Coastal Georgia congressional hopefuls gathered at a Savannah church Sunday evening to discuss the most urgent issues facing voters in Georgia’s First Congressional District. The NAACP of Chatham County invited both Democratic and Republican candidates, but only the Democratic hopefuls showed up to speak in front of the approximately 150 people at the Pentecostal Miracle of Deliverance Center.
When asked what is the most urgent issue that they see for our district, the Democratic primary candidate answered as follows [presented in alphabetical order]:
- Joyce Griggs: Health care and the cost of insurance premiums.
- Defonsio Daniels: Housing, because housing insecurity is the root of our issues with mental health, criminal justice and economic welfare.
- Amanda Hollowell: Health care, specifically how to expand Medicaid and cut costs of prescriptions.
- Michael McCord: Reining in President Donald Trump’s corruption and repealing the war powers that he has unilaterally adopted.
- Joey Palimeno: Health care, specifically how to repeal Obamacare and achieve universal health care.
- Sharon Stokes: Health care and how to repeal the Medicaid and SNAP cuts passed by U.S. Congress in the so-called Big Beautiful Bill.
- Pat Wilver: The corrupting influence of money in politics since the Citizens United U.S. Supreme Court decision.
- Randy Zurcher: Health care, specifically restoring enhanced federal subsidies for so-called Obamacare plans.
Every candidate said they opposed Trump’s decision to attack Iran, with some of the most vociferous criticism coming from the three candidates who are military veterans: Griggs, a retired U.S. Army officer; Daniels, a former U.S. Marine; and Pat Wilver, a West Point graduate and retired U.S. Army officer. Here are all candidate answers, condensed for space and clarity:
- Joyce Griggs: Wars overseas do not help Americans and Congress as the voice of the people need to decide when the country goes to war.
- Defonsio Daniels: “My brother is deployed over there, as of last week. As a disabled Marine veteran, I would say no. We don’t need to be involved in Iran. We should be treating veterans as members of our own family, and as a nation we are not. If you believe in this war, then send your own family. Don’t send mine.”
- Amanda Hollowell: Congress has abdicated its powers to the president, and that is not right. The money we are wasting on this war could and should be spent to help the American people.
- Michael McCord: Congress has delegated its power to the executive for much too long. Congress needs to rein in the president’s power to put Americans in harm’s way.
- Joey Palimino: The representatives of the U.S. people — the members of Congress — need to focus on America’s needs first. Stop the war and spend that money on our health care, our standard of living.
- Sharon Stokes: This is an issue that requires all of our attention, and shows how much more education America needs about the basic functions of government: the legislative and judicial branches need to balance a dangerous and out of control executive.
- Pat Wilver: “Most of my fellow officers from West Point, class of 2013, are out of the military. We were run ragged with constant deployments. They have no time to be with their families and they have no time to breathe. We have lost 30,000 men and women in uniform to suicide [since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks]. We sent them to war without a goal or objective that did nothing to help the American people.”
- Randy Zurcher: “Donald Trump has ruined our country’s reputation. Any moral high ground is gone. Our friends are gone because they don’t know what this madman is going to do. What about the Epstein files? We aren’t talking about those because of the war.”