The responses to these questions were edited for length and clarity by the Georgia Decides team. Each candidate was allotted 150 words for each answer and some answers were trimmed in order to abide by that length requirement. Other edits were made to make sure readers can fully follow and understand the candidate responses.
Campaigning for: State House District 104
How does your background equip you for the job you are seeking?
Problem identification, analysis and solution development, along with negotiation skills and management team work, prepares me for this political role.
What role should government have in the lives of Georgians? How would you apply that philosophy to the job you are seeking?
Government is a social contract between the governors and the governed. Its goal is to aggregate all resources to provide for public services, law enforcement and improve the lives of the citizens that elects us. To me that means working for a strong economy, public safety, education, affordable health care and safeguarding the environment.
If you are elected (or re-elected), what problems will you spend the most time solving and why?
Fighting for the economic well-being of our citizens via creation of high paying jobs through education, affordable health care, fair taxes, and protecting individual rights.
Georgia is a politically diverse state. How will you work to represent Georgians whose political views differ from your own?
I will endeavor to find common ground and focus on what we can do together. I will deal with courtesy and respect. I will seek unity instead of divisiveness.
Who has been the biggest influence on how you view state government and politics? What have you learned from this person?
There are several; “The Republic” by Plato, “The Social Contract” by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “Two Treatises on Government” by John Locke, and “The Federalist Papers” by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay.
Georgia has a lot to offer current and potential residents, but many parts of the state are becoming increasingly unaffordable. Please explain your proposed approach to address housing affordability through legislation and executive actions?
There are two issues that need to be addressed. First: training, apprenticeships, and education that can develop a skilled workforce able to earn living wages. The second is to provide investment tax credits to developers in larger numbers and shorter time for projects that are market rent based but allows a certain number of affordable homes. The combination of both would provide the best and quicker outcomes.
Politics is often about compromise. How do you decide when to compromise and take small, incremental wins, and when to refuse compromise?
Compromise when there is incremental progress to be made.
There were politicians who questioned the outcomes of Georgia elections in 2018 and 2020. Do you think Georgia’s elections are secure and will you stand by the results?
The 2020 election, according to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), was the most secured in U.S. history. Georgia showed after the 2020 election to be secured. I will stand by the results.
In light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on abortion, state law and local enforcement authority will determine access to abortion.
I would support overturning abortion restrictions, which clearly violate Georgia’s constitution right to privacy. Government does not belong in decisions between women, their physicians and God. I would support a plebiscite for Georgians to amend the Georgia Constitution. The 14th Amendment was passed to protect the rights of citizens against the state. The Dobbs decision violated the 14th Amendment’s due process and equal protection clauses, ignored the purpose of the 14th Amendment, and ignored settled law violating women’s rights based on the religious beliefs of a minority who packed the U.S. Supreme Court through the Federalist Society for that purpose.
Are there any programs/legislation you’ve sponsored or created to help people with disabilities?
I will support the Americans with Disibilities Act regulations and sponsor economic programs to offer employment opportunities for Georgians with disabilities providing them with independence and living wages.
Georgia closed out its budget year with a “likely record surplus, billions of dollars in federal aid and a growing economy.” Georgia spends more than half of this money on education and health care. What would you want to see in the budget in terms of spending or taxes?
Use the surplus to expand Medicaid and provide college grants for those Georgians in need.
The Legislature often votes along party lines. When would you seek bipartisan action and what issues merit such consensus?
Bipartisan action is called on any bills that benefit Georgians, especially on education and job development which result in high paying wages.