2022 Georgia Governor Voters Guide
Stacey Abrams (D) vs Brian Kemp (R)
The Candidates
Yes. Calls voting “our most powerful tool to defeat” climate change. Her SEAP organization published an extensive plan with carbon-reduction proposals. Proposes incentives and programs for businesses and individuals to adopt “clean energy and low-carbon innovations.”
Mixed. Supports state investment in two electric vehicle companies; “both are committed to making a greener world.” Called the Inflation Reduction Act, which contains $369 billion in climate and clean energy provisions, “another reckless tax and spending spree,” and “a new disaster.”
No. Opposes “private school tax credits and vouchers.” “Public dollars should go to public schools.”
Yes. Signed a bill expanding state tax credits to donors to private school scholarships. Signed a bill expanding a school voucher program for special-needs and “at-risk” students.
Signed a bill to limit how teachers talk about “divisive topics” such as race and gender identity, to keep “woke politics out of the classroom.” Much of its language was drawn from a 2020 Trump executive order on “race and sex stereotyping and scapegoating.”
Yes. Supports raises for teachers and an overhaul of state’s school funding to invest in every child “from cradle to career.”
Yes. In 2022 raised teacher salaries and restored funding to K-12 schools, after earlier making pandemic-era austerity cuts.
Mostly tighten. Will protect Georgia waters from “environmental contaminants.” Environmental plan focuses on new funds, incentives, and programs rather than new regulations.
Loosen. Supports “fact-based efforts” to address the environment, but doesn’t believe that “government red tape is the answer.” Promised to “chainsaw” government regulations.
More. Supports repealing concealed carry and campus carry. Will expand background checks to gun shows. Supports “extreme risk protection orders” and restrictions of domestic violence perpetrators. As of 2018 supported a ban on assault weapons.
Less. Signed a law allowing concealed gun carry without a permit and a law allowing gun licenses to apply across state lines. “I will be on the frontlines fighting for our gun rights.”
Yes. Would fully expand Medicaid, “our first mission in the state of Georgia,” and establish a safety-net emergency insulin program. Would create a COVID outreach protocol and a long-COVID recovery plan.
Mixed. “Obamacare is an absolute disaster.” Would have the private sector, rather than government, do outreach under the Affordable Care Act. Would partly expand Medicaid to the poor but only if they meet a work requirement. Instituted a reinsurance program to subsidize insurers’ costs in order to lower premiums.
Would balance “safety with the need to create a pathway to citizenship for individuals who are in this country.” Wants “pathways for DACA recipients to access higher education in Georgia.”
Wants to see a border wall and target gangs, crime, and human trafficking. Calls sanctuary cities a “safe haven for criminal aliens.” In 2017 wanted to end DACA, which “provides amnesty for illegal immigrants.” Calls the border influx an “invasion.”
Easier. Collective bargaining is “democracy in action in the workplace.” Supported efforts by Alabama Amazon workers to unionize. Labor “has been at the core of Georgia’s evolution.”
Harder. Opposed tax credits for union-made electric vehicles, claiming an unfair advantage over non-union labor. Signed a bill prohibiting localities from regulating employee hours and output.
Expand. Supports marriage equality and new housing and workplace protections, and legal protections for “LGBTQ+ parents.” Would restructure the Georgia equal opportunity commission into a human rights commission.
Mixed. Signed a bill giving an athletics committee the authority to bar transgender youth from playing on sports teams. Signed a bill extending hate-crimes protection to LGBTQ people.
Legal. In 2018 supported decriminalization and, with a strong substance abuse network, recreational legalization. No more recent position found.
Ban. As of 2018 opposed recreational use. No more recent position found.
Raise. Seeks a raise in the federal minimum and says that Georgia ranks 50th in state minimum wage. In 2015 called for a raise to $15 per hour.
No position found.
“Decriminalize poverty” and increase “law enforcement accountability.” Raise base pay for state police and corrections officers, with grants for local police raises. Expand police training and mental health supports; add crisis officers.
Signed a bill limiting how much local governments can cut police budgets. Signed a bill increasing the number of trained mental health teams for emergency response. Has pushed for multiple police pay increases. Says it is unfair to “condemn and demonize” police officers.
Yes. Promised students to find new ways to relieve their student debt. “Our leaders must be willing to tackle…the crippling effect of educational loans.”
Yes for specific groups. Signed a bill authorizing loan forgiveness for students in mental health professional programs.
More. “The Republican tax bill rigged the system against working people.” “I worked across the aisle to make sure companies paid their fair share and families didn’t subsidize corporate schemes.”
Less. Signed into law a tax cut that replaces a graduated income tax, where higher earners pay higher tax rates, with a flat tax, where all income levels pay the same rate.
No. Called the 2021 Georgia election bill “Jim Crow 2.0” and sees Georgia election legislation as “a deliberate attempt to suppress minority vote.” Supports election day registration and improvements in registration security and county-level voting infrastructure.
Yes. Signed a 2021 bill imposing limits on absentee voting, ballot drop boxes, out-of-precinct voting and distributing food or water at the polls. The new law added new voter ID requirements, while also adding early voting opportunities. It also allows the State Election Board to take over county election boards that it deems to be underperforming.
We have space to include only candidates polling 15% or more, but check out others including Elbert Bartell (I) and Shane Hazel (L).
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