With an eye toward the open seat in Georgia's 3rd Congressional District, Republican hopefuls sparred over issues related to immigration and abortion policies during a recent debate. Brian Jack, Trump's former political director and an ex-aide to U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, flaunted his connections to the ex-president in hopes of commandeering the debate spotlight, as reported by WABE.
The contest sees other prominent Republicans in the fray, including former state senators Mike Crane and Mike Dugan, former state Rep. Philip Singleton, and Jim Bennett, a party activist, each vying for the spot vacated by U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson, while the legacy of President Trump remains a looming influence, candidates did not pounce on Jack's rhetoric during the debate. Instead, Crane questioned the constituents' autonomy in choosing their representation by asking, "Do you want to take responsibility for that vote or do you want to let Washington, D.C., insiders do what they’ve done for the last several cycles, and that is choose the next representative for the 3rd District?" as told to WABE.
Jack, who has outstripped his competitors in fundraising efforts, voiced his inclination toward state-level decisions on reproductive rights echoing a Trump-aligned philosophy. Dugan, noting his support for Georgia's restrictive abortion measures which bans the procedure after fetal cardiac activity is detected, tread carefully on in vitro fertilization without expressing a definitive stance, according to WABE. On the contrary, Crane, Bennett, and Singleton revealed no reservations on endorsing a more stringent legal threshold against abortion and in vitro fertilization, with Bennett sternly stating, "I'm against recreational abortion," indicating a philosophical stand firm from conception.
The debate also featured unanimous hand-raising from all candidates in the acknowledgment of Trump as the rightful claimant of Georgia's 2020 electoral votes, despite no substantive evidence to challenge Biden's victory. Bennett specifically criticized the use of Dominion voting machines, mirroring a widely held suspicion among party activists about the reliability of voting machines; the candidates collectively endorsed bolstering immigration restrictions, with steps as decisive as mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, Jack included, who also expressed opposition to a recent foreign aid package pending border security assurances—echoing a broader skepticism toward the Biden administration's border control strategies that was summarized by Dugan's lack of trust in Biden's commitment to secure the southern frontier, as articulated during the debate.
