ATLANTA – Libertarian Ryan Graham of Atlanta entered the race for lieutenant governor Monday touting a platform of education reform and personal freedom.
Graham, 36, an IT project manager, is especially critical of standardized testing, which he said emphasizes “teaching to the test” at the expense of harder-to-measure but more meaningful student outcomes.
“We’re spending more money than ever, administering more tests, assigning more homework, requiring more hours, and none of it has improved outcomes,” he said. “It’s time to do something fundamentally different, not just more of what we know doesn’t work.”
Graham also called for less government overreach into the lives of citizens, especially COVID vaccine mandates.
“The decision to receive a vaccine is between an individual and their health-care provider,” he said. “No government has the authority to make that decision for you.”
In keeping with the longstanding Libertarian position on drugs, Graham said Georgia should decriminalize drug possession and legalize marijuana.
In the area of voting rights, Graham said he supports fair ballot access laws, ranked-choice voting and replacing Georgia’s voting machines with hand-marked paper ballots.
“I want there to be more choices that represent more Georgians,” he said. “If independents and minor parties are not actively blocked from ballots … more people could actually vote for someone who represents them and not just against the other guy.”
With Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan not seeking re-election to a second term, the field of candidates for lieutenant governor this year is crowded.
GOP candidates include Georgia Senate President Pro Tempore Butch Miller of Gainesville, state Sen. Burt Jones of Jackson and Savannah activist Jeanne Seaver.
Democrats running for lieutenant governor include Georgia Reps. Renitta Shannon of Decatur, Erick Allen of Smyrna, and Derrick Jackson of Tyrone; Dr. Jason Hayes of Alpharetta, and attorney Charlie Bailey of Atlanta.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.