shootings with the same tired talking points,” McBath concluded. “Our communities need someone who will stand up for gun violence victims, and I plan on continuing to be that person in Washington.”
McBath also included in her tweet thread a link to contribute to her campaign, asking people to donate to help her continue fighting for new gun laws. The NRCC seized on that and accused McBath of using the mass shootings for “the second time in two days to raise money for her re-election campaign.”
Democrats on social media, meanwhile, accused the NRCC as being insensitive to McBath’s personal tragedy.
