Hello, I'm Karen Greer, news anchor and reporter at WSB TV 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 Senior Foundation.

This is the debate for Republican candidates running for Georgia lieutenant governor.

We have two esteemed journalists who will question the candidates.

Faith Desi is a news anchor and co-host of the Georgia Vote on 11 Alive in Atlanta.

Ty Tagami is a reporter for Capital Beat in Atlanta.

I'm going to kick off today's debate, asking each of the candidates to introduce themselves and tell viewers why they should be Georgia's next lieutenant governor.

Candidates will have 60s to introduce themselves.

We'll go in alphabetical order, starting with Greg Dolezal.

Thank you so much.

Hello, Georgia.

My name is Greg Dolezal.

I'm a husband, a father of four and a small business owner.

Senator Kennedy, I respect your service to the state.

And I've got to admit, running against a guy named John F Kennedy is what my dad used to call Dolezal luck.

And now I can't compete with the with the name, but I think I can compete with the record in the state Senate.

I led on school choice band D I mandates in public schools, wrote the Riley Gaines Act to keep men out of women's sports.

And when Fani Willis came after President Trump, I stood up and went after her.

Right now, Georgia families are getting crushed by the cost of gas, groceries and exploding property taxes, all while politicians take care of the special interests.

And that's why I'm in this race.

Georgia doesn't belong to the special interests.

It belongs to you.

And I'd be honored to be your next lieutenant governor.

Thank you so much.

John F Kennedy.

Karen.

Thank you and good afternoon.

Thank you for having us.

And thanks to the Atlanta Press Club and also to the panelists who will be questioning us.

And most importantly, thank you to Georgians who are going to tune in to be involved in the political process.

I'm John F Kennedy.

I'm a lifelong Georgian.

My wife, Susan, and I have been married 33 years.

We live in Macon, where we have reared our two children.

But I'm originally from a small town in Georgia named Adrian, where family, faith and hard work still matter.

My family instilled in me service and responsibility that ultimately led to me serving in the Senate for 11 years and being privileged to get to serve in the highest office in the Senate, of being elected as the president pro tem, where I worked hard for conservative values, but also delivered results.

I'm running for lieutenant governor because I want to keep Georgia growing.

I want to keep Georgia learning, and I want to keep Georgia safe.

Georgia needs a lieutenant governor with conservative leadership that's got a track record of operating with trust and integrity and getting the job done.

And I'd be honored to have your support.

Thank you so much for the full set of debate rules, please visit Atlanta Press club.org.

Our panel will now ask a question to an individual candidate.

We were going to begin with Faith Jesse, who will ask a question for John F Kennedy.

Once again, you have 60s for your response.

Thank you so much, Karen.

Mr.

Kennedy, my first question for you is if the federal government attempts mass deportations, what role should Georgia play?

Well, I think you first have to look at what we've been through for the last several years, and especially under the Biden administration of four years of open borders and the havoc that that has wreaked on our entire country.

Um, we've seen some difficulties, obviously, in trying to right the ship and do the right thing and deal with the immigration crisis that we've had.

The problem that we've mainly seen is where the federal authorities are coming to an area and the local areas actually work in opposition to what they're trying to do.

That has created most of the most difficult circumstances that we have seen.

So I think a collaborative effort between Ice and the federal agency, whatever that may be, uh, working with the state to deal with the issue of illegal immigration is what works best.

And when those two forces come together, that's where you see things happen in a way that they should.

It's important that we continue to work on this and do the right things, not just for Georgians, but it's obviously a national problem.

Ty Takami, please ask a question for Greg Dolezal.

Thank you.

Karen.

Senator Dolezal, um, at the last debate, you said Sharia law has no place in Georgia and you've run ads to that effect.

And I'm wondering, why is Georgia at imminent risk of becoming an Islamic State?

Thank you, Ty, for that question.

I've taken a bold stance on this Sharia law issue, and frankly, I've been criticized by members of both parties.

But we cannot allow to happen in Georgia.

What we have seen happen in places like Texas, where you have outside of Dallas, Texas, the Islamic Tribunal, where family law cases and business cases are adjudicated outside of the American court system and are adjudicated according to foreign law and Sharia law.

So I introduced a bill in the Georgia State Senate this year to ban foreign laws from being used in all of our court system and preventing tribunals, like the Islamic Tribunal outside of Dallas, Texas, from ever getting set up here in Georgia.

We need to ensure that we have American laws in American courts, and that is something I'm not going to back down on.

Despite the criticism from either side of the aisle.

All right, Ty, your question for John F Kennedy.

Yes.

Mr.

Kennedy, um, I think you've blamed other the the Senate for talking about abolishing income and property taxes but not accomplishing that.

They had some small cuts but didn't reach their goal.

You left in December, so you weren't there to participate.

But I'm wondering what if you were to return, what you would do to actually get those goals accomplished?

Ty.

I don't think the blame entirely belongs on the Senate for the loss of that.

I have expressed disappointment that they were not able.

They the legislature was not able to get relief to hardworking Georgians.

That's very much needed, and I think what I will bring to the process as the next lieutenant governor is.

I come in with a good reputation of working with all people, working with folks across the aisle, excellent relationships with those in the House and the governor's office.

And that's what it takes.

That's what Georgians expect their elected officials to do, is to go to Atlanta and do the job.

And job one for me is going to be making sure that we bring property tax relief.

Georgians want structural changes to the property tax system that we have.

We've got too many stories of older folks that are on a fixed income that are worried about losing their home because they simply can't afford property taxes.

And also, we do need to continue, as we have done since 2019, of reducing our state income tax rate.

That's something another way that we can give relief to hardworking Georgians during the difficulties that we're having now and that we're going to have in the days ahead.

And we are approaching the final question of this round.

Faith.

You're going to ask that for Greg Dolezal.

Mr.

Dolezal, as Mr.

Kennedy just said, there have been suggestions to reduce and even eliminate the state income tax in Georgia.

If that happens.

And if you are elected lieutenant governor, what services would you support cutting to pay for that faith?

I think that initially that's probably a false choice, because I don't think that we have to cut services.

I think we have to cut corporate welfare.

We give away $1.5 billion a year currently in Georgia to data center development alone.

That's one month of income tax collection for the entire state.

We have tax incentives for things like repairing mega yachts in the state of Georgia.

The film tax credit, the cigarette manufacturing tax credit.

And frankly, I'll be the first person to stand here and say that my party bears a lot of culpability in this.

For far too long, the Republican Party has been the party of crony capitalism, and we need to stop being in the business of picking winners and losers.

None of us make good hedge fund investors as politicians.

We need to drive down the rate for everyone, put government on a diet of faith.

And I think that we do that by simply reducing the rate of growth of government.

And if we get rid of these crony capitalist tax cuts, we can reduce and ultimately eliminate the state income tax here in Georgia.

And that concludes our first round.

Each candidate will now ask a question to their opponent.

You will have 30s to ask the question 60s to respond.

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

Greg Dolezal please ask a question for John F Kennedy.

Thank you Senator.

As an attorney, before you were elected, you stood alongside the Obama Justice Department fighting against the deportation of criminal illegal aliens.

And then as a state senator, you took a vote to stop an effort to ban illegal aliens from having driver's licenses in the state of Georgia.

And my simple question is why.

Grogu I, I have not aligned myself with the Obama administration on anything.

Um, there were a number of votes.

And if you want to be more specific and talk about exactly which one you're talking about or the bill or the year, I'm happy to identify that.

But if your suggestion is somehow I have been weak on immigration or weak on making sure that Georgia laws are protected.

Uh, you're simply wrong with that.

That's not a fair characterization of my record.

I certainly didn't get elected as the president pro tem of the Senate by the majority caucus to lead the Senate chamber in that regard, because I don't have the bona fides of being a true conservative.

And you have rebuttal.

I do the two cases where Muhammad versus Holder and Morsi versus holder, in which John worked alongside the Obama Justice Department to prevent the deportation of criminal illegal aliens.

And as for the bill, the year was 2015.

There was a floor amendment made by then Senator Josh McKoon to try to add language to a bill to ban illegal aliens from having driver's licenses here in the state of Georgia.

And John voted against bringing that amendment to the floor.

Mr.

Kennedy, you now can ask a question to Mr.

Dolezal.

Greg, you have said that we should not send people from 4 hours south of Atlanta.

Uh, to represent us.

And the most important areas of this state.

Well, 4 hours south is the Port of Savannah, the port of Brunswick, and Georgians who power this hardworking state that we have.

So what disqualifies someone from Middle or South Georgia from fighting for all of us here in this state?

Thank you, John, for the question.

That's a lawyerly mischaracterization of what I was saying in the point that I was trying to make when speaking to people in the north suburbs whose counties are at risk of turning blue, and should those counties turn blue, we will forever lose the Republican majority in the state.

However, in the work in the Senate, John, I've been happy to link arms with you and provide funding for the Port of Savannah.

As the chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, I've been happy to work to provide historic Hurricane Helene relief for those in rural Georgia.

And then, John, after you quit the state Senate to run for office this year and left your constituents without a voice in the Senate for half of the legislative session, I was able to work with my colleagues to expand the rural hospital tax credit to shore up a vital stream of income to the rural hospitals that are so desperately in need of funding.

Rebuttal.

Yeah, Greg, you and I both know that is not a mischaracterization of what you said.

It's on video.

You're making a political speech to a GOP group, and you said exactly what I said.

And it wasn't in the characterization that you just stated.

It was that you don't want anybody and nobody.

4 hours south of Atlanta deserves to be the lieutenant governor or the governor to serve the most important areas of this state.

So that's not a fair characterization of exactly what you said.

And finally, with regard to me resigning my seat, I did so because I didn't want to stay in the Senate for the 2026 session and play the political games that you guys were going to run for higher office to utilize that position to try to get further political gain.

I separated myself from that, and I was said by the toll by the constituents back home.

They thought it was a move in integrity and they appreciated it.

All right.

For folks watching at home, this is the Republican runoff debate for Georgia lieutenant governor.

We'll now go back to our esteemed panel, who will ask questions to the candidate of their choice until we run out of time.

Tyre, we're going to start with you.

Um, Senator Dolezal, one of your key bills this year was about, uh, investor owned rental homes.

The bill did not pass.

It was blocked by the House.

And I'm wondering if you were lieutenant governor, how would you be any more effective at getting the House to pass your measures?

Thank you.

Todd, that's a great question.

This is a vital bill.

You know, right now, the American dream is on life support.

The middle class is being squeezed.

The average age of a first time home buyer in America is 41 years old.

And we see metro Atlanta, which spans all the way from Henry County, really up to Dawson County.

By this metric, leading the nation in out-of-state hedge funds, private equity groups usually funded by foreign investment money, gobbling up single family homes and turning them into rental properties.

We did reach a little bit of a headwind in the house this year, but we did have a number of House members in areas that were affected by this come and say they thought this was the most important bill of the session.

The special interests pushed back hard against this bill, but we need to ensure that the American homes are for American families to live the American dream.

I grew up in a middle class family.

My mom was a public school teacher.

Dad was a paper salesman.

They built their their wealth that they currently have through the equity in a single family home.

And we cannot lose that opportunity for the next generation.

Faith.

Jessie, who would you like to question?

Thank you, Mr.

Dolezal.

I also have a question for you.

You say that you support banning d e I mandates and measures.

Do you agree that all Georgians are already equal?

Absolutely.

Faith.

We are rooted in that idea.

In d e I runs contrary to that idea d e I does not look at opportunity d e I simply looks at outcome.

It attempts to divide people by race, by sex, by gender.

My father in law is a public school bus driver back in Forsyth County and under a d e I program in Forsyth County schools.

He was told that he could not refer to the students on his bus as boys and girls, but he needed to use more inclusive language.

In a middle school in Forsyth County, on the first day of school of school intake form, middle schoolers were solicited for their preferred pronouns, and the teachers were asking if they could use those preferred pronouns when they communicated with their parents.

Now, that is the kind of thing that we need to fight back against.

The Georgian people do not believe in that kind of radical ideology.

I was happy to write a bill, get it passed out of the Senate and the House, and ultimately signed by Governor Kemp to end that madness in our public school system.

Ty Takami, who would you like to question?

Um, this is a question for both of you.

I'll start with Mr.

Kennedy.

Um, one of the topics of the day is data centers.

There are concerns among critics that data centers and the Georgia Power, the utility that that supplies them with power, don't have to reveal as much information to the public and to the decision makers, particularly local decision makers, as people would like.

They can withhold profit information, fuel energy, use information.

And I'm wondering if you think the state should require more disclosure.

Ty, regardless of what the topic is or who's involved, I think more disclosure is always good, especially when you're talking about entities or people that are involved with in the public domain.

I've been clear since the beginning of this issue that I think when it comes to data centers, there's two main things that have to be considered.

Number one, where are they located?

And I am firmly behind the position that the locals need to determine where data centers are located, because they're the ones going to be living close to them.

And number two, that whatever the increased costs are, whether it's the infrastructure to connect onto the grid or whether it's increased energy costs, that needs to be borne by the data centers as well.

And so I've been consistent all along that for the data centers that are looking to come to Georgia, that has to be the metrics by which they're allowed to come.

Faith, your next question was this question.

Was for both.

Sorry for both.

I'm sorry.

Thank you, thank you.

I agree with John on the disclosure side, no NDAs for local governments, no eminent domain to expand data centers in a local area.

The other piece, though we may find some disagreement, is I am wholly and utterly opposed to tax incentives for data centers.

Back in 2018, John voted to put this tax, this tax abatement in place.

I wasn't in the Senate at the time, but in 2022, when I was, I voted against the renewal of the data center tax abatement.

John was on the other side of me on that issue.

But then just last year in the Regulated Industries Committee, we had to answer the question is whether or not we should force data centers to pay their pro rata share of new capacity, new power grid expansion.

It was Senate Bill 34.

I said that I believe that we need to put in the law that the data centers should pay their fair share, and John voted against that measure as well.

So we have alignment on the disclosure side, but on the on the economic incentives, I think that's where we find a little bit of difference between John and myself.

What would you like rebuttal?

Yeah, rebuttal.

Yeah.

Greg, that's not a fair characterization.

In fact, what you've alluded to earlier is a bill from 2017, House Bill 434 claiming that the eminent domain issue that we're seeing happening right now with some families that are unfortunately losing their home, is because of a vote that I took in 2017.

And in fact, that Bill does not provide that power to data centers or anyone that bill specifically dealt with municipalities being able to deal with blighted property so that they could put it back for economic use.

So you've not been consistent with folks when you message on this issue.

And secondly, with regard to the data center tax credit, I am in full support of reviewing that tax credit, as well as any and all tax credits in the state of Georgia to determine whether or not they have outlived their useful life, or if it's no longer good for Georgia.

We need to look at eliminating them.

All right.

And time is ticking away.

Faith.

Your next question.

Mr.

Dolezal.

My next question is for you, a short one.

Do you agree with everything that President Donald Trump is doing?

I don't think I believe with everything that anyone is doing, however, I am a strong supporter of the president.

I'm.

One of the first questions you asked was around mass deportations.

I'm a strong supporter of mass deportations.

I'm a strong supporter of the tax cuts that we have.

I'm a strong supporter of the president, putting people in agencies that are going to drive down regulations on the American people.

No president is perfect, but I stand strongly behind this president.

I supported him in 2016, 20 20-20 24, and back in 2020, when he was looking around for fighters to help him investigate the 2020 election.

I was proud to be one of the four senators out of 56 that stood up and called for a special session.

John, I want to come back to the eminent domain thing.

I was not trying to characterize that eminent domain vote at all.

The vote that I'm referring to is House Bill 696 in 20 18-12 91-20 22, that were both votes that you made to give $1.5 billion to the data centers.

Well, Greg, if you want to be honest, what you need to do is say that at the same time that we were considering putting regulations on data centers and energy consumption and whether or not that cost would be passed on to the ratepayers, is that the Public Service Commission also had their rules that were being proposed.

And so the question became, are we going to let this be subject to the legislative process and all the political whims that come with that, or should we let this be decided by the experts of the Public Service Commission?

Who are the people that are elected by the state of Georgia to consider these weighty issues?

That was the decision.

At the moment.

You're not characterizing it that way, but that's exactly what was at play.

Time is up, time is up.

And before we go to Ty's question, I want to ask you the same thing Faith just asked, do you agree with everything the President Trump is doing?

You know, similar to Greg's response, I don't know that I agree with everything anyone does.

I think that President Trump has done a very good job of leading this country, uh, especially considering coming out of the four years of the Joe Biden administration.

I think, quite frankly, the Biden administration was driving this country off of a cliff.

And thank goodness, because of the election and because President Trump has been firm in his principles.

Uh, everybody may not agree, and we probably don't agree with the way he does everything.

But the principles that drive what he does and his objectives and goals have really made an incredible difference in this country.

And putting it right on the back, back on the right path that we need to be on.

All right.

Ty, your question.

Okay, this is for Senator Dolezal.

Earlier you mentioned the financial strain on rural hospitals.

Are they on an unsustainable path?

And if so, what would you do to correct that as lieutenant governor?

I think due to the direct payment program that we've implemented over the last couple of years here in the state of Georgia, that, along with the rural hospital tax credit, has gone a long way to shoring up both the payment mix as well as the ability for Georgians all over the state to help rural hospitals.

There's also some things in the Medicaid formula that can be adjusted that currently account for income that if that was leveled out across the state of Georgia, that we could see a leveling of the payer mix there as well.

In terms of the reimbursements rates for the state.

But, Ty, yes, they are on life support.

We've seen a number of them close around the state.

And that is something that I would say that across the aisle, John, and I would agree on this.

I think Democrats and Republicans agree on this.

This is something where the state needs to step forward in a bipartisan fashion and deliver results for these hospitals, because we can't talk about economic development in rural Georgia if we are not willing to talk about health care and access to health care, that is going to determine whether or not people want to live there.

And faith, we have time for one more question for one of the candidates.

Okay.

I will direct my question to you, Mr.

Kennedy.

Okay.

Uh, Georgia Republicans have long controlled the state.

You're a Republican hoping to continue that legacy.

But if people are not happy with where things are going right now, why should they elect another Republican?

Well, I think that, generally speaking, Georgians are pleased with the leadership that we have here in Georgia.

You may be referring to some polls from nationally where there's dissatisfaction.

Uh, but depending upon what issue you poll or who you talk to, you're always going to find folks that are dissatisfied from time to time.

But I think, generally speaking, with under the leadership of Governor Brian Kemp for the last 7.5 years, this state has been very blessed to have had his hands on the helm of this economy and that his leadership in guiding us, along with Republicans in the Senate and Republicans in the House, doing things like making sure that we have a balanced budget, making sure that we are being responsible with your tax dollars, which I personally believe every dollar that you send to Atlanta is still your dollar.

And we have to use it preciously and always look for ways to use it better.

So I think those things, along with getting other conservative measures in place, I think Georgians are happy with conservative ideals and principles, and I think they're generally happy.

But I look forward to being in serving as the next lieutenant governor, to making sure that we can put things even on a better footing as we go forward, to make sure that conservative principles continue to guide the state, but working collaboratively and so that state government works for everybody.

Time is up.

And you know what?

Let's get you to answer that question as well.

Republicans for a long time, 20 years plus now in the state of Georgia, have led this state into the greatest era of prosperity in the history of the state of Georgia.

How have we done that, whether it's been Governor Deal, Governor Perdue or Governor Kemp, we've done that through conservative budgeting.

We have done that by investing in job creation opportunities in this state.

We have done that by lowering regulation and faith.

You've got to ask the question, what would the other side do?

Well, the other side is electing Democrat socialists.

People like Zohran Mamdani, who believe that government is the answer to everything.

And as Republicans, we push back against that because we believe in liberty.

We believe in the free market principles that gave rise to the greatest period of human flourishing in all of humanity.

And in November, Georgians are going to have a choice.

And I believe they're going to continue to stay on the path that has delivered.

As Georgia being one of the most desirable places to live, work and raise a family.

All right.

And that is time.

You can take a nice breath here.

That is all the time we have for the questions.

The candidates will now have 60s for their closing statements.

John F Kennedy, let's begin with you.

Great.

Thank you.

And again, thank you for being here.

Thanks for giving us a great forum in which we can interact and get our message out to all of Georgia.

When I speak of all of Georgia, I do so because I'm from a small town in rural Georgia, and we need a lieutenant governor that's going to represent all of Georgia with a record who has actually delivered results and done things in a way that has kept his promises and led in a way with honor that hopefully you're pleased with.

And you would look forward and say to your children, that's the way that someone serving in public office ought to behave.

You know, those that we work most closely with know what's best, whether it's we who we go to church with or our family or whomever we choose to spend time with.

And I was blessed to be elected as the president pro tem of the Senate and honored to serve that way.

I want to continue the the opportunity to look and do what is best for Georgia on the whole and make sure that we keep Georgia growing.

That means a good, robust economy.

We keep Georgia learning with kids prepared for their tomorrow, and we keep Georgia safe.

And that is our time.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Dolezal.

Thank you to Atlanta Press Club Senator Kennedy.

Thank you as well.

When this debate ends, forget the flashy commercials and the glossy mailers.

Ask yourself one simple question.

If a close friend came to you and said, I'm looking for a conservative fighter, who would you recommend?

The one who goes along to get along, or the one who has a record of standing and fighting?

I stood and fought alongside President Trump.

I fought Fani Willis and she even said to vote for anyone in this race except for me.

And I'm fighting to ban Sharia law and the data center tax credits.

These are two areas, multiple areas where John and I disagree.

Georgians, we have a choice.

I may not have the presidential last name, but I do have the most conservative record in this race, and I'd be honored to have your vote.

Thank you so much.

I'm Karen Greer.

Thank you all for joining us for the Atlanta Press Club.

Loudermilk-Young Debate Series early voting begins Monday, June 8.

Thanks for joining us again.