In the race that was watched closely by millions, Brian Kemp outedged Stacey Abrams in a historically close margin to become the new Governor of Georgia, succeeding Nathan Deal. Many of us were praying for a recount, due to multiple voting sites in known minority areas having “voting difficulties”, but our wish did not come true. While Stacey Abrams built her campaign on Medicaid expansion, voting rights, abortion rights, and lowering taxes, Brian Kemp adopted a Trump-like stance and captured the hearts of Republicans statewide.
Brian Kemp, formerly Secretary of State, oversaw his own election and many voters were concerned about this. His office conveniently had 53,000 voter applications on hold in his office, with 70 percent of them being from potential black voters. Coincidence? I think not.
Governor Kemp was sworn in January 14, 2019. His State of the State address promises some big things, people. Things that can affect us as college students! Here are five things I learned about our new governor with a little bit of research:
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This year, he plans on giving Georgia teachers a $3,000 pay raise and a $30,000 grant for school security:
We all know that teachers are severely underpaid, so raising their pay would actually greatly benefit everyone. Will he actually do it? I hope so! It seems like every politician promises educators a salary raise. Maybe he’ll be the one to actually do it.
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He is strongly against abortion:
Kemp has been vocal about his support for Donald Trump and the wildly controversial “heartbeat bill”. The Heartbeat Bill basically says that abortion cannot happen once the baby is older than six weeks old, which is typically when the heartbeat can be detected. Why is this a problem? Most women do not find out they’re pregnant until well after six weeks. So, this bill would essentially make abortion illegal in Georgia. Multiple courts have deemed this bill unconstitutional, but Kemp is still pushing for it.
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He is pushing a “track and deport” plan:
Kemp believes that “aliens” in Georgia, aka immigrants, are responsible for majority of the crime and drug issues in the state. He wants to find all immigrants, track their criminal histories (if any), and deport them immediately. According to his website, he wants to “develop common sense legislation in Georgia” and partner with Donald Trump on key immigration issues.
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Opposes the legalization of marijuana:
He does not want the medical marijuana field to be expanded too much, and he does not want the plant grown in state, at all.
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He has a history of being… gun crazy to say the least:
Kemp does not support gun control, even though he has made multiple statements about schools being unsafe for children, and he is pushing for “constitutional carry”. This term basically means that any gun owner would be able to carry their weapon out without permit. Does the idea of everyone walking around with guns scare you? It scares me too… He won the support of several pro-gun groups during his campaign due to his ideology.