John Jordan's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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John Jordan has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2024 Political Courage Test.
Georgia State Legislative Election 2024 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? | ||
| No | c) Do you support the prohibition of public funds (e.g. Medicaid) for organizations that perform abortions? | ||
| Every Georgian should have access to high-quality reproductive healthcare services consistent with medical best practices and scientific evidence�including safe and legal abortion. Currently in Georgia, abortion is banned at six-weeks on the basis of an uninformed and widely misunderstood "heartbeat law." Patients are forced to endure mandated counseling and 24-hour delays during this critical treatment period, and no public-care options are available except in limited circumstances. Additionally, our state senate recently refused to take up IVF protections and many legislators�including our opponent�oppose abortion even to save the life of the mother. These conditions threaten every pregnant person's right to life, to health, to education, to privacy, to be free from torture, and to be free from discrimination. Whether you're pro-life or pro-choice, it remains that abortions can be medically necessary, we all have a Constitutional right to privacy (4th and 14th amendments), and the government has no business prying into personal medical decisions. As your state Senator, I will work to roll back current abortion restrictions while joining the chorus of legislators calling for a State Constitutional amendment codifying bodily autonomy and a woman's right to choose. I will further support an equal-rights amendment at the state level. | |||
| Yes | a) In order to balance the budget, do you support limiting state government spending on social programs (e.g. SNAP, TANF)? | ||
| No | b) Do you support a decrease in income taxes in order to promote economic growth? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support a wealth tax in order to pay for public programs in your state? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the legalization of gambling on sporting events in Georgia? | ||
| No | a) Do you support capital punishment for violent crimes? | ||
| No | b) Should an individual under 18 accused of a violent crime be prosecuted as an adult? | ||
| Yes | 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? | ||
| No | e) Do you support mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders? | ||
| As a state Senator, I'd love to see a "smart on crime" rather than a "tough on crime" approach that does away with cash bail and jail incarceration for nonviolent and no-flight offenders to bring down the unnecessary overcrowding, endangerment, and radicalization that happens in our jails and prisons. Immigration is a Federal issue and I'd rather see Congress reform our national immigration policy into something moral and humane. We need and want immigrants in this country and I'm open to legal and local activist responses to unjust immigration politics. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support state government spending as a means of promoting economic growth (e.g. grants, tax incentives)? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support reducing state government regulations on the private sector (e.g. for business or the environment)? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support an increase of the minimum wage of Georgia? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support government spending on affordable housing projects in Georgia? | ||
| Our state legislature has let down both businesses and workers in Georgia by failing to keep our state minimum wage in line with the always-inflating cost of the market. The last time the Georgia legislature raised our state minimum wage was in 2002, when they raised it from $3.25 to $5.15! and to only $2.15 for tipped employees. These rates are so low that the federal minimum wage supersedes our state wage. Yet, even at the federal minimum wage of $7.25, a hypothetical 40-hour-a-week fulltime employee still wouldn't make enough pre-tax income to afford rent and food anywhere in our district! And wages are just the tip of the iceberg. Disability and internship exemptions, taxes on tips, the undervaluation of critical careers like teachers and public safety offices, and the lack of income transparency rules enshrine inequality in the private sector and limit all of our ability to make informed career decisions�at every level of the economy. As your state Senator, I will work to reform our state minimum wage and tie it to a dynamic economic variable�preferably housing prices�so working Georgians don't have to wait another 22 years for a wage adjustment that keeps up with inflation. And to spare business the sudden burden of previous legislative malfeasance, I'll work to make any wage change graduated and as pain free as possible. I'll also advocate for student-loan re-payment plans for state employees with in-demand skills who meet certain employment criteria and complete specified tenures in the state's employ. As a small-business person myself, I know how hard it can be to start a business, keep it running, raise a family, and buy a home all at the same time. In many ways, ours is a feudal economy where those who work for enterprise companies have access to significant benefits while gig workers, the self-employed, and small businesspeople are left to pay exorbitant insurance rates, enjoy no guaranteed parental time off, and struggle to qualify for mortgages. And ours in a greatly unequal economy. While small-business infrastructure exists in much of the metro area, it is greatly lacking in many corners of the state. As your state senator, I'll work to expand broadband infrastructure development and access via mechanisms such as grants, loans, and public-private partnerships so every Georgian can take advantage of the opportunities afforded by the digital economy. Following the lead of proven models in other states, I'll propose partnerships between the state, broadband utilities, and the university system to establish training and small-business incubators in underserved areas�especially with technology and green-energy foci. And I'll work to reform state insurance policies to make insurance available and affordable to small business owners while also fighting to simplify and streamline licensing and permitting processes, reducing startup costs and administrative burdens. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support adopting federal education standards (e.g. Common Core) in Georgia? | ||
| Yes | 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 in the United States who graduate from Georgia high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities, regardless of immigration status? | ||
| It's our job as parents to give children a safe space to grow, to learn, to explore who they are, and to prepare them for adulthood. And some of our more important allies in this process are the educators who curate thoughtful curriculum and inspiring media collections for our children. Currently in the 56, we're very fortunate to enjoy great schools, safe communities, and countless kid-friendly opportunities. But we also endure bureaucratic meddling in curriculum, divisive-topic laws, book bans, and gun laws that undermine the work of professional educators and combine to make our schools and libraries less representative, less competitive, and less safe. Protecting and providing for our kids protects and provides for us all. The children in our public schools today will grow up to work alongside us as doctors, mechanics, accountants, entrepreneurs, and community leaders. As your state Senator, I will work to put our schools back in the hands of professional educators and parents by rolling back the mechanisms of curriculum censorship and book banning. I'll fight for universal preK; free breakfasts, lunches, and feminine hygiene products for public school students; to disallow the possession of firearms in a school zone; and to protect student data privacy. Further, to respect the amazing work our educators do everyday, I'll fight to raise salaries and increase public school funding. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support state funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, geo-thermal)? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support state governments allowing permits for drilling on public lands? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support increasing state funding for clean drinking water initiatives? | ||
| Georgia has a tremendous appetite for solar (we're 6th or 7th in the nation for new installs) but we're also one of the few states in the country that almost totally lacks solar incentives (though we have access to the Federal solar investment tax credit�ITC). Residents are also targeted by solar lease scams. As a state Senator, I';; work to combat scams and incentivize new installs, especially for Georgia-built panels. Especially during drought periods, we struggle with water availability. This issue is exacerbated by the increasing demand from urban areas, agricultural needs, and industrial uses. Georgia's water scarcity has reignited a long-standing disputes with Tennessee and Florida. And contamination of water due to agricultural runoff, industrial discharges, and untreated sewage poses a significant threat to water quality. As your State Senator, I will work to enhancing water conservation by implement stricter regulations and incentives for water-saving technologies and practices in agriculture, industry, and households. I'd like see the expansion of success water-saving programs like Roswell's Native Plant Resolution and the state's no-mow median projects. I'd also encourage the Improvement of our water infrastructure though tactical Investments in modern water supply systems and enhanced storage capacity and stricter enforcement of existing regulations to prevent pollution and protect watersheds, ensuring long-term water quality and availability. I'd also work toward an interstate water solution by cooperating with our neighboring states to manage shared water resources effectively. | |||
| Yes | a)Do you support limiting campaign contributions from corporations, unions, and individuals? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support the use of an independent or bipartisan commission for redistricting? | ||
| No | c) Do you support requiring a government-issued photo identification in order to vote at the polls? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support automatic voter registration? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support the implementation of ranked choice voting in Georgia? | ||
| As your state Senator, I pledge to communicate proactively about the business of the legislature and my office's activity therein, to respond to direct communications as often and as thoroughly as possible, and to never block constituents from communicating with me. I further pledge to maintain public communication forums including social media, open-access telepresence options, and free public forums such as town halls and meetups. I'll fight to strengthen ethics rules in the legislature, including restrictions on stock ownership and requirements regarding business conflict disclosures. I will also pursue an independent redistricting committee to prioritize fair representation over cynical redistricting by either party. And I'll work to make a constituent-experience platform available to all elected representatives at no additional per-office cost. I'll also explore legal and technical options for making a data-informed dashboard available to the public which captures critical metrics and which can serve as a shared reference across the district and across the aisle. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you generally support gun-control legislation (e.g. red flag laws, closing the boyfriend loophole)? | ||
| Yes | b) Should background checks be required on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows? | ||
| No | c) Do you support the right to concealed carry in Georgia? | ||
| No | d) Should teachers be allowed to carry firearms in the classroom, provided they register for and pass a safety evaluation? | ||
| Our opponent won't step up and do anything about the gun violence epidemic killing our kids. But I'm ready. I recently joined State Senate Democrats calling for the Georgia Legislature to prioritize safe-storage, background checks, and extreme risk "red flag" laws�as a bare minimum!�when the new session convenes in January. For context, Georgia ranks 46th in the nation for the safety of our gun laws�that is to say, we have almost none on the books! And since my opponent took over the powerful Senate Public Safety committee in 2021, there have been 47 school shootings. In that time, he's voted to loosen run restrictions and to allow unregulated concealed-carry on K-12 and college campuses. And while, as a historian, I'm very cautious about counterfactuals, the tragedy at Apalachee High last week is almost a case study in how such violence might've been prevented. If our opponent, John Albers, and other State Senators hadn't blocked common-sense measures like the red flag and safe storage laws, the facts suggest things might've gone quite differently. | |||
| Yes | a) Should the state government increase funding for treatment facilities to combat opioid abuse? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support a government-run (e.g. single-payer) healthcare program such as Medicare-for-All? | ||
| Yes | c) Should an individual have the right to choose to die (e.g. those with a terminal illness) through euthanasia? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support mandating vaccinations (e.g. for school or employment)? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support expanding paid family AND/OR medical leave benefits (e.g. maternity leave)? | ||
| No | f) Should the government be able to regulate the cost of prescription drugs? | ||
| Georgians of every income level and in every corner of the state want to work. But with the worst rate of healthcare access in the nation, it doesn�t matter if you�re in the middle class or are struggling with poverty�you can�t work if you�re not healthy. Furthermore, nearly one-in-three working-age adults cite caregiving responsibilities as the primary reason they don�t participate in the workforce. It's no wonder so many of us can�t participate in our booming economy. But many other states offer healthcare and child/eldercare solutions with proven results and proven returns on investment. Universal preK, for instance, can offer as much as a $4:1 economic ROI! As your state Senator, I�ll fight to expand universal preK and to offer free public-school meals for students in kindergarten through high school. This simple change will free up millions of Georgia parents participate in the workforce, offset the rising cost of groceries, and ensuring our children are healthy enough to learn and thrive. Further, I�ll fight to expand Medicaid so more Georgians have access to healthcare outcomes so they can work, stay healthy, and keep up with the spiraling cost of healthcare. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support 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's state government in closing gender, racial, and other wage gaps? | ||
| Each of us deserves to be treated equally and respectfully by the state of Georgia, so that we and our families have the same access to due process, opportunity, education, and healthcare while at the same time enjoying equal protections from injustice, discrimination, and violence. Currently in Georgia, LGBTQ residents enjoy few state-level protections. While same-sex couples can get married in Georgia thanks to Federal law, same-sex parents lack second-parent and confirmatory adoption rights and lack access to family-leave laws. Additionally, Georgia offers no non-discrimination protections related to credit and lending, criminal-justice processes, employment, family services, housing, insurance, public accommodations�even bullying! And for the trans community, matters are even more challenging. In addition to recent legislation blocking trans youth from lifesaving healthcare (backed by decades of research and supported by every major medical association), trans residents are also blocked from changing the gender markers on their driver�s licenses and birth certificates�a recently upheld First-Amendment right! As your state Senator, I will work to roll back anti-trans laws, create best-in-class workplace protections for all LGBTQ workers, and protect marriage and family equality. | |||
| Defending our personal freedoms from government overreach by - Securing LGBTQ equality - Restoring & protecting reproductive rights. - Putting public schools and libraries back in the hands of educators. Proactively grow our state economy�for everyone by - Raising wages & investing in skilled labor - Expanding a healthy workforce - Putting home ownership within reach�and making it sustainable - Supporting small business creation & success And Improving your constituent experience by - Being proactive and transparent - Fighting for ethical governance - Working to bring customer experience best practices to the Georgia Senate |
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