Hello, I'm Jim Burress, host of All Things Considered at WABE in Atlanta.

Welcome to the Atlanta Press Club.

Loudermilk Young debate series from the studios of Georgia Public Broadcasting.

The 2026 debate series was made possible by grants to the Atlanta Press Club from the Arthur Blank Family Foundation and the Robert Charles Loudermilk Foundation.

This is the debate for Democratic candidates running for Congressional District 11.

Here's a map that includes parts of Cobb, Cherokee, Pickens and Bartow counties.

We have two journalists who will question the candidates.

Krystal Dickson is a journalist for Axios Atlanta.

Ross Williams is deputy editor at the Georgia Recorder.

Now I'm going to kick off today's debate, asking each of the.

Candidates to introduce themselves and tell viewers why they should be the next congressional representative for district 11.

Candidates will have 60s to introduce themselves, and we will go in alphabetical order.

That means starting with Chris Hardin.

Well, thank you very much.

My name is Chris Hardin.

I am a husband, a father of triplets and a defense attorney.

I'm running for the CD 11 because I'm a fighter, and I'm one of you.

Uh, I grew up in a North Georgia trailer.

Uh, I didn't come from any advantages, but the public health, the public education system, and the student loan program gave me my opportunities.

And I want to fight to make sure that every child is given the same opportunities that I was given for over a decade, I have fought to help families stay together in juvenile courts throughout North Georgia.

I know what health care or lack of health care, poverty, and a broken system can do to our neighbors.

Washington is currently being run for the benefit of billionaires and bullies.

While North Georgia families are being squeezed and our personal liberties and rights are being suppressed.

I fight in courtrooms every day.

I understand how these systems work.

I'm not a career politician.

I'm just a dad from a trailer park who wants to bully the bullies.

All right.

Thank you very much.

And we will now hear from Barry Wolford.

It's your turn.

Thank you.

Good morning.

I'm Barry Wolford.

Thank you for hosting this debate.

I've spent six months traveling across this district, meeting with hard working people who are doing everything right and still falling behind.

They've been squeezed by constantly rising costs, exploding health care bills, and wondering if anyone in Washington is paying attention.

In just the last 15 months, we've seen unprecedented abuse of presidential power, rising costs, global instability, and a government that clearly puts politics over people.

Meanwhile, families are choosing between groceries and prescriptions, and young people can't afford homes.

We're not getting solutions.

We're getting chaos.

It's time to send working people to Congress, people who actually will take on the powers that be, including powerful lobbies and out-of-touch party leaders.

I've spent my professional life over 35 years solving real problems in the real world.

I will fight for lowering your health care costs, costs, saving Social Security, and making housing more affordable.

My name is Barry Wolford.

I'm asking for your vote in this election.

All right.

Thank you.

And for the full set of debate rules, please visit Atlanta Press club.org.

We'll now go to the panel who will ask a question to each candidate.

And Crystal Dixon, please ask your question for Barry Wolford.

Mr.

Wolford earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security was purchasing properties used to use warehouses to house undocumented people they detained.

While this policy has been placed on hold, local governments and residents have had little to no say in whether they want these centers in their communities.

If elected, what will you do to ensure there is more transparency around this process?

Thank you for the question.

So first of all, um, you know, the issue with Ice and its detention centers is highlighted by what's going on out in the western part.

Excuse me, the eastern part of the state where they want to put a detention center up that houses 10,000 people in a town that has 5,000 residents.

This they don't have the infrastructure.

They don't have the security.

And more importantly, the people don't want it there.

As a congressman, I will fight to make sure that we look at how and where we're going to house our immigrants or the people that are detained, and make sure that we have transparency, not only in that vetting process, but that we see how they're taking care of what conditions they're put in, and that we have access to these facilities.

We cannot let ice control this problem by hiding people away.

We must we must have transparency.

I will vote in support to hold funds if necessary in order to make that happen.

Um, that nobody in this country should be afraid of their police force.

And, Russ Williams, please ask your question to Chris Harden.

Thank you.

Uh.

This is a district that regularly votes for Republicans.

And in fact, Congressman Loudermilk won in 2024 by, uh, or I should say, with about 70% of the vote.

What makes you think that you can overcome that kind of disadvantage, and what is it going to take to do so?

Great question.

And I get that asked quite often.

And I'm going to tell you, like I told Nate Rich, when when I went up and introduced myself, I said, my name is Chris Harden and I'm about to beat Loudermilk.

He said, well, what makes you think you can do that?

And I said, because he's never ran against anybody like me.

There was no they've never had anybody that looks like me and sounds like me that thinks the way that I do, that knows his arguments and knows how to sell it.

I've been in North Georgia for my whole life.

I have my colleagues and friends are all conservative, and I've done these debates with them my entire life and.

But I know how to reach them.

And at the end of the day, there's a lot of them that voted for Trump, but they didn't vote for what they're getting.

They wanted secure borders and they're getting detained or they're getting occupied cities.

They wanted cheaper gas, cheaper groceries and affordability, and they're not getting any of that.

And so that's going to be my platform and that's how I'm going to reach them.

Crystal you may now ask your question for Chris Harden.

Everything is more expensive, as we see every time we go to the grocery store or fill up our tanks and everyone is feeling the squeeze from every direction.

If elected, what specific legislation would you introduce to address portability issues that average everyday Americans are experiencing?

The great question.

It's probably the number one issue that that I hear at the town halls.

Um, look, if you work a full time job, you should be able to afford your groceries, your housing, your child care, your health care, and even have some left over for retirement.

You know, one of the things, obviously we need to stop the tariffs, but we also need to end these forever wars.

They're driving up the cost of gas.

And when you drive up the cost of gas, it's driving up the cost of everything else.

It's driving up plastic, which everything in the grocery store is either stored in plastic.

It's also driving up the cost of transportation.

So we need to do that.

But we also, um, we also need to get housing back down.

There's a bill that's been introduced that's coming back down to the House.

It's the 21st century Housing Road to Housing Act.

It's going to put more housing supply and cut the red tape so we can get more supply into the market, so we can lower the cost of housing.

All right, Russ, it's time for your question for Barry Wolford.

So a CNN poll conducted in March found that only 28% of Americans have a favorable view of the Democratic Party.

To be fair, for Republicans, it was only 32, so not much higher.

But as a Democrat, why do you think that so many Americans have a negative view of the party, and what should the party leadership be doing to turn that around?

Well, I think if you took that poll today, you'd see some different numbers.

Um, you know, Congress does not have the highest rating in any poll that you take.

And part of that is because of the partisanship that has taken over our federal government.

Um, what we need to do is we need to work across the aisle.

We need to find people that are willing to work for problem solving.

Um, I am ready on day one, I will reach out to anybody that wants to help reduce your health care costs, wants to save social Security, wants to help you with your Medicare, wants to reduce, uh, student and medical debt that wants to take on special interests, that wants to change inside voter, uh, inside trading in the Congress.

So I think part of the problem is, is that, uh, the Republicans have had control for a while, and they've controlled the narrative.

And now the Democrats are riding a blue wave.

And I think when we take back the House and hopefully I'm up there, we're going to be able to change the narrative on that.

And I think the polls are going to reflect that.

And that concludes our first round.

The candidates will now ask a question to their opponent.

You will have 30s to ask that question, 60s to respond.

And the person who asked the original question will get a 32nd rebuttal.

And Barry Wolpert, please ask your question to Chris Hardin.

Thank you.

Um, so, Chris, this contest is really a test as to who is going to replace Loudermilk, and we'll be better than any alternative on the Republican side.

What are the ways that you see you would represent this district differently from Loudermilk?

That's a great question.

And I see myself doing a lot of things different than than Barry Loudermilk.

Uh, one, the number one complaint that we have when we go to these things about Loudermilk is that he's not he doesn't stay in contact with his constituents.

I have a my team is already working on a plan to set up.

So we will have offices where we need to have offices so we can have constant contact with our constituents.

I also intend to do town halls after elected as well, so I can, you know, find out what's going on in Gordon County and in Pickens County.

Uh, and also let the public know what I'm trying to do in Washington.

So I think that would be a huge thing that people would like to see out of the representative that Loudermilk is currently not doing.

All right.

Chris Hardin it is.

Um, I'm sorry.

Uh, actually, you get a rebuttal there, Mr.

Wolford.

Well, I appreciate that.

Um, some of the things that Loudermilk has done, he's also not for, uh, reaching across the aisle.

He's very Partizan.

Uh, again, I want to work across the aisle.

Um, he's restricted efforts for, uh, abortion access and federal funding in that respect.

And I believe that, uh, everybody under the Constitution has the right to access to health care, and a women's access is a right and a personal choice.

And these are more of the other things that I believe that we need to change from.

Loudermilk's previous.

Thank you.

Now, Chris Hardin, it is your turn to ask your question.

Mr.

Wolford.

Your voting record is a little concerning.

In the past eight years, you have pulled three Republican primary ballots and only two Democratic ballots.

Specifically, you pulled a Republican ballot in 20 18-20 22, when the president was not on the ballot.

What Republican position did you support at those times, and why should Democratic voters trust you now?

Well, this is not the first time I've been asked that question, and I'm happy to answer it.

So in 2018, I do what a lot of what a lot of informed and educated voters do.

And we do strategic voting in the primary.

When a Democrat is sure to win that their seat, we look at where can our vote best be used in 2018?

This was the Stacey Abrams governor's race.

And I decided since Miss Abrams was going to win the Democratic primary, fairly certainly, I voted in the in the Republican primary to try to set her up against a weaker candidate.

The same thing in 2022, when Senator Warnock was running for his full seat.

I voted for Herschel Walker because I believed he was the the weaker candidate.

So this is not something that, uh, that is unknown and that people will do.

And also, Chris, I believe that you voted in the Republican primary in 2024.

That's correct.

I did, um, that was I voted for a couple of friends of mine who were running for judges.

And at the time, I didn't realize that they were going to be bipartisan tickets.

But the reason why I asked the question is because you're a platform seems to be a little self-serving for a New York real estate agent who wants to focus on housing, Social security, and, um, and health care.

Uh, my platform and I haven't really heard you talk about any of the social justice issues.

And my platform is about women's reproductive rights.

All right.

Thank you for that.

And yes, actually, you'll have 15 seconds if you would like to offer.

It's not a lot of time, but my platform of self-serving is to make health care affordability.

It's to save your Social Security.

It's expand.

Expand Medicare.

It's to bring housing prices down.

These are not self-serving issues.

These are the issues of the people in the in the district.

If you've been out actually talking with them, as far as where I come from and how I got here, I don't think that's relevant.

Thank you for that.

We're moving on now.

And you are watching the Democratic primary debate for Congressional District 11.

We'll now go back to the panel, who will ask questions to the candidate of their choice.

Until we run out of time.

And Crystal Dixon, we start with you.

This question is actually for Mr.

Wolford.

Um, after Georgia's six week abortion ban went into effect, reporting by ProPublica revealed at least two women died after they were unable to get legal abortions in emergency medical care.

Recently.

This year, a woman in southeast Georgia was charged with murder after she allegedly took abortion pills to end her pregnancy.

Women in other states have also been charged with crimes after they've miscarried.

What policies should be enacted to protect the lives of women who are facing emergency pregnancy complications?

Thank you for the question.

Um, these are terrible, terrible things that happened.

And Georgia's abortion ban, or the right for a woman to choose is at the center of this.

Now we need to get Roe v Wade back into the books across this country.

I do believe that states have the right to make their own choices, but there is no right if you're infringing on personal rights.

So I am deeply saddened by these events that happened because they were unnecessary.

Um, I believe that at the federal government, we can have a better conversation around saving the lives of people.

Our health care system should be there to support people and make sure that unnecessary deaths don't happen.

This country has a high high of infant mortality rate compared to other countries, as well as, uh, the health care issues regarding women.

Um, I would fight for that.

That is a very important issue for me.

And I will look at doing whatever kind of federal legislation we can do to make sure that people have access to doctors and make their own choices.

And Ross Williams, time for your question.

Thanks.

This one's for both of you.

Uh, we hear a lot about the different wings of the Democratic Party, the more progressive wing, the moderate wing, to kind of give voters a sense of who you are, what they can expect from you.

Could you tell me about a current politician or maybe recently serving politician who you would be, you know, see as a role model or somebody who would be similar to you philosophically?

What do you want to answer that.

Mr.

Harden, if you'd like to begin?

Absolutely.

Um.

Well, I'll describe myself as a moderate Democrat, and the reason why I say that is I'm very, uh, socially liberal.

And those are some of the things that I'm never going to compromise on.

Uh, women's reproductive rights, uh, equal protection, due process, civil rights.

Those are things that, um, I'm just never going to compromise on.

But on the other side, I still believe that the markets and the government are both powerful, but that they should work for us, not the other way around.

I believe in market solutions.

I believe that the government should make things stable and make things fair.

But I still believe in market solutions.

I believe that's what makes me more of a moderate, and I think it will appeal to the voters that we need to get in November.

All right.

Mr.

Wolford.

Yeah, I believe your question was about who to work with.

Who do you see.

Either a current elected official or someone recently who would be a role model to you, someone that would show voters what.

To expect.

So let me answer the question that you asked.

So certainly here in Georgia, I think Lucy McBath has done a fantastic job, and I would look forward to working with her, uh, Shawn Harris, when he wins, the 14th will also be somebody who's just a great fighter, but somebody that's in Congress that I have done some research on, that I'm very interested in working with and serve as a role model is Jimmy Raskin from Maryland.

He is the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee, and he has held a lot of hearings into a lot of the issues that we are looking at, whether that be Ice or whether that be health care or other things of that nature.

So Congressman Raskin is somebody I would like to look at.

There was also a recent post on Facebook by Congressman Greg Murphy out of North Carolina.

He's the only sitting active physician in the in the House.

And he held he sits on Ways and Means, which is a committee I would like to be on.

And he held the fire to the health care CEOs because of his personal experience dealing with a medical issue.

So I would be happy to reach across the aisle and talk to Congressman Murphy about making our health care better.

But those are some of the people I look forward to working to.

With and Crystal Dixon with Axios.

It's your turn.

Mr.

Harden.

I want to give you the opportunity to ask the question.

Answer the question I posed about the abortion ban.

Do you need me to reread the question?

No.

Okay.

Yeah.

So basically, what policies should be enacted to protect the lives of women who are facing facing emergency pregnancy complications?

So this is one of my major platforms, if not the major platform.

I want to change the argument.

I believe that pro-life and pro-choice argument is archaic, and it doesn't get what we it doesn't solve our solutions.

Um, pro-life seems to just be about pro-birth.

And that's where that side stops.

Um, I've had so many women come up to me at town halls and give me the same story about how they had a miscarriage and had to carry a dead fetus in their body because they couldn't get the health care that they needed.

And those women are fortunate because they were able to come and tell me their stories.

There's a lot of women who can't Georgia is number two in maternal death rates, 85% of those are preventable.

Uh, it's not acceptable what we're doing right now.

We have to change the, the, we have to change the argument because it's not it's causing more deaths.

It's not helping anything.

And, and a lot of women are choosing not to get pregnant because they're, they're afraid that if something goes wrong, they won't be able to get the health care that they need.

And so I'm wanting to fight for that.

And Ross, your turn to ask a question.

I was hoping to ask both of you, if you are elected and Democrats take back the House, would you support Hakeem Jeffries as speaker and why or why not?

Uh, I'll answer that.

Uh, yes, I would support Hakeem Jeffries.

Obviously, we'd have to see who else was running.

So this is a theoretical question, but I believe that, um, Minority Leader Jeffries has done a good job.

We're seeing a lot of House races being won.

We're seeing the blue wave happen.

And, uh, short of somebody incredible emerging beyond that, I would support Mr.

Jeffries to be the speaker of the House when we take back the Senate.

Excuse me.

The House.

And, uh, but I will I will leave it that if somebody ran that was more compelling, I would be open to changing my mind.

If that happened.

Mr.

Harden.

Very similar answer, but I'm going to add that, um, I just want, I just want whoever's going to lead to fight back when we had the shutdown.

And it's the, it's the tough part about being the party of empathy, right, is when the, the results of our actions start happening and we start seeing it affect our constituents, we back down.

They don't understand is, you know, people are very, very resilient.

Poor people are very resilient.

And but they can't fight for themselves.

You were elected to go fight.

So if you're going to go up there, fight for them, don't back down.

And especially don't get a promise that we knew that they were going to not keep anyway.

Um, so if he if he wants to get up there and fight and, and change some of these to make things more affordable, to get women's health care in place and reproductive reproductive rights in place, fight for public education, then I'll stand with you or I'll stand with whoever is ready to fight for that.. Crystal Dixon, your turn.

Yes.

This question is for both of you.

Do you support term limits?

And if so, why?

Or if not, why not?

Sure.

I'll start.

I'm not opposed of term limits, but my thing is, is we already have a solution for that, which is you can vote if you if you don't like the age of a candidate, don't vote for them.

If they've been in too long, don't vote for them.

If they're being crooked and.

And you don't trust them, don't vote for them.

If we're going to have that kind of energy, I would like to go up there and get work on getting money out of the politics.

I want to overturn Citizens United.

I want to do away with insider trading.

Uh, also, you know, one of my concerns as a as an attorney is that I believe that term limits is probably going to end up being a constitutional amendment.

And what I really fear is if we were to have a constitutional convention, what other things would the current, the way the current administration is in.

What else would they be trying to force in.

So like I said, I'm not opposed of it, but we already have a solution for that.

And that's just our power to vote, which you can do right now.

The first day to vote is today.

So I'll try to answer that a little bit more clearly.

I do support term limits.

You know, I, I too, would love to think that in a perfect world, our voters would be able to decide and vote people in and out.

But unfortunately, the money has gotten control of this game.

And so when you look at hundreds of millions, if not $1 billion being spent on presidential races and hundreds of millions being spent on congressional races, it's no longer about that because the electorate doesn't get an equal opportunity to see the candidates.

So I do think that we have an aging Congress, and people have been there for too long, and they have the money and the power to stay.

So I do support term limits.

At this point.

I think we need to bring in fresh blood.

I think we need to have new ideas coming in, and I support the the constitutional amendment for that.

Ross Williams, your turn.

Also for both of you, kind of maybe along similar lines, uh, where do you stand on a ban for members of Congress trading stocks?

And what would you do if you're elected in that regard?

I think.

Mr.

Wilford.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, that's a no brainer.

Absolutely.

Uh, you know, people are not the rich are getting richer on this information.

Every congressman, every federal employee at the cabinet level, everybody who's involved with these decisions and has access to this information needs to have their investments and, and portfolios put into blind trusts.

Um, we can no longer trust our people to just play by the rules.

And so we've seen this happen.

We saw this happen just before one of Trump's tweets where the futures and options on oil went through the roof and hundreds of millions of dollars were made moments before a tweet went out.

So I support that 100%.

Uh, myself included, whatever little money I have in the bank will put in a blind trust.

We have to take.

We have to restore faith in our Congress, and we have to take this ability to put themselves above the American people and make money off the American people, like Trump has done, as he's increased his net worth by 1 billion, $4 billion.

And Chris Harden, your turn to answer the question.

I agree with Mr.

Wilford.

I think it is a no brainer.

We need to get money out of politics.

We need to stop with the insider trading.

It was one of the most disgusting things that I saw during Covid is when a lot of congressmen started dropping certain stocks and picking up others.

It's it's I think everybody's starting to see the grift from the, the, the other side of the party or the other side of the ticket.

Um, we see Donald Trump trampling on our Constitution for his grifts.

All of his policies seem to be, if you just follow the money, you can understand why he's doing the policy.

And that goes for Ice.

That goes for our foreign affairs.

That goes for his domestic policies.

They're all about the grift.

So I want to get money out of politics so we can get back to trusting our our government.

All right.

That's all the time that we have for the questions.

The candidates will now have 60s for a closing statement.

And Barry Wolford, please give your closing statement.

Thank you.

So listen, this afternoon, you heard from both of us.

And not surprisingly, we're aligned on many of the issues.

So this primary really comes down to one thing.

Who do you feel is more prepared and ready to fight for your future?

Trump made a lot of promises and delivered on none.

No health care policy, no enhanced funding for the ACA, no job creation, no lower grocery prices, no end to the war in Ukraine, no reduction in the national debt.

And the list goes on and on.

Costs are up.

Health care is more expensive than ever, and house housing feels out of control.

Prosperity should not be only reserved for the few.

It should be available to everyone.

We can choose a better outcome, a better tomorrow.

But we need someone that can make a difference on day one.

And that's why I'm running.

I'm a parent.

I'm your neighbor.

I'm a local business owner, and I am someone who has spent decades solving real world problems for real people.

This job requires tested judgment and proven leadership.

Experience doesn't require guarantee wisdom, but wisdom requires experience.

I believe I am the person who can best deliver the results.

I'm Barry Wolford, and I'm asking for your support.

Chris Harden, your closing statement.

Thank you.

First, I want to thank the Atlanta Press Club and the Loudermilk-Young Debate Series for for hosting us today.

I want to thank our moderator and the panelists for participating as well.

And I want to thank Mr.

Wolford for being here as well.

Uh, I want to thank my team and my volunteers who have been working really hard to turn my campaign into a movement that is going to bring, uh, effect change in CD 11.

And I want to talk to my, my neighbors in the CD 11.

Our silence is no longer acceptable.

We can no longer let others speak for us or louder than us.

We are we the people.

And it's time that we stand up and let our voices be heard or forever hold our peace.

I am a fighter.

I've fought to get where I am today.

I fight for my clients in the courtroom and I will fight for you in DC.

So please join me and let's do something different together.

Thank you.

Early voting starts today, April 27th and runs through May 15.

Election day is Tuesday, May 19, and we want to thank all of the candidates and our panel of journalists.

We'd also like to thank the Atlanta Press Club and Georgia Public Broadcasting for arranging today's debate.

I'm Jim Burress, thanks for being with us for the Atlanta Press Club Loudermilk-Young Debate Series.