William Hughes' Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
Key
Official Position: Candidate addressed this issue directly by taking the Political Courage Test.
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William Hughes has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2020 Political Courage Test.
Georgia State Legislative Election 2020 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | a) Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support legalizing abortion when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape? | ||
| c) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for organizations that perform abortions? | |||
| Abortion is very challenging because people have very strong feelings about children, on both sides. If prenatal, well-baby & well-mother, and child care were provided to all who need it, most abortion would stop. | |||
| No | a) In order to balance the budget, do you support reducing state employee salaries AND/OR pensions? | ||
| Yes | b) In order to balance the budget, do you support an income tax increase on any tax bracket? | ||
| This ignores the staggering billions of dollars the state of Georgia gives away to corporations in other states in the form of tax incentives. That's the first place to look. Georgia taxpayers are sending their money out of state for a very low return (if any). | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support a limit on campaign contributions to state candidates? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations and unions? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support the use of an independent AND/OR bipartisan commission for redistricting? | ||
| No | d) Do you support requiring a government-issued photo identification in order to vote at the polls? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support automatic voter registration? | ||
| We need hand-marked paper ballots. It's impossible to audit or recount a system that uses proprietary encoding on ballots. | |||
| No | a) Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| No | b) Should an individual under 18 accused of a violent crime be prosecuted as an adult? | ||
| No | c) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | ||
| No | d) Do you support the use of private prisons in Georgia? | ||
| No | e) Do you support mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug offenders? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support the indefinite electronic tracking of individuals with multiple sex-offense convictions? | ||
| I'm concerned about "indefinite" but a lot of incarceration in our criminal justice could be addressed with counseling and community support. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support state government spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| No | b) Do you support lowering state income taxes as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| No | d) Do you support requiring welfare applicants to pass a drug test in order to receive benefits? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support an increase of the minimum wage of Georgia? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support requiring employers to provide paid family leave? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support providing financial relief to businesses AND/OR corporations negatively impacted by the state of national emergency for COVID-19? | ||
| Economic growth comes from growth in demand. That means more money in Georgians' hands to spend. I will reduced regulations that are bad for the people of Georgia. The federal minimum wage should be seen as a floor, not a ceiling. COVID-19 relief should go first to Georgian families, then to the self-employed and small businesses, and then to larger businesses. Large businesses should have 6 to 9 months of expenses saved up, right? | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support adopting federal education standards in Georgia? | ||
| No | b) Do you support state funding for charter schools? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support increasing teacher salaries AND/OR benefits in Georgia? | ||
| Yes | d) Should immigrants unlawfully present in the United States who graduate from Georgia high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support allowing home school students to participate in extracurricular activities offered by public schools? | ||
| No | f) Should public colleges and universities be able to deny funding to student-led religious, political, or ideological groups? | ||
| Like most federal regulations, I see federal education standards as a floor, not a ceiling. Charter schools taken as a whole don't outperform public schools taken as a whole. With respect to extracurricular activities, I definitely support _allowing_ home school students to attend at the discretion of the staff in charge of those extracurricular activities. I don't support forcing public schools to accommodate home schoolers. Post-secondary institutions should be able to restrain/eliminate groups that violate the law or school policies. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support state funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, geo-thermal)? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support government regulations of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support increasing state funding for clean drinking water initiatives? | ||
| We should also require power companies to buy excess solar capacity from homeowners, look at community power grids, etc. Our energy transmission infrastructure is poorly maintained and needs an overhaul. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| Yes | b) Should background checks be required on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows? | ||
| No | c) Should teachers be allowed to bring guns into the classroom after passing gun safety training? | ||
| Yes | d) Should a license be required for gun ownership? | ||
| We must work with gun owners on all efforts to make gun ownership safer in Georgia. There are other ways to improve gun safety in Georgia. We need to work to clear the NICS backlog. People who are caught selling guns to those who shouldn't have them should be fined heavily, and anyone who reports an attempt to buy by a disallowed person should be paid a reward out of that fund. | |||
| Yes | a) Should the state government increase funding for treatment facilities to combat opioid abuse? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support Medicaid expansion through Georgia's health care programs? | ||
| No | c) Do you support requiring individuals to purchase health care insurance? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support legislation that grants citizens the right to choose to die through euthanasia? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support eliminating religious exemptions for vaccinations? | ||
| No | f) Do you support requiring businesses to provide paid medical leave during public health crises, such as COVID-19? | ||
| Georgia should fund treatment facilities for all drug addictions. I believe "health insurance" is not the answer. The state should reimburse health care facilities for all necessary care and allow people to replace the premiums, deductibles, etc. they pay to for-profit insurers with a much lower healthcare tax. Large businesses (based on revenue) should be required to fund paid medical leave during public health crises, but small businesses might not be able to. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in Georgia's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in Georgia's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support greater efforts by Georgia state government in closing the pay gap between men and women? | ||
| d) Other or expanded principles: | |||
| The people of Georgia need elected officials who work for them. The elected Republicans holding office throughout the state have given up on their duty to do what's best for their constituents and all Georgians. I will represent my neighbors in House District 21 and the people of Georgia first, foremost, and always. I'm not in this for a national reputation or a cushy consulting gig. | |||
| Medicaid Expansion is my top legislative priority, and the best part is that it's mostly funded by taxes the people of Georgia are already paying to the federal government. The rest can be funded by a tax that replaces the premiums, deductibles, etc. already paid by many people who would be eligible for expanded Medicaid and eliminating a lot of tax incentives that benefit non-Georgians. |
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