GOP candidate uses image of Rep. Lucy McBath praying to call her 'weak'

Retired Army veteran and former Coca-Cola executive Eric Welsh announced on Tuesday that he’s running for the GOP nomination to take on Democratic Rep. Lucy McBath in Georgia in the 2022 midterms.

In his announcement video, Welsh used images of McBath praying in a church pew while calling her “weak” and a “single-issue partisan hack.”

McBath has been an outspoken proponent for gun control since she lost her son, Jordan Davis, in 2012, when he was shot and murdered at the age of 17 by a 45-year-old white man who was angry about the music playing in his car.

“Now, we have weak-kneed politicians who would rather hug than fight,” Welsh says in the video, over footage of McBath looking up into the sky.

Below is a screenshot from Welsh’s campaign announcement video.

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And below this is a screenshot from a video posted to McBath’s campaign YouTube page.

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McBath’s campaign declined to comment on Welsh’s attacks but confirmed the footage Welsh used appears to be from her campaign YouTube page.

Republicans have been attacking McBath since she first came to Congress in 2018.

McBath defeated former Rep. Karen Handel (R-GA) in 2018 by a slim 1-point margin. McBath then won a rematch with Handel in 2020 by a much larger 9.2-point spread.

In both races, Republicans ran insensitive attacks against McBath, who has said she was inspired to run for Congress because of her son’s murder.

In September 2019, the National Republican Congressional Committee called McBath “disgusting” for her advocating for gun control after a spate of mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.

“Local Congresswoman still doesn’t understand why fundraising for her reelection off of mass shooting deaths is disgusting,” the NRCC tweeted at the time.

McBath responded in a tweet at the time saying, “Advocating for gun safety is not ‘disgusting.’ What is ‘disgusting’ is that my teenage son was killed for listening to loud music.”

Georgia’s districts will be redrawn using data from the decennial census, so it’s unclear how much McBath’s seat will change and whether it will become more Republican.

Republicans currently control the redistricting process and could gerrymander McBath’s seat to make it harder for a Democrat to win.

Welsh is so far the second Republican to announce a challenge to McBath, but more could choose to run as it becomes more clear what the new district lines will look like.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.