Top Priorities of Jennifer's Campaign
Reproductive Rights
The women of Georgia have the right to full bodily autonomy. Jennifer is in favor of overturning the 6-week ban and reinstating Roe v Wade. Abortion should be available through the 2nd trimester and decisions about 3rd trimester abortions should be the job of medical professionals in consultation with their pregnant patients to protect their health, without undue interference from legislators who have no medical knowledge.
Medicaid Expansion
The people of Georgia deserve to have access to high quality medical care. Georgia currently has the second highest percentage of uninsured residents, and is one of only ten states that have not taken the Medicaid Expansion under the ACA. That means Georgia taxpayers pay for a benefit they have no access to. Plus, Georgia has a crisis of hospital closures, in both rural and urban areas, due to not enough resources for uninsured patients. Considering this expansion will save us money, it's a no brainer!
Voting Rights
There is nothing more sacred in America than representative government and the right to vote. Georgia should be doing everything possible to make it easier to vote while preserving security of elections, such as stopping purges of voters, making Election Day a state holiday, and making mail-in voting more accessible. Our elections structure should also be fair, such as using an independent redistricting committee to draw lines rather than legislators themselves, and using voting systems like Ranked Choice Voting to give voters more choice in their candidates without having costly runoffs.
Other Important Issues
Education
Every kid in Georgia has the right to an excellent public education. Public schools should be fully funded, and no taxpayer money should be going to private schools or homeschooling where there is no input or oversight into the education program. Schools need the resources to teach your children well, and teachers need the necessary support. Struggling schools should be given more resources to have smaller class sizes for more individualized attention and services to help students and their families such as access to counselors and social workers. Teachers should be paid enough to live in the communities they serve, especially taking the cost of housing into consideration, and they should be supported by the community instead of demonized or treated as glorified babysitters. Access to higher education should also be expanded. GA should have free community college for all, and very low in-state tuition for universities. The HOPE scholarship, Zell Miller, and HOPE Career grants should be expanded.
Wages and Labor Rights
GA Legislators should be fighting hard for workers. Georgia's minimum wage is currently lower than the Federal rate of $7.25. That is insanely low, translating to an annual income of $14,500, which would leave any person in dire poverty, let alone able to support a family. Jobs that keep people trapped in poverty mask the true extent of unemployment in GA and prevent us from addressing the problem. Georgia's minimum wage should be immediately raised to $12, and then increased to $15 over time and pegged to state inflation going forward.
Georgia is also ranked 3rd from the bottom in Oxfam's list of Best and Worst States to work in. Our poor labor protections will prevent us from keeping top workers in the state, making it harder to attract businesses. Georgia should consider implementing a variety of pro-worker policies including paid sick-leave, overtime regulation, protections against wage theft and discrimination, reliable scheduling legislation, safety standards, better unemployment insurance, and the right for workers to organize.
Criminal Justice and Safety
Our criminal justice system should be smarter, not meaner. A criminal who gets out of jail with no help or training will only go on to commit more crime, costing us even more money and harm to public safety. We need to give them better options, by addressing issues of poverty, education, and health care.
Guns are clearly a major element of the crime problem here in Georgia. While law-abiding people have the right to own guns for their own use, we need to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. Every gun sale should require a background check, including issues of domestic violence or mental health, and there should be a mechanism to remove guns from the hands of people who have been proven to be unsafe with them. Guns should also be required to be stored safely, so they are not at risk of becoming stolen or being accessed by children.
Climate Change
It continues to get hotter and hotter in Georgia every year, and storms get worse and worse. We need to be doing our part at the state level to fight climate change, by taking actions such as installing charging stations for electric vehicles, investing in producing more solar and wind power (including solar panels on residential homes!) and encouraging development in the state of Georgia to be sustainable and energy efficient. Investing in these growing areas could also bring excellent economic development to the state, so it would be win-win! We should also expand public transportation options to get less cars on the road, easing both traffic and pollution.
Taxes
The recent changes to Georgia's income tax to be a flat tax has pushed the state's tax system to be more regressive. We should repeal the change to ease the tax burden on working families and to ensure that the wealthy pay their fair share for the benefits of living in a great state with great services.
Housing
Like the rest of the country, Georgia is suffering from a shortage of housing. Our kids might want to stay here after college, but they won't if they can't afford a place to live! We should encourage more building of apartments and multi-family homes by reforming zoning laws and incentivizing builders to build affordable rental units and starter homes for first time home buyers.
