Jake Evans and Rich McCormick at Monday’s Atlanta Press Club runoff debate
ATLANTA – Jake Evans and Dr. Rich McCormick, the two Republican candidates competing in the runoff for Georgia’s 6th Congressional District seat, faced off in a debate Monday.
The candidates focused on core conservative issues such as abortion, gun control, law enforcement, and election integrity.
Both said they were opposed to abortion. Evans, a lawyer, said he would only make an exception to save the life of the mother.
“I support rolling back and eliminating Roe v. Wade,” Evans said. “We have to make sure that Christianity, the foundational principles that our country was based on, are pushed forward because I think that will solve a lot of the major issues facing our country today.”
McCormick, an emergency room physician, called himself a “100% life doctor” and said that the idea of choosing between the baby and mother’s life is a false dichotomy.
“I don’t make exceptions because I don’t believe they’re contrary to each other,” McCormick said. “I believe if you take a human life, it’s never beneficial.”
McCormick also said that he has seen “the horrors of gun violence” firsthand in his work as an emergency room doctor and that he is aware of the nation’s mental health crisis.
“But I will say that taking guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens has never been the solution,” McCormick said. “You can talk about security of schools, you can talk about mental health, but if you’re talking about taking weapons from law abiding citizens, no.”
Evans also painted himself as a strong supporter of Second Amendment rights.
When asked whether he would support one of the compromise gun control measures currently being considered in Washington, Evans said, “I would have to know what the compromise is, but if it any way unconstitutionally infringes on our Second Amendment rights, I would not stand for it.”
McCormick criticized Evans for a 2015 paper in which Evans called for criminal justice reforms. Evans countered that he drafted the paper while in law school and that he is a strong supporter of law enforcement.
McCormick also called for pharmaceutical reforms.
“We need pricing transparency across the board, including with health-care centers, with the access to medicine, and there’s a ton of things we could do, but we need to first of all defeat the things aren’t working, that [President Joe] Biden and [U.S. House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi have instituted,” McCormick said.
Evans criticized McCormick for accepting donations from out-of-state organizations and “liberal special interests” that do not represent core conservative values.
Evans also called for closed primaries, in which Georgia voters could only vote in the primary for the party with which they are registered.
“What I’m out for is ensuring Republicans elect Republicans that will represent them and Democrats don’t infiltrate, manipulate, influence our elections, which is what happened two Tuesdays ago,” said Evans.
Evans also said that he would disband the Jan. 6 commission scheduled to hold public hearings later this week on the attack on the U.S. Capitol. He called the panel a “political weapon” against conservatives.
“There are conservatives throughout Georgia, throughout the country that are being denied their due process right to a speedy and fair trial,” said Evans. “We have to make sure that conservative voices throughout this country are protected.”
Evans contended that he is a true conservative who is not beholden to liberal interests and extolled his endorsement by former President Donald Trump.
“I’m endorsed by President Trump – you’re not,” Evans said to McCormick. “He endorsed me because he knows I fight. I fight when it matters.”
McCormick touted his leadership experience as an emergency room doctor and former Marine helicopter pilot.
“In the emergency room and in combat zones, I make tough decisions in tough places,” McCormick said.
In the May primary, McCormick pulled 48,967, or 43%, of the vote, while Evans earned 26,160, or 23%, of the vote.
The runoff will be held on Tuesday, June 21. The winner of the primary runoff will face Democrat Bob Christian in November.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
Dr. Sarah Vinson (photo credit: Morehouse School of Medicine)
Georgia child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Sarah Vinson is featured in a new documentary by nationally acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns about youth mental health in America.
“We hope this film will save lives,” Burns said in a news release.
The young people featured in the documentary describe their struggles with addiction, depression, anxiety, trauma, racism, social media, and the pandemic.
Expert commentary, including Vinson’s, is interwoven throughout.
Vinson is one of 99 child and adolescent psychiatrists practicing in Georgia, according to the latest Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce’s data from 2019-2020.
She grew up in northwest Florida and studied medicine at the University of Florida, where she decided to study psychiatry.
“What I saw … is how critical mental health is, especially early on at these really important junctures for people, especially in terms of self-identity, educational, and career paths,” she said.
After training in psychiatry at Harvard University, Vinson returned to the South.
“The goal was always to come back and try to make things better down here,” said the triple board-certified doctor, who is now an associate professor at Morehouse School of Medicine.
Some of those recommendations were adopted in House Bill 1013, an overhaul of mental health-care delivery in Georgia the General Assembly passed in March.
The recent changes are just a start, though, said Vinson. Raising Medicaid payment rates for mental health providers is essential to building the mental health workforce, she said.
“When Medicaid rates aren’t competitive …. it can make it hard for hospital systems or group practices to be incentivized to take people who are publicly insured,” Vinson said.
Close to 40% of Georgia children are covered by state-sponsored insurance plans like Medicaid and PeachCare for Kids, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
“House Bill 1013 set the stage for increasing reimbursement rates, though it did not increase them directly,” said Roland Behm, a board member of the Georgia Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Increasing the rates will be a top priority for mental health advocates during the next legislative session, Behm said.
In the documentary, Vinson and others explain how childhood trauma and instability contribute to long-term mental health problems.
“There’s a reason there’s so many cases in the first place,” Vinson said. “And it’s because [kids are] growing up with so much instability and uncertainty.
“We have to collectively decide that we want to provide them with an environment that’s more likely to [create] a mentally healthier outcome. Safe housing, food security, for kids, are huge.”
Expanding Medicaid would also help address youth mental health, Vinson said.
“We need Medicaid expansion in Georgia if we are serious about shoring up mental health services, especially for adults,” Vinson said. “If the adults that are responsible … can’t get the help they need, they can’t get their children what they themselves don’t have.”
Georgia governors Nathan Deal and Brian Kemp have chosen not to expand Medicaid, citing the costs.
Vinson also talked about how children are increasingly exposed to traumatic events like the recent shooting in Uvalde, Texas, via social media.
Vinson said that in today’s media-saturated landscape, parents should help their children cope with their feelings and not abandon them to the internet.
“It’s important for the parents to be the one to have those talks, to model those feelings and emotions that come with something this terrible, and that causes so much grief and sadness and maybe even anger,” Vinson said. “There is hope – we just have to make a decision as a state to be supportive.”
“Hidden in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness” will begin airing on PBS platforms, including on major streaming services, on June 27 and 28.
Georgians needing mental health assistance can call the Georgia Crisis and Access Line 24 hours a day at 1-800-715-4225.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
The monkeypox virus (photo credit: CDC/Cynthia S. Goldsmith)
A metro Atlanta man has a confirmed case of orthopoxvirus, according to a statement released by the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) on Wednesday.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is now testing to confirm if the disease is monkeypox, said DPH spokesperson Nancy Nydam.
Monkeypox is one form of the orthopoxvirus. Others include variola, which causes smallpox.
The Atlanta man has a history of international travel, Nydam said.
Monkeypox is a viral disease that causes the skin to break out in pustules. It was first detected in laboratory monkeys and then discovered in humans in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the CDC.
Monkeypox typically starts with a fever, lymph node swelling, muscle pains, and malaise, then progresses to a skin rash. The pustular rash can lasts two to four weeks, according to the World Health Organization.
The disease is usually mild but can be life-threatening in some cases.
So far, the World Health Organization has reported 106 confirmed cases in Great Britain, 49 in Portugal, and 26 in Canada.
Monkeypox can be transmitted among people through direct contact with the sores or bodily fluids, intimate contact, and respiratory secretions during “prolonged, face-to-face contact,” according to the CDC.
Georgia Sen. Michelle Au (D-Johns Creek) called for gun law reforms on Friday.
America is facing an “epidemic of gun violence,” state Sen. Michelle Au, D-Johns Creek, said Friday at a press conference called by the Democratic Party of Georgia in response to the recent mass shootings.
“It keeps happening and sometimes it feels like it never stops,” Au said.
In March of last year, eight people, including six Asian-American women, were killed in an attack on spas in metro Atlanta. Au said the attack “rocked the nation’s Asian-American community to its core.”
Michael Webb’s former wife, Xiaojie Tan, was one of the women killed.
Webb – who said he is a gun owner and not a liberal or even a Democrat – called for “common-sense gun control and gun safety” measures like waiting periods to take possession of a firearm after purchase.
“I feel reasonably confident – knowing the evidence – that the mother of my daughter would be alive had there just been a three or a five-day waiting period,” said Webb. “We have it in other states.”
Webb said he also supports universal background checks and making it more difficult to purchase assault weapons. Assault weapons are “made to kill people – they’re not made for sport,” he said.
Robert Peterson, the youngest son of another woman killed in the attack, Yong Ae Yue, criticized Georgia’s new permit-less carry law, which Gov. Brian Kemp signed last month.
The new law “makes us all less safe,” Peterson said. “It removes the crucial step of needing to pass a background check before being allowed to carry a concealed gun in public.”
Advocates of the permit-less measure contend otherwise.
“Criminals do not care about a carry permit,” state Sen. Jason Anavitarte, R-Dallas, the bill’s chief sponsor, said during a debate on the bill in the Senate during this year’s legislative session.
The new permit-less carry law “makes sure that law-abiding Georgians … can protect themselves without having to ask permission from state government,” Kemp said when he signed the bill in April.
Au, a doctor who also holds a master’s degree in public health, argued that gun violence should be treated as a public health issue that requires layered, multifocal solutions.
“We have to come at it from a lot of different ways because there are a lot of different reasons that people are victims of gun violence, including things like mental health issues, suicide … .domestic violence,” she said. “Mass shootings … tend to get the most attention.”
State Rep. Sam Park, D-Lawrenceville, echoed Au’s perspective, saying, “This should not be a partisan issue. This should not be a political issue. This is a public safety issue.”
The frequent mass shootings are the results of policy choices, Park said.
“With good public policies … we can ensure and protect our constitutional rights, but also protect lives,” he said.
Park is running for reelection to the Georgia House this fall.
Au expressed frustration at how Republican leaders in the Georgia General Assembly have prevented discussion of gun law reforms.
“Not only have the bills not passed and been signed into law, they’ve been blocked to the point that they haven’t even been given the courtesy of being heard in committee,” Au said. “They won’t even let us discuss the bills.”
Despite the challenges, Au and Park said they and others would keep advocating for reforms, with plans to introduce bills requiring universal background checks, waiting periods, and safe gun storage during the next session.
Au said such measures are supported by a majority of Georgians.
“We are not going to give up because the environment around gun safety is changing,” she said.
Au now is running for the Georgia House of Representatives. She chose to give up her Senate seat after redistricting made it much more favorable to the GOP.
“With each successive tragedy … people are going to demand that our leaders start to at least have this conversation in public about passing, or at least discussing, common-sense gun safety legislation,” said Au, who has emerged as a leading Democratic voice on this issue in the past few years.
In response to the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday, Kemp noted that Georgia has sponsored school safety trainings and threat assessments. He also highlighted funding for school mental health programs in Georgia, including $6 million allotted for a student mental health initiative.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
Walker was former President Trump’s choice for Republican Senate nominee
Former University of Georgia football champion Herschel Walker added another victory to his win column Tuesday when he beat five other candidates for the Republican nomination for a Georgia U.S. Senate seat.
Walker earned 68.2% of the vote in Republican primary, with about 97% of votes counted as of 1:00 p.m. Wednesday. Walker will now face off against current U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock in November.
Walker soundly defeated his five opponents in the Republican primary. Current Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture, Gary Black, was the next highest vote-getter with 13.4% of the almost 1.2 million votes cast in the Republican race.
Latham Saddler, an Atlanta banking executive and former Navy SEAL, received 8.8% of the vote.
Josh Clark, a former state representative from Flowery Branch, earned 4% of votes cast.
Kelvin King, a small business owner and Air Force veteran from Atlanta who is, like Walker and Warnock, African American, pulled 3.2% of the vote.
And retired Brig. Gen. Jonathan McColumn of Warner Robins finished with 2.4% of votes cast.
Though Walker is a newcomer to the state’s political playing field, his large fan following and former President Donald Trump’s endorsement propelled him to victory.
The Heisman Trophy winner decided to run for the Senate seat currently held by Democrat Raphael Warnock last August after Trump spent weeks touting Walker as a candidate.
“Herschel is tough on crime and borders, and he will always stand in support of law enforcement, military and our vets,” the former president said at the start Walker’s campaign. “He will fight hard for our Second Amendment and voter integrity.”
Walker shied away from media questions until the very last moment, taking questions only in the last week before voting while rarely appearing at public rallies.
Walker refused to participate in a debate among the Republican Senate primary candidates, leaving his opponents to debate an empty podium.
“If Herschel Walker can’t get up here, he certainly can’t beat Raphael Warnock in November,” Latham Saddler, said earlier this month.
That concern apparently did not deter Republican voters from endorsing the former star, who also had the support of Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell.
Walker will need to overcome a number of other liabilities in his upcoming race against incumbent Warnock
Though Walker was born and raised in Georgia, he has lived in Texas for decades. He only registered to vote in Georgia last August.
Walker may also face difficulties due to his struggles with mental illness, especially dissociative identity disorder, which he wrote about in a 2008 memoir, Breaking Free.
And he has faced allegations of domestic violence.
A recent investigation revealed problems with Walker’s work for Patriot Support, an organization that claimed to help veterans with mental health concern. Patriot Support is not a charity but a for-profit organization and Walker overstated his role, the Associated Press reported last week.
On policy, Walker’s campaign website says he embraces a “compassionate conservative” agenda. He supports a total ban of abortion even in the case of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother.
Walker wants to secure the southern border, make America energy independent, confirm judges who will protect the right to bear arms, and fight for “more free-market capitalism,” according to his website.
Warnock handily beat his sole Democratic primary opponent Tamara Johnson-Sealey with 96% of the approximately 715,000 votes cast in the race.
The results of Warnock and Walker’s contest in November could determine which party controls the Senate.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
