Interviews with the candidates for governor and lieutenant governor

Republican Party nominee for Georgia governor Brian Kemp sat down with the Times Journal Inc. editorial board on Oct. 17. The following is an edited transcription of the interview. Q:

You and Stacey Abrams have clashed several times over voter registration. What actions would you pursue as governor with a new secretary of state to increase voter registration and turnout across the state?

A:

First of all, this is a manufactured crisis by them. If you look at the history of her New Georgia project, all these other activist groups that are in the tank for her as well as the national media, you’ll see that they did the exact same thing in 2014 . ... even though the county registrar does this work, they accused me of not processing 84,000 voter registration forms. They sued over it. We went to court. We won on all 10 charges ... the counties cannot register someone to vote if their last name’s not there, if their date of birth is not there, if their address is not there, if they’re from Alabama, we can’t register that person to vote, but you know, they do a press conference and everybody writes about how I’m suppressing the vote before they actually look into what’s going on.

So we were victorious in that. They did the same thing before the presidential election in ‘16 and we warned several months ago that this was going to happen right before the election. They’re going to start filing lawsuits and they’ve done that and it’s like this nonsense on the 53,000. Those people are not being held up. They did not fill the form out correctly. It’s her canvassers, her group, that’s doing that. The last day of the voter registration deadline on October 9 we registered ... it was either 50 (thousand) or 70,000 people in one day through our online system. That, by the way, I pushed to get passed through the legislature, then built the system and implemented it. She voted against that, by the way. If her folks had been using that, none of this would happen. None of it. We have 800,000 more people on the voter rolls now that when I took office.

So for her to accuse me of suppressing the vote is outrageous. It has never been easier to register to vote in our state. In fact, the day before they filed the lawsuit on the 53,000, we set a record for the most people ever on the voter rolls in the state of Georgia. So I don’t know how much more we can do to make it easier. I mean you can literally register to vote 24 hours a day, seven days a week on your phone. So it is just another false attack ...

Q: What is your response to critics who say that you should resign as secretary of state while campaigning for a different office? Your predecessor, Karen Handel, did when she ran for governor in 2010.

A:

Well, you have to ask Karen Handel why she resigned. I don’t think it was because she didn’t feel like she could do a good job as secretary of state and be the chief elections official for the state. I think it’s for fundraising reasons because she was barred from fundraising during the session. But they don’t mention that Kathy Cox, when she ran for governor as a Democrat, she never resigned.

... for them to say that I could somehow manipulate the vote is ridiculous. And plus, they didn’t complain about it when I was running for reelection in 2014.

I’m not really advocating for any changes. As you know, I’ve been a strong supporter of the second amendment. I’ll continue to be an advocate of that as someone that hunts, shoots and carries and believes in the right to be able to protect your family. I definitely think there’s some things that can be worked on in the future to give reasonable approaches for individuals to be able to continue to do that. And I’ll be glad to sit down and work with anybody in that regard, which is a lot different than my opponent who is, I think sponsored or either voted for legislation to confiscate guns.

Q: What changes, if any, would you support regarding Confederate monuments in George’s public spaces?

A:

Well, I support the existing law to protect confederate monuments on state property. I take the Condoleezza Rice approach: I don’t think we can run from our history. We have to embrace it and learn from it and be a better state in the future because of it. And that’s the view that I have.

Q: With the confirmation of Justice Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, a lot of attention is being paid to the fate of Roe vs. Wade. Do you see yourself taking on any kind of legislative action?

A:

I’ve been pretty clear on that as a strong defender of life and have stated that I would like to see us try to move toward having, basically, a heartbeat bill, so when the baby’s heartbeat is detected we would protect that child.

Q: Do you support the continued construction of Plant Vogtle expansion and why?

A:

I do. It’s going to be something to help keep our electricity rates low. It’ll be a good economic development tool. I don’t necessarily like the way that process has gone, but at this point I think we got to finish it gotta get it done and move forward. And I’m glad that the parties involved reached an agreement. That was really what I was advocating -- for them just to sit down and negotiate and try to work something out where they can get it done.

Q: Is there a point where you would advocate halting construction?

A:

Well, look, that’s up to the stakeholders involved in that. I’ve always said I’m the guy running to put Georgians first, so I think they need to protect the rate payers. The rest of it is going to be up to the parties involved in their contract agreements. Hopefully that situation doesn’t occur.

Q: The Kavanaugh confirmation got a lot of national attention and drew a lot of people into the process. Do you think that that attention helps your campaign or does it help Abrams’ campaign?

A: I think it definitely helped our base get fired up and get engaged. I mean their base was already fired up and engaged just because of what’s been going on over the last two years, you know, the hatred they have for our president. So I think it’s definitely beneficial for us. I think people were really frustrated by that process and fed up with politics and the way that was handled . ... but you know, we got to deal with what’s going on in Georgia and we’re working hard and we’re going to continue to do that.

Q: The ATL Commission will meet for the first time next year to begin addressing transit issues around Metro Atlanta. What would you like to see them accomplish?

A:

My approach on the transportation issue is from a statewide approach. Look, we definitely have congestion issues in Atlanta that are being addressed. There’s a lot of construction projects going on. I’m very supportive of that. I think Gov. Deal has done a good job with that. I certainly appreciate Senator Beach and Representative Tanner for hammering out the deal on the ATL and I appreciate the local approach to this.

I’m going to be a governor who is going to ask how much is it going to cost? Who’s going to pay for it? ... you’ve got to have the local folks involved in agreeing on how you approach these different issues on transportation, whether it’s rapid bus transit, rail … if it is a rail, where’s it going to go? What else are we going to do? Because we’re never going to outbuild congestion. So I think we just have to see what the locals want to do and I’m going to be a person that will sit down with them and work with them and hear their concerns ...

Q: Should undocumented immigrants be granted in-state tuition for public universities and why?

A:

No. And they shouldn’t be allowed to vote either. Number one, It’s just going to bankrupt the system. Our own kids are having a hard enough time being able to deal with the cost of higher education and having access to HOPE. … I think it’s outrageous that somebody would want to give the HOPE scholarship to people that are not citizens of our state. I definitely would not support that. Look, she’s promising the same pot of money to all kinds of different groups. You know, it’s free. HOPE is free. College tuition is free, government health care ... the numbers don’t add up. It’s going to cost billions and billions to do that. She’s going to have to raise taxes. She said that in her book, you know, it’ll triple people’s taxes. I don’t think that’s what people want in our state.

Q: So on the subject of HOPE, one thing that we’ve seen is public universities are increasing fees but not necessarily increasing tuition because HOPE is supposed to cover all tuition. Do we need to do something to reign that in?

A:

I’m definitely open to look into that. I got a daughter at the University of Georgia. I know fully well about those d--- fees.

Q: There is a breakdown in civility in this country. Campaigns are absolutely vicious. Social media is a sewer. As governor, you don’t have czarist powers, but is there anything you could do as governor to encourage a return to stability?

A:

I’m going to encourage people to read their local newspaper. I still read three weeklies even though I’m about two weeks behind ... but it’s really interesting, following local news like you guys are writing, you know, and Oglethorpe and Madison County Journal and Oconee Enterprise is completely different from what we’re dealing with in the political environment. It’s local issues and it’s kind of refreshing. I still read those to give myself hope for our state and our country, but it is kind of nice to be able to figure out what’s going on at the local level. But, it’s tough out there. I’m not going to kid you. In the middle of the Kavanaugh hearings. I remember this was two or three (weeks) ago, (My wife) was lying in bed watching TV and I was unpacking and it was after 11. She had something on she was watching. I was like, what have we gotten our children into? That is exactly what I told her.

Q: That’s what you keep hearing -- Kavanaugh is the perfect example of why good people wouldn’t want to get into politics.

A:

And that’s what we started telling our girls ... we’re like, look, people could follow you in the grocery store, at church, on campus. Anything you say, anything you post is fair game in this election because ... The whole country is watching the state. And I mean, look, I realize that happens on both sides . ... But the Democrats started hitting me right out of the gate for the general election. And, you know, I’m a fighter. I want to win because I think I’ll be a good governor and I’m very, very confident in my abilities and my experience, but it’s tough out there.

Q: So what’s your strategy going into these final days of the campaign?

A:

Work like hell. I mean, look, I’ve gotten here because I outworked everybody else. To me, this is a battle for the soul of our state and the fight for our future.

I really believed that because ... I’m not running against a Jason Carter, Michelle Nunn, Roy Barnes, George Busbee, Zell Miller-type Democrat. This is a very, very different campaign. Despite her wanting to give the appearance that she’s going to be the next Nathan Deal. When you look at her policies and who’s funding her campaign, there’s an agenda that is a not going to be good for Georgia. The electorate is very polarized, very few undecided. This is going to be a base-turnout election, so we have to get our base out and then we got to keep hitting that very few four percent that’s undecided. I think we have good policies and plans to do that. When you think about health care, public safety, education, economic issues and other things. We’ve got to turn our base out and that’s exactly what she’s doing. She’s trying to turn her base out.

I’ve gotten here because I outworked everybody else. To me, this is a battle for the soul of our state and the fight for our future.” Brian Kemp, Republican candidate for governor

Democrat Party nominee for Georgia governor Stacey Abrams sat down with the Times Journal Inc. editorial board on Oct. 10. The following is an edited transcription of the interview. Q: You’ve clashed (with Brian Kemp) over voter registration issues. But Kemp aside, if you’re elected governor, how would you work with a new secretary of state to increase voter registration and

turnout?

A: I’ve been doing this work not only as a state legislator, but as the founder of the New Georgia Project. I started the New Georgia Project as a nonpartisan organization because there were 800,000 unregistered people of color in the state of Georgia. If you think about the correlation between the number of unregistered voters and the composition of our school system, you have lots of kids in our school system whose parents were not involved in their school board, were not involved in making the decisions about their futures. That’s dangerous for our democracy, and so I started an organization that does nonpartisan voter registration. As governor, my goal would be to work with the secretary of state to ensure that we’re continuing to expand access to the franchise, that we’re increasing the opportunities to vote, not decreasing them, but that we’re also correcting any imbalances in our systems. …

Q: What specific changes, if any, should be made to Georgia’s gun laws?

A: I think Georgia’s gun laws have to be common sense gun safety legislation. And I say this as someone who learned how to shoot for my great grandmother. … That means common sense gun legislation, including universal background checks. We cannot rely on the fact that we do basic background checks because different laws attribute different crimes differently. … Number two, we have to have a waiting period. There is no such thing as emergency deer hunting. There is no reason you can’t wait three days to get a weapon, and the reality is that with background checks and with waiting periods, we can also prevent suicides. And suicide, especially among younger people, those who are old enough to buy a weapon but do not have access to mental health support, is one of the most dangerous parts of gun usage in Georgia … Ninety percent of suicides that are tried by any other means fail, but 90 percent of suicides with guns succeed. We also have to make certain there are emergency protective orders. That means if we know someone is a danger to themselves or others, we should be able to go to the courts and get a restraining order to make certain they can’t commit crimes and cannot harm themselves or others. We need to make certain that domestic abusers and stalkers do not have the right to carry weapons anymore in the state of Georgia and we need to ban assault weapons and bump stocks. …

Q: You’ve said you wanted to sandblast the Confederate monument off of Stone Mountain. … If you’re elected, what changes would you make a regarding Confederate monuments in public spaces?

A: I would first correct the record. I never once said that. … What I have said, and let’s put it into context. My response was to a question that was raised to me by a reporter the day after Donald Trump said that there was no difference between the white supremacist who murdered Heather Heyer and those who protested (in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017). And in that context, equivocation is not appropriate.

I believe that we are a good state, and we are good people, but I also believe that the Confederate monuments, especially the one at Stone Mountain, is a reflection of an era of domestic terrorism. That monument was put in place by the founders of the KKK in order to harm and to terrify people of color, especially African Americans. That is not something we should celebrate. I think the history has to be placed in context, and I believe that we as a state need to work to come together to find solutions because we’re still having these debates and these conversations.

My mission will be to say unequivocally where I stand as a matter of principle. I do not like them. I do not support them. I don’t think they should have public funding. But I will work through a process the way I have every other major issue, especially controversial issues at the capital, to get to a decision and a conclusion that respects everyone but reflects the fact that we’re a diverse state and that diversity has to be celebrated. But that does not mean celebrating domestic terrorism and harm to Americans.

Q: … Personally right now, do you think they should be removed from those public spaces to wherever, to museums?

A: I think they should be put in museums. Let’s remember. There’s a very big difference between the Confederate memorabilia that has been put up in statuary, post-Reconstruction. … But the reality is if you have contemporary Confederate monuments that were put in place during the war, that makes absolute sense because you were reflecting direct history. … Those are actual monuments that reflect what happened, and they are in context. Those were battles that were fought. … But there’s a very big difference between that and celebratory statuary that was put up post-Reconstruction for the direct and explicit purpose of terrorizing black people, and that is a very different story and it’s a story that isn’t told without context. …

Q: How would you put the Stone Mountain carving in a museum though?

A: I don’t think you put it in a museum, but I think that you can provide additional context, and I think we haven’t had the conversation sufficiently. That’s been part of our challenge: that there has been a moratorium on this debate. And I believe we have to continue to have this conversation.

Q: Do you support the continued construction of Plant Vogtle and why?

A: Yes, because I think that the investment that we’ve made is substantial. It is thousands of jobs, but it also, long-term, is an important energy solution for the state of Georgia. We are a state that’s one of the fastest growing in the nation, and our energy mix is going to continue to have to evolve with our population. We have grown dramatically in recent years, and we’re going to continue to grow. The continued diminution of direct reliance on fossil fuels is going to have an effect on our ability to generate and invest in energy. And I think that’s why Georgia Power and Southern Company began the process in the first place. I think that there have been certainly issues of mismanagement. I think that it’s important that the ratepayers not bear the brunt of those poor decisions, but I do support the fact that we are continuing this process, and I support what Georgia Power’s done in recent days to make certain that they hold the responsibility and not the ratepayers.

Q: The ATL Commission on transit will meet for the first time next year. What are some of the goals you would like to see that commission accomplish in its first year as it’s getting off of the ground?

A: We need to identify a funding source. The challenge with transit is the lack of stable funding. … We have to have a revenue stream, but we also have to recognize that transit is one of the major determining factors for corporations when they’re deciding to relocate and for people when they’re deciding whether they’re going to move to Georgia and bring their jobs with them. I think that this is an essential economic development responsibility, and that means the state has to come together with local governments to make certain that we’re moving this forward. But I think transit is more than a metro Atlanta issue. It is a statewide issue. If you live in Taylor County, you don’t have a hospital and you don’t have a grocery store, so you have to rely on public transit coming out of Columbus to possibly get to what you need. If you live in a county that’s lost its hospital, you’re in deep trouble if you have any nonemergency medical needs. … And so public transit has to be a larger conversation because it is the connective tissue that helps make certain their entire state can function appropriately.

Q: Should undocumented immigrants be granted in-state tuition at public universities? Why?

A: Yes, because these are students who have graduated from our high schools. Federal law (and) the Constitution of America requires that we provide access to their education, and if these are young people who’ve lived in the state, who have grown up here, this is the home they know. They are Georgians. If they can graduate from our high schools and gain admission to our colleges, they should have access to those colleges. And no more conservative a state than Texas has made this the law of the land for more than a decade. It benefits our economy. The immigrant community provides an incredible boost to our economy, and it is to our benefit to have productive members of our community who go to our colleges and become our nurses, who can participate in our economy and can help improve our communities. …

Q: What about the HOPE Scholarship?

A: They should. HOPE is funded not by tax revenue, despite my opponent’s mischaracterization of that issue. HOPE is funded by the lottery. We do not check your citizenship when you play the lottery. And the reality is that people contribute to the lottery, and therefore, those revenues should be used to do what they’re designed to do, which is to make certain that the best and brightest Georgians actually can go to college. It will not bankrupt our system, it will not harm our system, it will improve access to education. And these are students who have proven their bonafides through their time in our high schools and they deserve to go to our colleges and to access those resources.

Q: With a now conservative leaning U.S. Supreme Court, attention is turning to the fate of Roe vs. Wade. What legislative actions would you support around the issue of access to abortion?

A: I have been a very strong advocate for reproductive rights and reproductive choice. I have been able to block trap legislation, which is the legislation that passed around the country to limit access to doctors who provide those services. I will continue to veto legislation that would seek to restrict access to reproductive health, and I will look at legislation, but I think anticipatory legislation that does not reflect what actually has happened is premature. If you look at the composition of the court — you say it is now conservative leaning, (that) ignores the last 30 years. It has been conservative leaning. And so I think we need to see the cases that come before the court and what the cases actually address. … Q: The Kavanaugh confirmation was obviously a huge national story. Everyone was paying attention to it. Whose campaign do you think it helps, yours or Kemp’s?

A: I think that’s an inappropriate characterization. This was a conversation about a woman’s sexual assault and whether or not we as a society will value the voices of victims and say that they have a right to be believed when they raised concerns. That was a deeply disturbing episode in our country. And I hope every Georgian is animated to believe that we have to stand up for survivors and we have to stand up for the people of Georgia. And that’s going to be my intent.

Q: It seems to me that civility is on the endangered species list in this country. … Is there anything you can do as governor to push back against this unfortunate trend?

A: I think I would ask you to look at my entire record. As state legislator, one of the reasons I became (Minority) Leader was because over the course of four years, I very quickly cemented a reputation as someone who could work with anyone. … If you look at the entirety of my history as democratic leader, you will not find ad hominem attacks. You will not find raw castigation. You will find very clear debates about issues and contrast, which I think is necessary in a healthy democracy.

And if you look at my ads, you will find that what we do is contrast records, but I have never called my opponent radical, extreme or use extraordinary language to describe him, contrary to how he’s treated me. Because I think the way you run a campaign — what you’re willing to do to win an office is what you will be willing to do to keep that office. And I’ve worked very hard to run the kind of campaign that I can be proud of, that I can go home and tell my parents and my grandparents about. … I don’t have children myself, but I have nieces and nephews who live here in Georgia, and I want them to be proud of their aunt. …

If you look at the entirety of my history as a democratic leader you will not find ad hominem attacks. You will not find raw castigation. You will find very clear debates about issues and contrast..” Stacey Abrams, Democratic candidate for governor