Hello.

I'm Archana, the Atlanta bureau chief for Nexstar Media.

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 M Blank Family Foundation and the Robert Charles Loudermilk Senior Foundation.

This is the debate for the Republican candidates who are running for Congressional District 11, district 11 includes parts of Cobb, Cherokee, Pickens and Bartow counties.

We have two journalists on the panel who will ask questions to the candidates.

We have Melissa Fato with the news, the evening news editor at WABE in Atlanta, and Jill Nolan, the editor of the Georgia Recorder.

We're going to kick off today's debate, asking each of the candidates to introduce themselves and tell you why they should be the next congressional person representing district 11 candidates.

You have 60s to introduce yourselves.

We'll go in alphabetical order.

We'll start with Rob Adkerson.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Rob Adkerson, and I've been in the fight to save America for nearly two decades, working to limit government overreach and working to elect strong conservative Republicans at all levels, from school board to president in the Georgia GOP and other activist groups.

For the last 11 years, I've been honored to serve this district as Congressman Barry Loudermilk Chief of Staff.

So I truly understand what this job entails.

I'm honored to have the full endorsement of Congressman Barry Loudermilk, as well as the endorsement of Turning Point, uh, founded by Charlie Kirk.

Uh, CPAC and, uh, and just today, Tea Party Patriots endorsed my campaign.

I'm, uh, pro-life, certified by Georgia Right to Life.

And I'm the only candidate in this race that has 100% rating with Georgia gun owners.

I'm endorsed by a humbling list of leaders across the district, but the only endorsement that matters, folks, is yours.

I want to earn your vote on June 16.

Thank you.

All right, Rob, thank you so much.

John Cowan.

You're next.

Thank you to the Atlanta Press Club for this debate.

An opportunity to tell the voters why I should be their next congressman.

I am Dr.

John Cowan, a neurosurgeon and businessman, a father of four wonderful children who know and love the Lord.

My wife's an anesthesiologist, and we're blessed to live in northwest Georgia.

I grew up on my grandfather's cattle farm, where I learned the value of hard work, sacrifice, and accountability.

I knew from an early age that when something was broke, you didn't complain about it.

You just went and fixed it.

You didn't blame anybody else.

That's what got me into medicine, and that's why I want to run for this office.

I'm tired of career politicians continuing to sell our future generations to China, and bankrupt this country.

We've got a career politician next to me, and I'm the only outsider in this election.

I hope to earn your vote on June 16th.

All right, John, thank you so much.

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

Now we'll go to our panel.

They're going to ask a question to an individual candidate.

We'll start with Melissa Fato.

You will ask a question for John Cowan.

And again, you have 60s to craft your response.

Melissa.

Mr.

Cowan, you finished first last month, but there were enough voters who cast their ballots for other candidates to force a runoff.

What's your message to those voters this time around?

Well, I think if you look at the data, 80% of the people who voted said that they wanted a change.

They did not want a career politician.

They wanted a political outsider.

And of those people, over half of them supported me.

We've knocked on 15,000 doors.

I've been out in this district.

I've listened to your concerns, your hopes and your fears, and I can address them because I live amongst you.

I've paid taxes with you.

I went through Covid with you, and I've served this community making hard life and death decisions alongside you and your families, praying with you each step of the way.

Jill Nolan, you'll now ask a question to Rob Adkerson.

Hi, Congressman Loudermilk has represented this district for over ten years, and you've been his chief of staff.

Do you how do you plan to to build on his his time in office, or do you plan to go in a different direction?

Well, you know, I've told folks, folks ask me, are you will it just be a continuation of Barry Loudermilk office?

And that would not be an insult to me.

Barry has represented this district with integrity.

He has extremely high approval ratings in this district, but we have built a team of high quality people.

Our constituent services is one of the best in the nation, rated by folks in DC who rate those things.

So a lot of that, that continuity will be great for the folks in the district who, who have to work with the office and have to go through constituent services, whether it's VA, uh, you know, Social Security, immigration, any of those things that we help hundreds and hundreds of people with, with the federal government on a policy front, we are in line as far as our founding principles.

Our personalities are different.

You know, I've kind of told folks if if Barry Loudermilk is Thomas Jefferson, I may be a little more like Patrick Henry.

I may be a little more vocal so that, you know, we're going to continue the fight and we're going to continue the progress that we've made over that, over that 11 years.

All right.

Rob, thank you.

Jill.

We'll stay with you this time.

You get to ask a question to John Cowan.

Thank you.

You're a neurosurgeon, so you're very familiar with the American health care landscape.

Um, you say that you want to fix the problems created by Obamacare.

Um, what are those problems exactly?

And how do you plan to improve healthcare access for Georgians in your district?

Well, you're only giving me 60s to answer a question that takes about six years to answer.

There are numerous problems with Obamacare.

I've practiced medicine for 30 years, and I've lived through what well-meaning politicians try to do to fix our profession.

This is one of the reasons I want to run.

Guys.

We're losing physicians in the U.S.

House.

We spend 20% of our economy on health care, and all we see is prices going up.

We see executives getting rich, and you can't access your doctor.

The politicians we have up there right now say they want to fix it, but they don't know how to fix it.

I've been endorsed by the Health Freedom Fund and the Doctors Caucus in Congress.

They see me as a health care leader.

I've been president of Georgia neurosurgical.

I've been on our national Washington Committee for over 20 years.

I've done Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Fellowship, as well as a club for growth fellowship.

So I know how to fix this plan.

We've got to get site neutrality.

We've got to get price transparency.

We need competition across state lines, across insurance companies, with insurance companies.

We've got to put doctors back in charge and get the government out of the exam room.

All right, John, thank you so much, Melissa.

We'll go back to you.

Get to ask the last question this round to Rob Adkerson.

Mr.. Mr.

Atkinson, your campaign materials say that you want to restore common sense to Congress policy wise.

What does that mean?

Well, that's a great question.

We've all seen what's going on in Minnesota with the fraud, the daycare fraud.

And we've heard about hospice fraud in Ohio.

Now we're learning about some more stuff.

And we know that the vice president has launched a task force to go after this fraud.

But the problem is restoring common sense, in my mind, is to get Congress back to to actually writing the spending bills.

Right now, what happens is they write a bill and they hand it over to bureaucrats to decide where the money goes.

Well, the Constitution did not grant bureaucrats the ability to decide where our money goes.

If Congress is going to spend money, they need to take the responsibility to write the right to spend that in detail.

Like Justice Alito once told them, if you don't want the Supreme Court interpreting your laws, then do your job and write them in detail.

We have to do the same thing with their with their constitutionally directed power to spend the taxpayer money.

All right, Rob, thank you so much.

That concludes the first round of the debate.

Each candidate now gets an opportunity to ask their opponent a question.

You'll have 30s to ask the question.

Your opponent will have 60s to answer the question.

And the person who asked the question, you get a 32nd rebuttal.

We'll start with Rob Atkinson.

Please ask your question to your opponent, John Cowan.

Okay, John, before moving your campaign from the 14th to the 11th district, you deleted your social media accounts that included hundreds of tweets attacking President Trump and attacking his supporters.

You you expressed strong support for Liz Cheney and impeachment.

You called Trump supporters a cult.

But now, oh, oh, you said Donald Trump should never hold any form of leadership in the Republican Party.

But now you're plastering the airwaves in the mailboxes with photoshopped pictures of you and the president.

So my question, John, is, what will it take for you to flip flop back into a Never Trumper?

Well, Rob, I'm glad you've read our mailers.

I hope you read it and you learn from it, because what I will do is serve with integrity.

I will not hire my family members to work in my office.

I will find the best and brightest, not just the nearest and dearest.

Um, listen, I'm 100% behind President Trump.

He's the most transformational president of my lifetime.

He is addressing the issues that politicians like you have failed to address for the last 50 years.

We are taking on Iran.

We are taking on the deficit.

We finally have permanent tax cuts, and we will finally be able to fix health care once I join his team.

So I'm looking forward to the opportunity.

The president knows I'm a winner.

We won in the primary.

We're going to win in the runoff.

I make the Republican Party bigger, faster and stronger.

I will enlarge the conservative tent, and Rob only creates a small, tiny shack that robs us of all ideas.

Rob, you got a 32nd rebuttal.

If you'd like to say a few words.

There you have it, folks.

A finger in the wind politician.

When it was expedient, he was slamming the president when it's expedient.

Now he's loved up with the president.

The thing is, I've been consistent for the last 20 years fighting for these things.

Donald Trump knows where I'm at.

I've spent the last 3.5 years serving alongside Congressman Loudermilk, deconstructing the lies of Nancy Pelosi's J. Six sham committee.

And Donald Trump is well aware of that.

So I've been consistent.

The choice here could not be any more clear.

And I'm asking for your vote to go stand with the president.

Over his last two years.

You've consistently hired your family members and friends on the taxpayer's dime.

You continue to show that you don't understand this job because chiefs of staff do not have the power to hire and set salaries.

Only the member of Congress can do that.

All right.

In the interest of time, we will continue with this debate.

John, it's now your turn to ask Rob Adkerson a question again.

30s for the question.

60s for your answer, Rob 30s for rebuttal.

John Rob, you said the other day that people entering the country illegally and have been here for many years should not necessarily be deported, that deporting some of them would cause an uproar.

Your words, not mine.

At the same time you said you support that you oppose amnesty.

So help me understand the distinction.

Is someone entering illegally and who is someone who's been here illegally and remained here for 25 years.

And the government finds them out?

Is that person allowed to stay here permanently?

And despite violating the law or and how is that not some form of amnesty?

Well, let's take this above the bullet points on your mailers and your campaigns.

What I said originally was we're going to run up on an issue that we have to go ahead and address when we're doing mass deportations.

And the overwhelmingly the American people want anyone here illegally to leave.

What I described was a reality because I I've been studying these things for a long time.

I didn't just come to the fight.

What's going to happen is there are going to be those people and we're going to have to address that situation when it comes.

I am not for amnesty at all.

I'm telling you, there's going to come up because we've let this problem go on for most of our lives.

John.

It's been it's been for every year they say there's 11 million illegals in the country, and then a bunch come in and there's still 11 million, and then there's still 11 million.

What I'm what I'm describing is trying to get ahead of the issue so we can start talking about it and actually solve the problem beyond bullet points on a piece of.

Mail, it sounds like you're frustrated trying to solve this problem.

And guess what?

June 17th will give you a break.

Okay.

All right.

Well, that is the time that we have for this round of the debate.

Again, you are watching the Republican runoff debate for the congressional District 11.

We'll now go back to our panel, who will ask the candidates questions of their choice until time runs out.

Jill Nolan, we'll start with you.

This is this is for both of you.

And I'll start with Dr.

John Cowan.

If you're elected, would you commit to holding regular, regular town hall meetings so you can hear from your constituents, constituents?

Yes, absolutely.

Look, that is the primary job of a representative is to be that liaison between the people of the 11th district and the federal government.

So I think visibility, accessibility is of prime importance, but also building a great team.

Again, we've got to find the best and brightest in this district to serve this district to make sure we have top notch constituent services, not just getting awards from Washington insiders who give everybody an A plus there, but people who recognize across this state that we are we are the premier office.

My parents tried to get their passport from Barry Loudermilk office.

They couldn't.

They had to go to John Ossoff's office to get it.

That will not happen when John Cowan is the congressman out of the Georgia 11, we will have the finest services, we'll be the most accessible, and we will help the citizens where they need it most.

Yes, absolutely.

I'll commit to holding town halls.

I've got an entire plan.

And what we did, part of what we constructed under Congressman Loudermilk was a sector by sector, regular meetings and advisory meetings from people in the community, whether it be community leaders, business leaders or activists and grassroots leaders.

So I've been to I've been to dozens and dozens of grassroots meetings during this campaign.

And Dr.

Cowan hasn't darkened the door of a single GOP meeting this entire time.

Those are the people that typically show up at a town hall meeting or somebody, whether it's on the right or left, it's those activists who show up at those meetings and he's avoided them at all costs.

I will meet with all.

Of them.

Thousand votes then, and knocked on 15,000 doors.

I go where people go.

Let's have Rob finish his his comment before we get to you.

John, let him talk.

Okay.

Go ahead.

You done so yeah, the answer is yes.

I will continue to be available and meet with my constituents and continue the things that we've done over this last 11 years.

There's a reason that Barry Loudermilk has a 70% approval rating in this district.

He's running against a straw man career politician who just term limited himself.

By the way.

I want to before I get back to a panel, I want to follow up on a question that both of you brought up earlier.

We'll start with you, Rob.

Is there a policy or policies by President Donald Trump that you disagree with and explain why?

And we'll have the same question to you in a moment, John.

So I have disagreed with when we talk about tariffs, in the beginning, when he talked about doing, you know, unloading a whole lot of tariffs, I was not necessarily a big tariff guy.

But then he's kind of slowly proved now that that more of what he was doing with tariffs was about resetting the world stage.

We were supposed to have free trade, but other countries were taking us to the cleaners.

So I originally disagreed about the tariffs, but then I was proven wrong.

And I've seen that what he did is reset the balance of the world.

And we have we have better agreements with a lot of countries around the world because because he was actually right in the end.

But I did disagree publicly.

So do you agree with all of his policies currently?

Just to clarify.

Currently I can't think of a single one I disagree with.

All right, John, your turn.

So is that the policy where you called him the liar and the fraud in 2024?

Look, I think we've got to get away from the mean tweets.

I think the the American people need to hear clear, concise voices from their leaders.

We've got to get out of the comment sections of social media and get to the business of solving problems for the American people.

Is there a policy of his, though, that you do disagree with?

No, I'm in full, full alignment with the president.

All right.

Since he referenced me.

Absolutely.

Okay.

He's doing he's doing mail and TV on this.

It's making a lot of people mad.

This he's he's calling me swamp and he's using a Nancy Pelosi tactic.

It's called a wrap up smear.

He took a post that I made on July 14 of 24, the day after the president was shot.

And I said, despite his first term being filled with lies and fabrications, he still did a great job in his first term.

He took that word lies.

I was clearly talking about the president being lied and fabricated against.

And he, in his swampy way, is sending out TV mailers and turned it around.

Anybody who read the post could.

Noem you do get a rebuttal?

I think you hear the swamp fighting back because he's scared to lose his job.

All right, let's continue with our panel.

Melissa, you get the next question to one of our candidates.

Um, Dr.

Cowan, uh, on your campaign website, you say that you'll work to make it, quote, easy to vote and impossible to cheat.

Do you believe there's election fraud occurring in Georgia and that there are obstacles to voting?

If so, how will you fix those issues?

And I'd also like to hear from Mr.

Adkisson on the same issue.

Sure.

I mean, look, the FBI just raided the Fulton County election offices, and I think they're looking for evidence of clear fraud there.

Uh, I support the Save act.

I think the state of Georgia has come a long way to give faith and confidence in our elections.

But, look, we have got to have elections that people can depend on and count on.

That means showing your ID, proving that you're a citizen, cleaning up voter rolls, and stop allowing the Democrats to cheat every chance they get.

So I think the Save act is a great way to start.

I'm proud of what the state of Georgia is doing to try to clean up the voter rolls, and we'll support the president.

He's he's the first president in my lifetime who's taking this issue seriously.

Mr.

Rob Adkerson, you got the same question.

Yeah.

Get rid of John Thune.

Get rid of the filibuster and pass the Save act.

That's all we need to do.

All right.

Uh, Jill Nolan, we'll go back to you.

Your choice of a question to our candidates.

I'd like to ask both of you this question, and I'll start with Mr.

Ackerson.

If you were in office today, would you would you support a resolution requiring President Trump to receive congressional approval in order to continue the war in Iran?

Well, there's already there's already a law in place regarding that.

It's a 60 day.

And then additional additional 30 days.

So I don't know that we need any limitation, but I would have to look at the legislation that you're talking about, because it's not as simple as just limiting the president's war powers.

So I would need to see language of the legislation.

I believe this is a bill they're currently considering.

Okay.

Well, I have to take a look at it.

Uh, obviously, I believe I believe in article one separation of powers, but also there's laws already in place.

And our Commander in Chief's job, chief job is to take care and protect the United States of America.

So I think we have to we have to be very careful limiting that power to attack our enemies.

Mr.

Cowan, same question.

President, president Trump ran on the concept of no endless wars.

Nobody wants, war that lasts forever.

But the president is bold enough.

Unlike leaders in the last 50 years, to know that America's peace and long term stability will come through America's strength in this moment.

And that means taking on Iran.

These are people who are actively seeking nuclear weapons.

They've supported terrorists throughout the world.

They've killed thousands of Americans, and they'll do it if they get another chance.

So the president is applying max pressure.

I think he will continue to do so.

I do agree with Rob that the that the article 1 body needs to get in line behind the president and support him.

We've got allies in the region that are counting on us and our long term stability on the war on terror depends on the Iranian leaders all coming to a timely end.

All right.

We'll go back to Melissa.

Your choice to ask a question to our candidates.

Um, this is also for both candidates.

Um, and we'll start with Mr.

Atkinson.

Should the Department of Homeland Security, uh, have to work with local officials or their representation in Congress in order to establish new immigration detention facilities?

Uh, obviously, if they're using state state facilities or anything like that.

Yes.

If it's on federal property.

No.

Um, but right now, what our HHS is dealing with in these immigration facilities, take a look at what's happening in New Jersey right now.

It was complete chaos.

And I, and I give full credit to their Democrat governor, who sent the state police in last night to clean up clean up the criminality that was going on outside that facility.

What I think HHS would benefit more working with locals is if we we outlaw sanctuary cities, because I believe that's completely unconstitutional.

And they're fighting back against HHS enforcing our laws.

Mr.

Cohen.

Yeah, look, I'm in full agreement with Rob here on this.

Sanctuary cities are the prime reason we're in this, as well as the poorest border under Joe Biden.

Uh, the local officials, particularly those in Cherokee, Bartow, Pickens and Cobb have been begging that Ice agents and border officials work with them to remove criminals from our jails, that up until President Trump got back in office, we were releasing back on the street and we saw the crime they were committing against law abiding citizens.

And so anything local officials can do to help in this process, I think it is our American duty and obligation to do.

We'll ask this question to both candidates.

When it comes to health care, a lot of federal and state Democrats say that we are leaving federal dollars untapped because we're not expanding Medicaid.

Where do you stand on that in order to have more help and access, especially to rural Georgians?

Mr.

Cowan, we'll start with you.

Sure.

You know, look, rural health care is very important.

It's vital in the state of Georgia to many, uh, health systems, though, have abused that power.

And it's one of the reasons we're having trouble funding it.

We obviously need to send block grant money back to the states so states can decide what to do.

And I think states need to take full advantage of it.

We've got to take care of our farmers, our people who live out in in the communities who grow our food and, uh, and make our economy hum.

Uh, rural health care will be improved if we get rid of things like stark laws and anti-kickback statues that prevent doctors who want to go to those rural areas from actually innovating and owning centers, owning hospitals, surgery centers, taking risk on their shoulders to provide that level of care.

Right now, there's a disincentive for physicians to even go out and practice in those areas.

And as your next congressman, I'm going to change that.

All right.

Mr.

Rob Adkerson, same question to you.

Yeah, we just heard from the White House what they've uncovered billions, if not trillions of dollars in Medicaid fraud, primarily going to illegal aliens.

We have to get that.

We have to get all the fraud under control.

As I as I referenced earlier, the administration is doing a fantastic job of that, and I look forward to working with them in Congress to do what Congress can do and to have oversight over these committees so that this money is not being wasted.

I believe if we get fraud under control and the vice president and the president and the folks in the administration understand that if we truly get this fraud under control, we can balance our budget and reverse our deficit.

So I'm ready.

I'm ready to get that done.

All right.

We have one last question.

We'll have 30s to answer.

Melissa, we'll give that question to you.

Your Democratic opponent, uh, says that he has what it takes to win over the people in the 11th who say they're not satisfied with President Trump's job performance this term.

If you became the nominee, what would you say to voters who may fall into that category?

We can start with you, Dr.

Cowan.

Listen, our Democratic opponents got bats in the attic and skeletons in the closet.

I mean, he's completely out of touch.

It's the party of Tim Waltz, Ilhan Omar.

They are not the solution to our problems in this country.

They've run up deficits.

They've opened our borders to illegals, and they are they are what is going to rob us of our future.

Uh, so I'm not really concerned what he thinks about our race.

Mr.

Rob Adkerson 30s.

Dr.

Cowan once agreed with him about the president.

So they kind of have a little more in common than me and the Democrat, but, uh, I'm not going to be focused on that.

What we're going to do is get through this primary, make sure that we win this general, and make sure that we win this state statewide for all of our Republican candidates.

All right.

Thank you to both of you.

And that's all the time that we have for questions from our panelists.

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

Dr.

John Cowan, we'll start with you.

Thank you.

This race represents a clear and present choice.

I've spent my career taking care of patients, creating a family, creating jobs and solving problems.

My opponent spent his career in DC answering to lobbyists and insiders.

He's put his family on the taxpayers dole and enriched himself over the people of this district.

Enough is enough.

We need a conservative outsider who knows what it means to lead and to serve.

I've signed both the front and back of a paycheck.

I've created jobs and balanced budgets.

I've made life and death decisions for caring for thousands of patients in this district in their most challenging times, and I've prayed with them all along the way.

Washington already has too many people like Rob who are robbing us of our future.

It's time to send in the doctor.

I've got your back, and I'd be honored to have your vote on June 16.

All right, Mr.

Cowan, thank you so much.

And Rob Adkerson, your turn.

Closing statements.

60s.

Thank you for the Atlanta Press Club thank you, panelists.

It's funny that he's saying what Washington already has too many of this while he's using Washington tactics.

Everything he's saying in the ads and everything he's said here today, he knows it's not true.

I made that clear.

I could not hire my family.

There's no reason, Congressman Latimer couldn't.

This is all it's all Washington insiders.

What Nancy Pelosi called the wrap up smear.

You send a lie to the newspaper, and then you use them as the source to print it.

It's ridiculous.

Everybody in this state, everybody in this in this district that is active and working in the Republican Party, all the community leaders, they know exactly who I am because I've been here.

I didn't just jump out of the 14th district.

I've been here doing the work in this district for nearly two decades.

And I raised a family and built a business here.

So the choice is absolutely very clear.

He's right about that.

Do you want somebody who's a proven conservative, or do you want somebody who two years ago was a rabid anti TrumpRx?

That's the question.

Please go to vote Rob adkerson.com.

Join our team.

We're going to be door knocking with Turning Point USA for the next few weeks.

We appreciate you.

All right.

Thank you to both of you.

And just a reminder to everyone in Georgia, early voting starts Monday, June the eighth.

It'll run through Friday, June the 12th.

And Election day for runoffs is Tuesday, June the 16th.

We want to take a moment to thank all of our candidates, as well as our panelists, and also take a moment to thank the Atlanta Press Club and Georgia Public Broadcasting for organizing this debate.

I'm your host, Arshad Chaudhry.

Thank you so much for joining us at the Atlanta Press Club.

Loudermilk-Young Debate Series.

Have a great day.