Jobs and Economy
I’m running to be your Governor to bring back hope that if you work hard you’ll have access to a good job that pays a fair wage.

I want Georgia to be the best place to work, live, and raise a family. Right now, it isn’t. Georgia is 40th in income inequality, 40th in high school graduation, and has the lowest minimum wage in the country.

I lived in 16 homes while I was growing up. I was a waitress, cashier, and phone operator. I paid for gasoline in quarters. And I cried in college when the dry cleaners lost my only good pair of pants. Anyone who ever had their lights turned off, was evicted, or worried about their next meal knows that the experience never leaves you. It defines you.

When I was growing up, there was a path to success: go to school, work hard, pay your dues. That path is vanishing. Georgians are working harder than ever, yet they are falling behind. We should not have to work two and three jobs just to cover basic human rights like food, shelter, and healthcare. This is simply immoral.

Jobs that pay a meaningful wage

As Governor, I will fight for all Georgians to create the same opportunities that I had to get ahead despite facing struggles. And it starts with jobs. Not just any jobs. Jobs with a meaningful wage, jobs with benefits, jobs that allow hard-working parents to spend quality time with their children, not just see them between shifts.

We must work to increase the minimum wage because everybody deserves a fair day’s pay for a hard day’s work. And no one who works full-time should live in poverty. Putting more money in the hands of the families that need it most will lift the whole state.

I will fight for equal pay, affordable childcare, worker’s rights, and tax credits for working people, such as a state Earned Income Tax Credit.

Opening the door for more education, job training and apprentice opportunities

To attract these jobs, we must invest in education – from early childhood education to K-12 to technical colleges and four-year institutions. Our high schools and technical colleges can be especially valuable in providing vocational and skills training to those who will build our plants, service our roads, and maintain our power lines. That’s why I fought against the cuts to the HOPE Grant that forced thousands of students to drop out of technical colleges. And that’s why I will continue to fight to make technical education tuition-free for all Georgians and to ensure that higher education is affordable for anyone willing to put in the work. Apprentice programs also provide an amazing opportunity for Georgians to train while they earn a living, so we need to promote them and make them accessible. And we need career counselors in our middle and high schools who are trained and ready to educate students on all the pathways available to them.

Infrastructure to support a strong and growing economy

We must invest in infrastructure, including a coordinated, regional mass transit system and updated roads and bridges throughout the state. And we must re-commit to rural Georgia by expanding broadband and building a commuter rail system that connects our state.

Government contract opportunities that aren’t limited to favorite sons

We must focus on small businesses. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and so many of our communities. Georgia grants billions of dollars each year in state contracts for construction, technology, and food services. These opportunities must be open to all, not just elites and friends of the powerful. Georgia-based small businesses, not out-of-state corporations, should always get first crack at state contracts. We must reduce the taxes on small businesses while also providing access to the capital necessary to grow.

And any tax incentives to recruit new jobs to our state must go through a strict cost-benefit analysis to ensure that our tax dollars are being spent in a responsible way and that businesses that receive incentives are living up to their end of the bargain to create good-paying Georgia jobs.

Investing in people

We must pay teachers, police, firefighters, and other service providers a fair wage in line with their contribution to the prosperity and safety of our state. And state jobs should not all find themselves headquartered in Atlanta. We should spread out opportunities, and save on expensive overhead where possible.

As your Governor, I will continue to invest in Georgia’s future—in agriculture, technology and green jobs. And I will work to help the entire state prosper. Georgia deserves a Governor that looks out for all of us.

HOPE and Higher Education

I’m running to be your Governor to bring back hope that all Georgia students will have the opportunity to access higher education.

HOPE is one of the most important and effective policies ever implemented in the history of our great state. The promise we made to our children was simple, and for many, life-changing: “Get a B, go to college.” It was this promise that allowed me to attend the University of Georgia and become the first college graduate in my family.

Sadly, as the first generation of HOPE scholars’ own children begin to think about college, they can no longer depend on its original promise. In 2011 the legislature voted to cut HOPE in devastating ways. The simple truth is that Governor Deal, the Republicans in the legislature, and anyone who voted with them broke the HOPE promise. These cuts caused thousands to drop out of school because they could no longer afford it.

Prior to 2011, if you had a “B” average, you got to go to 4-year colleges and universities for free. And there was no GPA requirement for the HOPE Grant for technical college. If a Georgia student wanted to go to technical college, they got to go for free. Period.

After the 2011 cuts, a student wishing to attend a 4-year college or university for free had to achieve at least a 3.7 GPA and a 1200 on the SAT, and a student wishing to attend a technical college with even a partial grant had to achieve a 3.0 GPA.

Just one year after the GPA requirement and funding cuts were instituted for technical colleges, roughly 40,000 students left the technical college system—a quarter of the system’s entire student body.

After a two-year fight, legislation I introduced passed that removed the GPA requirement from the HOPE Grant, enabling over 5,500 students to return to technical colleges all across the state. While this legislation made important strides towards returning the HOPE Grant to its pre-2011 status, we are still not providing full tuition as was the original promise, and so thousands of students continue to be priced out of an education.

I introduced legislation in 2014 that would have restored full tuition for all technical college students. A compromise bill was passed that created the Zell Miller Grant and covered full tuition for students with a 3.5 GPA. But this is not good enough, and so I again sponsored legislation in the 2015 and 2016 sessions that would have restored our bargain to students wishing to go to technical school.

Georgia suffers from a middle-skill gap that continues to deter businesses from relocating or expanding in our state. These middle-skill jobs to, among other things, build our plants, service our roads, and maintain our power lines, account for 55 percent of Georgia’s labor market, but only 43 percent of the state’s workers are trained to do them. Much of our failure to train a sufficient middle-skill workforce is due to the cuts to HOPE.

By 2020, 60 percent of all jobs in Georgia will require some level of postsecondary education, ranging from certificate programs to university degrees. Currently, over 80 percent of kids from the top 25 percent in income enter college, while less than half of the bottom 25 percent in income enter college. If we are going to grow the number of college graduates in Georgia to fill the jobs needs of the future, we need more kids from low income backgrounds to graduate from college, and to do so we must prioritize needs based-aid. Unfortunately, needs-based aid was not prioritized when HOPE was cut in 2011. We must do better by our kids and by our state.

HOPE helped make me who I am today. It has been the cause of great pride for our state and it has enabled thousands of Georgians to obtain an education. But the 2011 cuts were unnecessary and they were a mistake. I fought against those cuts in 2011, I spent the last seven years fighting for the kids hurt by those cuts, and I will continue to fight as your Governor to restore HOPE to its original promise.

As your Governor, I will work to make technical college tuition free in this state once again. And I will work to make college more affordable for everyone.

Healthcare Access

I’m running to be your Governor to bring back hope that all Georgians will be able to afford to see a doctor when they are sick and have access to quality preventative care to keep them healthy.

Unfortunately, getting sick or injured is a part of life—it is part of being human. And taking care of our fellow humans when they are sick or injured should be fundamental—it is humane.

Access to healthcare should not be reserved for those who are fortunate enough to be wealthy or to be born without a pre-existing condition. Healthcare should be affordable and accessible for all Georgians.

I remember being without health insurance when I was growing up. I remember the fear and worry that my mother suffered as a result. No parent should feel the helplessness of having nowhere to turn when their child is sick.

Here in Georgia, we have already seen the dire consequences of neglecting to opt into Medicaid expansion, which has caused more than 500,000 Georgians to remain uninsured. These Georgians are the most vulnerable among us and we must look after them – 92 percent of Georgians currently served by Medicaid are children, elderly or disabled.

Eight rural Georgia hospitals have already closed since the decision not to expand Medicaid. These hospitals were located in counties where many Georgians are scraping by to make a living and cannot afford health insurance. This is hurting the people that cannot get treatment and it is hurting the communities that are losing jobs, not just from the direct layoffs, but from the surrounding businesses and the companies that refuse to locate somewhere without access to a hospital.

As Governor, I will expand Medicaid and provide access to affordable coverage for more working Georgians. Leaving Georgians uninsured is wrong for families and hurts our clinics, hospitals, and providers.

We also must crack down on employee misclassification. Too many businesses across this state are misclassifying true employees as independent contractors. Oftentimes this denies these hard-working Georgians access to healthcare benefits and denies them their employers’ contribution to their Social Security benefits—not to mention withholds valuable dollars from our state budget in payroll taxes. We need to clarify relevant laws so that it is harder for employers to take advantage of the system, we need to increase Georgia Department of Labor funding so the agency can conduct more thorough annual audits, and we need to make sure that employee misclassification never occurs with state contracts.

As an attorney, I worked to expose waste and abuse of taxpayer dollars in the healthcare system. I will continue that work as Governor. If we deliberately work to cut waste and fraud from our system, healthcare costs will come down.

As your Governor, I will make it a priority to expand and improve healthcare in our state. I will work to ensure that we devote adequate resources to rural hospitals, OB/GYN and pediatric services, mental health, AIDS research and prevention, and fighting the opioid epidemic plaguing our communities. Georgia ranks among the top eleven states with the most prescription opioid overdoses. My brother fell victim to opioid addiction. Thankfully, he’s been clean for over a year now, but he needed help along the way. I know firsthand the harm these drugs can do to Georgia families. That’s why I sponsored the Opiate Abuse Prevention Act in 2017 to increase regulation of these dangerous drugs.

And I will continue the work I have done for years as a legislator to protect women’s rights and reproductive freedom. Employers and politicians must not be allowed to make healthcare decisions for Georgian women and insurance companies must not be allowed to charge unfair rates.

To continue to withhold healthcare from hundreds of thousands of Georgians, and to turn a blind eye as employers do the same, is wrong morally, it is wrong economically, and it does not represent Georgian values. I believe that everyone deserves access to affordable healthcare and that Georgia would be a stronger state for it.

High Quality Schools for All Our Kids

I’m running to be your Governor to bring back hope that all Georgians will be able to afford to see a doctor when they are sick and have access to quality preventative care to keep them healthy.

Unfortunately, getting sick or injured is a part of life—it is part of being human. And taking care of our fellow humans when they are sick or injured should be fundamental—it is humane.

Access to healthcare should not be reserved for those who are fortunate enough to be wealthy or to be born without a pre-existing condition. Healthcare should be affordable and accessible for all Georgians.

I remember being without health insurance when I was growing up. I remember the fear and worry that my mother suffered as a result. No parent should feel the helplessness of having nowhere to turn when their child is sick.

Here in Georgia, we have already seen the dire consequences of neglecting to opt into Medicaid expansion, which has caused more than 500,000 Georgians to remain uninsured. These Georgians are the most vulnerable among us and we must look after them – 92 percent of Georgians currently served by Medicaid are children, elderly or disabled.

Eight rural Georgia hospitals have already closed since the decision not to expand Medicaid. These hospitals were located in counties where many Georgians are scraping by to make a living and cannot afford health insurance. This is hurting the people that cannot get treatment and it is hurting the communities that are losing jobs, not just from the direct layoffs, but from the surrounding businesses and the companies that refuse to locate somewhere without access to a hospital.

As Governor, I will expand Medicaid and provide access to affordable coverage for more working Georgians. Leaving Georgians uninsured is wrong for families and hurts our clinics, hospitals, and providers.

We also must crack down on employee misclassification. Too many businesses across this state are misclassifying true employees as independent contractors. Oftentimes this denies these hard-working Georgians access to healthcare benefits and denies them their employers’ contribution to their Social Security benefits—not to mention withholds valuable dollars from our state budget in payroll taxes. We need to clarify relevant laws so that it is harder for employers to take advantage of the system, we need to increase Georgia Department of Labor funding so the agency can conduct more thorough annual audits, and we need to make sure that employee misclassification never occurs with state contracts.

As an attorney, I worked to expose waste and abuse of taxpayer dollars in the healthcare system. I will continue that work as Governor. If we deliberately work to cut waste and fraud from our system, healthcare costs will come down.

As your Governor, I will make it a priority to expand and improve healthcare in our state. I will work to ensure that we devote adequate resources to rural hospitals, OB/GYN and pediatric services, mental health, AIDS research and prevention, and fighting the opioid epidemic plaguing our communities. Georgia ranks among the top eleven states with the most prescription opioid overdoses. My brother fell victim to opioid addiction. Thankfully, he’s been clean for over a year now, but he needed help along the way. I know firsthand the harm these drugs can do to Georgia families. That’s why I sponsored the Opiate Abuse Prevention Act in 2017 to increase regulation of these dangerous drugs.

And I will continue the work I have done for years as a legislator to protect women’s rights and reproductive freedom. Employers and politicians must not be allowed to make healthcare decisions for Georgian women and insurance companies must not be allowed to charge unfair rates.

To continue to withhold healthcare from hundreds of thousands of Georgians, and to turn a blind eye as employers do the same, is wrong morally, it is wrong economically, and it does not represent Georgian values. I believe that everyone deserves access to affordable healthcare and that Georgia would be a stronger state for it.

High Quality Pre-K

I’m running to be your Governor to bring back hope that all of our children will have access to high quality pre-K starting at age 2 no matter what zip code they live in.

My daughter, Ashley, started attending pre-K at age 2 – this option should be available for all Georgia families. By the time she entered kindergarten she knew not only her ABCs, 123s, shapes, and colors, but she had experience standing in line, following the directions of a teacher, and sharing and interacting with a classroom full of children. In other words, when she got to kindergarten, she was prepared to learn.

While all children benefit from pre-K, poorer and less advantaged children often depend on this early education the most. We must ensure that children do not enter kindergarten at a disadvantage due to no fault of their own.

All of our children deserve a chance to show up to their kindergarten classrooms armed with the knowledge and training to take their learning to the next level. And our teachers can better teach a classroom full of students when they are all prepared to learn.

Pre-school is the single best investment we can make in our children. For every $1 we spend on pre-school opportunities for our children, studies show that the general public receives as much as $8 in return. And one study shows that providing high-quality early childhood care and education for low-income 3- and 4-year-olds yields a return to society of more than $17 for every dollar invested. We simply cannot afford not to invest in early learning.

Criminal Justice

I’m running to be your Governor to bring back hope that all Georgians will be treated justly in the eyes of the law and all of our families can be safe in our homes, neighborhoods, and communities.

The criminal justice system is vital to a fair, functioning society. The most important function of our state is to protect law-abiding citizens from those that would do them harm. But there is bi-partisan consensus that Georgia’s current system needs improvement to make it more fair and focus energy and resources on protecting families. We need to make sure that the system’s focus remains on public safety, and we need to re-examine any policies that do not further this end. We must make sure that the law protects us all equally, and in doing so, does not punish any of us unequally.

Georgia has made strides towards an improved criminal justice system, but we still face many serious issues. Our probation rate is the highest in the country at nearly four times the national average. Our incarceration rate is the eighth highest in the country. Our recidivism rate is 30 percent. And 62 percent of the people behind bars are African-Americans. These numbers are too high, and Georgia can do better.

Punishment for punishment’s sake cannot be our tact. Rather, we should focus on rehabilitation by helping incarcerated individuals rebuild their lives after they have paid their debt so society – to work to become valuable members of society and earn a second chance. Approximately 70 percent of Georgia’s inmates don’t have a high school diploma, and those released from prison will have a hard time getting a job. By offering inmates educational opportunities—such as the opportunity to earn a GED or obtain a technical certificate or degree—we can lower recidivism rates, which will greatly benefit both public safety and the economy.

Overcrowded prisons are another major problem in Georgia. Morally, it is indefensible to continue to lock up thousands of people for minor, non-violent offenses. It is also economically indefensible. We must address over-arresting, over-sentencing and under-paroling. Crowded prisons put an enormous strain on our state and cost the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

We must not be soft on violent crime, and we should direct our resources to make sure these criminals feel the full force of the law. But many prisoners are decent people that made a mistake—a teenager who got caught up in drugs, an out-of-work parent who stole in a moment of weakness to provide for their family. While these people sit in cells for years on end, costing the state millions of dollars, their families are denied their loved ones and Georgia’s economy is denied their contribution. Redemption and rehabilitation should be attainable for such people, so we need to take on common-sense parole reforms and diversion approaches, including drug courts, juvenile programs and mental health and addiction services. Ultimately our system must focus on real justice, protecting victims, and ensuring that those convicted of crimes are dealt with responsibly and not with a one-size-fits-all approach.

Racial profiling is wrong and there is no place for it in a just society. We need to increase our focus on training, oversight and background checks to make sure our cops are well-prepared to protect and serve everyone. Let’s make a commitment to funding body cameras for police offices to provide more protections and accountability for both law enforcement and the community.

We must also begin the work towards decriminalizing the possession of marijuana. Possessing marijuana without the intent to distribute should not make you a felon or put you in prison for up to 10 years.

And we must end private for-profit prisons and probation programs. There should not be a profit motive tied to criminal justice. Records have shown that the for-profit prison and probation industry has pocketed large fees while in many cases failing to properly do their job. And it is taxpayers that have footed the bill when these companies fail.

The criminal just system affects all of us, not just criminals and victims. The more just and efficient we can make the system, the better it is for our society and for our state. As your governor, my priority will be to protect all Georgians, and I will do so by bringing a common-sense approach to improving our criminal justice system to better serve all citizens of this state.

Equal Rights

I’m running to be your Governor to bring back hope that our leaders will recognize that we are all created equal and that our government will not allow any of us to be treated otherwise.

There is absolutely no place for discrimination in Georgia, and as your Governor, I will not stand for it. All Georgians must enjoy equal rights and equal protection under the law. I unequivocally commit to opposing any discrimination based on race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or gender identity.

Some in our state government continue to propose legislation under the guise of “religious freedom,” but this legislation merely serves to open the door for legalized discrimination against LGBTQ Georgians. Religious freedom is a right guaranteed by the Constitution and it should be protected as such, alongside all of the other fundamental rights we enjoy as American citizens. But protecting one freedom does not necessitate that we strip away others. When we begin to conflate the freedom of religion with the freedom to discriminate, we have truly departed from the values that we hold most dear as people of faith, as Americans and as Georgians.

While I was in the state house, I voted against, and vocally opposed bills that threatened to legalize discrimination or allow some Georgians to be treated differently under the law. In addition, I also proposed legislation that would increase protections against discrimination and prevent future threats to equal rights.

If we as a state wish to remain a beacon for moral values and economic growth, we cannot afford to waste our time with hateful, backwards-thinking policies.

As your Governor, I promise to veto any discriminatory legislation that makes its way to my desk, and I promise that I will do everything in my power to continue to fight for the rights of all Georgians.

Voting Rights

I’m running to be your Governor to bring back hope that all Georgians will have true access to the ballot and will feel confident that their votes are counted accurately.

The right to cast a ballot is the foundation of our democracy. It is the right to choose the kind of country we want to live in and the kind of government we want to lead it. And it is vitally important that all Georgians can exercise this sacred right without even the slightest shadow of suppression.

Voter suppression has been a problem as long as our country has existed. And in the past decade, many states have passed legislation that makes it harder for people—particularly African Americans, immigrants, the elderly, and people with disabilities—to exercise their fundamental right to vote. Some common suppression tactics include voter ID laws and cuts to early voting periods. In 2011, the same year that the HOPE Scholarship was slashed, the legislature voted to cut early voting by more than half – from 45 days to 21 days. As with HOPE, there are those that rationalized a vote in favor of these cuts, but I voted against the cuts because I do not believe we should do anything to decrease accessibility to the ballot box.

After the 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision to strip the coverage formula from the Voting Rights Act which had protected citizens in states that had long and notorious histories of excluding African American voters, we must be increasingly vigilant of disenfranchisement.

When the state last overhauled its elections system in 2002, it committed to using direct­ recording electronic voting machines and eliminated a paper trail of recorded votes. Experts say that a paper trail is crucial in case audits are needed due to hacking or human error, and we need to reinstitute this failsafe.

Further, I have grave concerns about President Trump’s so-called “voter fraud” commission. This commission is spreading misinformation and giving a platform to those who are seeking to restrict and suppress voting rights. As Governor, I will stand up to anyone who threatens our fundamental rights to the ballot box.

We must do everything in our power to protect the accessibility and legitimacy of our ballot box. We should be making it easier for people to vote, not harder. As your Governor, I will work to make sure that every Georgian has fair and open access to our democracy.

Protecting the Environment

I’m running to be your Governor to bring back hope that we’ll all be able to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and leave a healthy planet to our children.

If there is any issue that should transcend party lines, it is the environment. We all breathe the same air, drink the same water, and enjoy the beauty of our mountains, oceans, and rivers. We all want our children and future generations to have a safe place to live.

I grew up surrounded by the beauty of North Georgia, at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I remember hiking the trails, exploring the forests and fishing the lakes and rivers. Georgia is a beautiful, rugged and special place, and I will fight to preserve it for my daughter and for all of our children.

No matter where you live in Georgia, climate change and other environmental threats are already affecting your life, and these threats will only intensify with each passing year. Urban areas such as Atlanta will see extreme heat, intense bursts of flooding and decreased water supply. Southern parts of the state are susceptible to drought. And coastal areas are faced with rising sea levels. The Chattahoochee River, which winds across our state and provides water to around four million people, is threatened by decreased rainfall and increasing temperatures.

And, as is often the case, it is the least fortunate and most vulnerable among us who will be the hardest hit. It is the same folks we too often leave behind in our economy, in our educational system, and in healthcare, that will be most affected by climate change and environmental threats. Working-class communities often cannot afford to move or evacuate during weather disasters. The every-day Georgian is more likely to work outside in the rising heat, and may struggle to pay their air conditioning bills. And pollution in these communities leads to health problems, like asthma, that are compounded by the refusal of our state legislature to expand Medicaid.

Protecting the environment is something we must do to keep faith with future generations, but it is also good business. Contrary to the rhetoric of some powerful special interests, a healthy planet and a healthy economy are not mutually exclusive. By investing in clean-energy jobs and transportation, we can protect the environment while simultaneously creating good-paying jobs. By innovating and coming together around common sense policies, we can grow our economy and make Georgia a national leader in renewable energy production.

As your Governor, I will join the rapidly growing list of more than 1,000 mayors, governors, university presidents, and business leaders who have pledged to meet our country’s commitment to fight climate change. I will also work to make Georgia a leader in innovation, starting with my “20-20 Vision”, an initiative for our state to become the second greatest producer of new solar capacity by the year 2020. I believe in a Georgia that leads on the difficult issues, a Georgia that other states look to as an example. Our state has the people, resources and resilience to lead the way on the environment—and we must do so for the reputation of our state, and for the future of our people.^[48]

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