With midterm elections just days away, candidates are making their final pitches to voters. Following are excerpts from remarks delivered in recent days by candidates in races important to Coastal Georgians. Click here for The Current‘s voting guide, which is updated daily.
US Congress, Georgia First District
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1st Congressional District Republican candidate Jim Kingston, speaking(4:20:54) at President Donald Trump’s rally in Perry, Saturday, Oct. 24:
“The national Left are absolutely obsessed with turning Georgia socialist blue, and I’m here to tell you that’s not happening. Now, a great baseball player once said, ‘When you see a fork in the road, take it.’ Our proud nation and the state of Georgia are standing at a fork in the road. To the right, there’s the path to prosperity. To the left, there’s the highway to hell.”
1st Congressional District Democratic candidate Amanda Hollowell, speaking at a Democratic Party rally at the International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1414 in Savannah, Sunday, Oct. 25:
“As I look at the numbers, even in my race, something that comes up to me is: We got to run it [the vote] up so I don’t go to a runoff because we are close and everyone is close and we don’t need to be close because gas is high, electricity is high, water is not clean, and they got a data center coming to everybody’s backyard. This is ridiculous. We are trying to fight this, and we can do this now. So, what I’m asking for you is not just to be excited now, but to be excited for nine days and be excited beyond those nine days. Because we are going to have to do the long fight. This is a marathon, y’all. This is not a sprint.”
Georgia governor
Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson, speaking at President Donald Trump’s rally in Perry, Saturday, Oct. 24:
“As a healthcare person, I really want people to understand. This [most favored nation pharmaceutical pricing] is a huge deal. . . We have been ripped off forever, and this man [Donald Trump] solved that problem. Thank you, sir. I need you to vote. I need you to vote to make sure that Keisha Lance Bottoms doesn’t destroy Georgia just like she did Atlanta. …Bad mayors don’t make good governors. I don’t have anything to prove. I really don’t, but I have a lot to give, and that’s why I’m running. I need your votes to get rid of Keisha Lance Bottoms.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms, speaking at the NAACP Savannah branch’s annual Freedom Fund banquet, Savannah State University, Saturday, Oct. 24:
“It [this election] is an opportunity for us to put aside the purity test. There is no perfect person. My faith teaches me that there was one perfect person on this earth, and his name is not Keisha. But think about which candidates, from the top of the ballot all the way to the bottom of the ballot, most align with your views and your priorities, and how you want to see this state go forward. …Think about the books that are being removed from our libraries. Think about our history that has been attempted to be erased and think about who can stand in the gap for you at every single level of government.”
US Senate
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Collins, speaking at Trump’s rally in Perry, Saturday, Oct. 24:
“For those of you that don’t know Jon Ossoff, let me tell you a little bit about it. You see, he’s a guy that wants to talk like Obama, look like a Kennedy, lie like Pinocchio, and vote like Bernie Sanders. Jon Ossoff is nothing but a trust-fund kid. The only thing he knows how to work is the ATM machine getting his granddaddy’s money out. This guy’s never seen a tax increase that he didn’t like, a DSA candidate that he wouldn’t endorse, or a border that he didn’t want wide open, or a Bernie Sanders bill that he wouldn’t vote for. Y’all, that ain’t Georgia.”
Democratic U.S. Senate Jon Ossoff, speaking at alongside Michigan Sen. Ellisa Slotkin at a vote-canvasser rally at the International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1414 in Savannah, Friday, Oct. 23:
It [voting] is an honor that we can exercise our rights as citizens to change the course of history for the better, and our country is in crisis right now. Georgia needs us, the country needs us, the world needs us. People are suffering. It has never cost more in American history to fill up your truck, to stock your fridge, to power your home, to go to the doctor because of the healthcare cuts that Donald Trump and Mike Collins have forced upon us hundreds of thousands of Georgians who have lost their health insurance this year. …Mike Collins at every turn has voted for the war, for the tariffs, and for the health care cuts that are forcing Georgians to suffer. But we have the power to make a difference. We have the power to change things and right the ship.”
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