WHERE I STAND

For too long, those in power have let corporations squeeze working families from every direction. They’ve taken your money, hollowed out your community, and silenced your voice.

Here’s how I’ll fight back.

YOUR MONEY

I’ll fight to keep more in your pocket.

Housing

Housing costs have skyrocketed across our district. Out-of-state investors are buying up single-family homes and converting them to rentals. Short-term rentals take housing off the market in our college towns. Corporate landlords raise rents while letting properties deteriorate.

I’ll fight to:

Limit corporate ownership of single-family homes in residential neighborhoods (HB 555, HB 864)
Support local authority to regulate short-term rentals, as Athens has done successfully
Strengthen habitability standards and enforcement so renters get what they pay for (HB 1171)
Remove state-level barriers to affordable housing development (HB 1166)

Utilities & Energy

Georgia Power has raised rates by over $500 per year for the average household while posting record profits. Plant Vogtle’s $17 billion in cost overruns got passed directly to ratepayers. The Public Service Commission, which is supposed to protect consumers, rubber-stamped rate increases behind closed doors.

I’ll fight to:

Reform the PSC to require real transparency and public accountability
Re-establish the Consumer Utility Council to advocate on behalf of ratepayers (HB 617)
End the practice of charging ratepayers for cost overruns on projects they never approved
Expand solar energy, which is now cheaper than natural gas and creates local jobs

Healthcare

Healthcare costs are crushing Georgia families. Insurance premiums keep climbing while coverage keeps shrinking. Prescription drug prices are set by pharmacy benefit managers with no accountability. And over 300,000 Georgians fall into the “coverage gap,” making too much for Medicaid but too little for marketplace subsidies.

I’ll fight to:

Close the coverage gap by expanding Medicaid (SB 50)
Create a Prescription Drug Affordability Board to set upper limits on price gouging
Regulate pharmacy benefit managers who profit as middlemen while driving up costs
Roll back laws that protect insurance companies from accountability

Childcare

Childcare costs more than college tuition in Georgia. Parents are forced to choose between their careers and their kids. Childcare workers earn poverty wages despite doing some of the most important work in our economy. This isn’t just a family problem; it’s an economic problem that holds back our entire state.

I’ll fight to:

Create a universal childcare trust fund using state budget surpluses
Invest in childcare worker pay and training
Expand pre-K access across our district

YOUR COMMUNITY

I’ll fight to rebuild local economies.

Small Business & Farms

Corporate consolidation is strangling our local economy. Small farmers get squeezed from both sides: a handful of companies control the seeds, equipment, and chemicals they need to grow, while a handful of grocery chains control where they can sell. Downtown storefronts sit empty while big-box sprawl gets tax incentives. When a tractor breaks down, farmers can’t fix it themselves because manufacturers lock the software.

I’ll fight to:

Pass right-to-repair legislation so farmers and consumers can fix what they own
Enforce antitrust laws against corporate consolidation in agriculture
Redirect economic development incentives from big-box sprawl to downtown revitalization
Support walkable, mixed-use development that creates affordable commercial space for local businesses
Reform zoning to allow the kind of Main Street development that built our communities in the first place

Rural Hospitals

Georgia has lost more rural hospitals than nearly any other state. Exposed during the pandemic, the crisis continues today. The main cause isn’t Medicare or Medicaid underpaying, as the hospital lobby claims. It’s private insurers systematically underpaying rural facilities while maximizing profits. And the legislature’s refusal to expand Medicaid has made it worse: 69% of rural hospital closures nationwide since 2014 have been in states that refused expansion.

I’ll fight to:

Expand Medicaid to stabilize rural hospital finances
Require commercial insurers to pay adequate rates to rural facilities
Support the Rural Emergency Hospital designation to keep emergency services in communities that have lost full hospitals
Invest in telemedicine infrastructure to extend specialist access to rural areas

Education

Georgia’s school funding formula, QBE, was created in 1985 and hasn’t been substantially updated since. It’s been fully funded only three times in the last 25 years. Georgia is one of only six states that provides no additional funding for students living in poverty. Meanwhile, the legislature diverts $141 million to private school vouchers while public schools remain underfunded. Teachers are leaving the profession because of low pay and bureaucratic burden.

I’ll fight to:

Fully fund the QBE formula before creating new programs
Add an “opportunity weight” so schools serving low-income students get the resources they need
Commission a modern cost study to determine what schools actually need
Raise teacher pay and reduce administrative burden to improve retention
Oppose diverting public education funds to private school vouchers
Restore criminal liability protections for librarians targeted by book ban legislation

Infrastructure

Our infrastructure decisions shape our communities for generations. Road designs that prioritize cars over people make our towns less safe and less prosperous. Rural communities still lack reliable broadband, which is now as essential as electricity. Public transit remains underfunded while we spend billions on highway expansion.

I’ll fight to:

Expand rural broadband access as essential infrastructure
Support zero-fare public transit like Athens’ successful system
Invest in road designs that make communities safer and more walkable
Prioritize infrastructure maintenance over new construction that we can’t afford to maintain
Protect our drinking water, especially in rural areas relying on wells

Environment & Energy

Climate change is already affecting Georgia. Stronger storms, unpredictable freezes, and longer droughts threaten our farms and our quality of life. Our coast faces erosion and our wetlands are disappearing. Meanwhile, the PSC continues to approve natural gas expansion while dragging its feet on solar, even though solar is now cheaper.

I’ll fight to:

Accelerate solar and battery storage deployment
Protect wetlands and water quality
Support sustainable farming practices with real funding, not just mandates
Hold polluters accountable for contaminating our land and water
Ensure environmental protections apply equally to rural communities

YOUR VOICE

I’ll fight to give it back.

Workers’ Rights

Georgia workers have fewer protections than workers in almost any other state. “Right-to-work” laws weaken the ability of workers to organize for better wages and conditions. State employees are banned from collective bargaining entirely. Wage theft costs Georgia workers millions every year, and enforcement is nearly nonexistent. The tipped minimum wage is $2.13 per hour.

I’ll fight to:

Raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour
Eliminate the tipped minimum wage so all workers earn a living wage
Restore collective bargaining rights for state employees
Strengthen wage theft enforcement and penalties
Protect workers’ right to organize without employer retaliation

Access to Courts

Georgia has steadily made it harder for regular people to hold corporations accountable. Tort reform has capped damages, restricted standing, and created loopholes that let bad actors off the hook. If a pesticide gives you cancer, the company can argue that the warning label was “sufficient notice.” The result: corporations can calculate how much harm is profitable and pay fines as a cost of doing business.

I’ll fight to:

Roll back tort reform provisions that protect corporations at the expense of injured Georgians
Restore full damages for victims of corporate negligence
End the doctrine that product labels constitute “sufficient warning” for known harms
Ensure access to the courts is a right, not a privilege

Government Accountability

The Public Service Commission meets behind closed doors with the utilities it’s supposed to regulate. Georgia Power keeps basic cost information secret as “trade secrets.” Ethics enforcement is toothless. Regulatory agencies serve the industries they’re supposed to oversee.

I’ll fight to:

Require PSC proceedings to be open to the public with meaningful comment periods
End “trade secret” exemptions that hide utility costs from ratepayers
Strengthen ethics enforcement for state officials
Prevent the revolving door between regulatory agencies and the industries they regulate

Voting Rights & Elections

Georgia has one of the most secure election systems in the country. Our combination of electronic voting with paper ballot backup provides both accessibility and verifiability. But politicians keep trying to undermine public confidence with false fraud claims while making it harder to vote. Gerrymandered districts let politicians choose their voters instead of the other way around.

I’ll fight to:

Protect Georgia’s secure election system from politically motivated attacks
Expand early voting and vote-by-mail access
Create an independent redistricting commission to end gerrymandering
Limit mid-decade redistricting to court-ordered changes only
Ensure every eligible Georgian can cast their vote without unnecessary barriers

Criminal Justice

Our criminal justice system is failing on multiple fronts. We incarcerate people for nonviolent offenses while doing little to address root causes. Private prisons profit from keeping people locked up. Inmates pay outrageous prices for phone calls and basic necessities, leaving them destitute upon release. Meanwhile, marijuana remains illegal while alcohol is sold on every corner.

I’ll fight to:

Legalize and regulate marijuana like alcohol, with taxes funding education
Expand pre-trial diversion programs for nonviolent offenses
Regulate prison commissary and phone call prices
End the death penalty
Invest in reentry programs that reduce recidivism
Pass safe storage laws and red flag provisions to keep guns away from children and people in crisis

THE BOTTOM LINE

Corporate landlords drive up rent while workers can’t organize for wages to keep up. Rural hospitals close because the legislature protects insurance company profits over rural communities. Georgia Power raises your rates because the PSC is captured by the industry it regulates. Small farms get squeezed because the same corporations control what they buy and where they sell.

The thread through all of it is corporate power. And the solution is giving that power back to you.

We’ve paid enough.