ATLANTA – Republican congressional candidate Wayne Johnson criticized incumbent U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Albany, Sunday for losing touch with Southwest Georgia’s 2nd Congressional District during 32 years in office and said it’s time for a change.
“When you’re running for Congress, you’ve got to get in tune with the people in the district. … “[Bishop] spends 85% of his time in Washington,” Johnson said during what had been planned as a livestreamed debate with Bishop at the Atlanta studios of Georgia Public Broadcasting. Bishop, however, declined to participate.
Johnson, who worked in the Trump administration as head of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Student Finance, easily defeated Chuck Hand last June to win the Republican nomination to challenge Bishop.
Johnson lives in Macon, which is outside the 2nd District. However, federal law does not require members of the U.S. House to live in the district they represent.
On Sunday, Johnson took a different position than most Republicans on the abortion issue. Having a daughter who suffered from an ectopic pregnancy in Louisiana and struggled to get proper medical care from doctors wary of that state’s strict restrictions on abortion, he said decisions on abortion should be left to women in consultation with their doctor and their conscience.
However, he added that the issue should be left to the states rather than Congress – the same position taken by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump – and opposed late-term abortions.
Johnson called for expanding the federal government’s role in education through school-choice vouchers that would supplement legislation the General Assembly passed this year providing vouchers worth up to $6,500 to parents of children enrolled in low-performing public schools who wish to send their kids to a private school.
He also said he would support a direct federal loan program that would help consumers afford down payments on houses and cars and would be willing to pilot that program in Southwest Georgia.
Johnson said he would combine his experience in Washington with 40 years in business.
“I know how Washington works,” he said. “[But] l bring common sense.”