Hello, I'm Ronald Bailey, politics reporter 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 Author and Blank Family Foundation and the Robert Charles Loudermilk Senior Foundation.

This is the debate for the Democratic candidates for Georgia Insurance Commissioner.

We have two journalists who will be asking questions.

Murdaugh Donastorg is a business reporter at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and Adrian Murchison is a journalist at the Supporter Report in Atlanta.

Keisha Waites is unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict and is represented by an empty podium.

I want to kick off today's debate and program with ask.

Asking a question to Deandre Mathis to introduce himself and tell viewers why he should be Georgia's next Insurance Commissioner.

DeAndre, you have 1 minute to introduce yourself.

Hello Georgia, my name is Deandre Mathis and I'm running for Georgia State Insurance Commissioner.

I'm running because for the last 1012 years at the desk I sit behind, I have become increasingly frustrated at the unfair pricing because of credit factors used in Georgia.

This is a burdensome to middle class and working class folk, and it needs to change.

I'm Deandre Mathis.

I'm the only qualified candidate in this race with insurance experience and fire training experience.

Please vote Deandre Mathis.

Thank you so much for the full set of debate rules, visit the Atlanta Press Club's website at Atlanta Press club.org.

Our panel will now take turns asking a question to the candidate.

Each panelist will ask one question to Deandre Mathis.

We'll start with Myrtha Donastorg.

Mr.

Mathis, given that you have worked as an insurance agent for many years, what would you say to skeptical voters who think that you may side with your industry over them when it comes to rate increases?

Well, those that know me know that I have made a reputation in my industry as the pushback agent to corporate, uh, folks do not have to worry about whether I am an insider.

Frankly, the fact that, again, credit and zip codes are being used to disparage desparately affect working class Georgians.

The insurance executives are not happy that I'm out here, and so Georgia can count on me working for them and not the executives.

Thank you so much, Adrian Murchison.

Now, you may ask a question to Deandre Mathis Mathis.

Mr.

Mathis, along those lines.

Studies have found that drivers in majority black communities in Georgia often pay higher auto insurance premiums.

If those disparities have been documented, then why do you think Georgia's regulatory system has allowed them to persist?

And if elected, what changes would you pursue to address them while still allowing insurers to assess risk?

One about 12 years ago, the Republican legislature literally gutted the teeth of the power of the Insurance Commissioner's office.

And the fact that you don't hear Republican insurance commissioners complaining shows that they're in on the grift.

About 12 years ago, they actually rewrote the legislature so that the insurance commissioner actually no longer has the power to deny rate increases.

That's one problem.

The other problem is that per premium collected in this state, per premium collected by insurance companies in this state, Georgia's insurance Commissioner's office is staffed 40th among the 50 states in this country.

So in essence, no one is guarding the henhouse.

That needs to change.

Thank you so much.

That concludes our first round.

Deandre Mathis.

You may now ask a question to your opponent, who is represented by an empty podium.

Take a moment to do that if you'd like.

I don't have a question.

Understood.

Thank you so much.

Can I just please.

I can ad lib.

Absolutely.

You have.

I'll give you 1 minute.

Go ahead.

1 minute.

Okay.

So I just want to say that I'm a father, and, uh, I have four outstanding kids.

My son is in the Army, currently stationed in Augusta, part of cybersecurity program.

My oldest daughter is an attorney right here in Atlanta.

I went to Oglethorpe University, Mercer Law.

My middle daughter is a Mercer grad who's a Clayton County middle school teacher.

And my baby daughter just graduated from Westlake High School and is on the way to young Harris College in the fall.

And I'm so proud of him.

Thank you so much.

You're watching the Democratic runoff debate for Georgia Insurance Commissioner.

Now we're going to go back to the panel to ask questions to Deandre Mathis until we run out of time in this round, we're going to kick off with Adrian Murchison.

Go ahead.

Your question for Deandre Mathis.

Rural Georgians often face fewer insurance options and higher costs.

What would you do to make coverage more accessible and affordable outside of metro Atlanta?

Well, rural Georgians face the same issues that metro Atlanta's faced.

Uh, you always have that other side of the track narrative, no matter where you are.

So rural Georgians, particularly those of color, still face the same hurdles, uh, as metro Atlanta Georgians.

I'd like to pivot, though, because a lot of folks don't know that the insurance commissioner is also the chief fire safety officer in Georgia, where rural Georgians need help most.

Uh, with financing the fire stations.

Most of our fire stations are manned by volunteers.

And that provides for extreme, uh, issues with regard to first responders.

And so that's one issue that I particularly am going to focus on in rural communities, along with the Governor Keisha Lance Bottoms addressing closing hospitals.

We want to also address fire stations that need to be manned and need to have money put behind them to protect these rural communities.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Donastorg.

A question from for you for Deandre Mathis.

Speaking of fire safety and inspections, a pillar of your campaign is to make sure that schools, hospitals and rural communities are prioritized for these safety inspections.

How specifically would you do that?

And would that mean pushing urban areas to the bottom of the list?

No, that's not going to mean pushing urban areas to the bottom of the list.

I'm specifically going to ask the governor of the 18 million, $18 billion surplus that's being bragged about by Republicans.

I'm going to specifically ask the governor, uh, to allow 1 billion of those funds so that we could enhance our rural fire stations, enhance the safety for for folks in rural communities around Georgia, because it's an absolute dire issue.

Uh, my, my family's heritage, although I'm born and raised right here in Atlanta, my family's heritage, at least on my father's side, is from Thompson, Georgia.

And so I consider rural Georgians to be vital.

Uh, I don't look at Atlanta as the end all, be all.

I've gone across this state with this campaign since February first, and rural Georgians are going to be vital to our administration.

Mr.

Mathis, I wanted to ask you a question, a piece, an interesting piece of legislation that went to the governor's desk signed by the governor was Senate Bill 444.

And the basics of that legislation is if AI is brought into a health care decision and it rejects it, then a human being has to touch that piece of legislation.

Talk about, in the bigger scheme of things, AI, its role in in setting rates and even making decisions.

And what you would do to regulate or oversee that.

Well, I've actually had this question posed to me by those who work in the insurance industry in claims and adjusting my stance on it is that we're not going to have AI override the industry.

We are not going to let AI just displace, uh, all of our human assets where AI can be efficient.

Uh, then certainly, uh, that's, that's acceptable.

Uh, but if I'm elected, AI will not take the place of human interaction, uh, in the claims process or in the adjusting process or any process where it's more apt for human interaction, uh, to take place.

Thank you so much, Adrian.

A question to Mr.

Mathis.

Advocates for mental health are concerned that mental health coverage is not always treated the same as physical health coverage.

What responsibility does the insurance commissioner have to ensure mental health parity laws?

Well, mental health is considered the same as physical health.

Your insurance providers are there to provide for mental health as well.

So I don't see where we're going to treat mental health any differently than we treat physical health when it comes to our insurance needs.

If insurance companies are handling mental health differently, then we'll address those, uh, through our regulatory efforts, uh, and get to the bottom of it.

But we won't handle mental health differently than physical health in this state.

If I'm elected.

Thank you so much, Mirtha.

Your question.

Mr.

Mathis, nearly two years ago, Hurricane Helene devastated parts of Georgia.

More recently, wildfires have been ravaging the southern part of the state.

So in states like Florida and California, some homeowners are being dropped by their insurance companies because of natural disasters.

How would you tackle rate increases that could come in Georgia from increasing costs of these climate driven disasters or policy cancellations for homeowners in flood zones?

Uh, first, these narratives around these disasters somehow, uh, crippling insurance companies, that narrative is completely bogus.

Insurance executives continue year after year to receive millions of dollars in bonuses with regard to disasters like the one you spoke of.

We're going to, if I'm elected, we're going to create a tracking system whereby folk who have complaints, folk who have claims that have not been efficiently addressed.

We're going to track those disputes.

We're going to publicize those disputes.

We're also going to track and publicize our investigative efforts.

And then at the end of the day, we're going to publicize the insurance companies resolution to that matter.

I think that's the best way to do this.

Uh, in order to make the insurance account, the insurance companies accountable to the public, we're also going to assign a grade to those companies.

Once we get that system in place, and then folk can decide which companies they want to do business with based on that information.

Thank you so much.

I want to wrap up with a quick question.

One of the large packages that came through legislative package through Governor Kemp's second term was tort reform, civil litigation reform.

How do you, as the insurance commissioner, draw that line of lower rates coming out of that?

How do you make sure that happens?

First of all, uh, in my humble assessment, the tort reform, uh, was not designed, uh, because insurance companies are somehow paying too much.

To be quite frank.

I believe tort reform under this administration was implemented so that they could have a legal way to discriminate against folk.

I've said this since February around the state, but unless and until you see Morgan and Morgan and some of these other big name law firms having press conferences where they are announcing that they're scuttling their offices and moving out of Georgia, then know for a fact that certain folk who are well connected, high dollar, are still going to be made whole.

And so this tort reform law has to be reversed, because it's simply a way for them to discriminate against making making folk whole who they don't think they have to make whole.

That's all the time we have for questions.

John Deandre Mathis, you now have 1 minute to wrap us up here.

Tell us why you should be the next insurance commissioner.

Georgia, I believe I should be the Democrat nominee for insurance commissioner because, one, I'm the only candidate that has the insurance and requisite fire training experience.

I believe that I would be most effective standing on stage next to John King in November to highlight the hypocrisy of Republicans who go around dismantling, die for qualified minority participants, and instead turn die on its head with unqualified folk who they appoint as fire and Safety and insurance commissioner merely because they were born in Mexico City.

This has to stop.

I believe I would be a champion for Democrat issues, and I would put the spotlight on Republicans hypocrisy in November.

If I'm standing on stage next to John King.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Mathis, and thank you to our panelists as well for appearing.

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

I'm Raul Bailey, thank you so much for joining the Atlanta Press Club Loudermilk-Young Debate Series.