Keisha Lance Bottoms brought her gubernatorial campaign to Macon Saturday, highlighting her plans for health care, education and immigration.
MACON, Ga. — Democratic gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms brought her campaign to Central Georgia on Saturday, stopping in Macon to speak with voters about issues including health care, education and immigration.
Bottoms, a former mayor of Atlanta, spoke to the crowd, some of which held signs supporting her campaign.
For some attendees, the event was an opportunity to hear directly from a candidate in the race.
“To actually see the platforms of the candidates, to see what they offer, being a family you want the best for your family and good representation,” Jones County resident Willie Dumas said.
Bottoms previously worked in Macon and said speaking directly with Central Georgians is an important part of her campaign.
“I always say the streets don’t lie, so it’s nothing like being on the ground talking directly to people, listening to people,” Bottoms said.
Expanding Medicaid is one of the issues Bottoms has highlighted on the campaign trail. She has called for investments in rural hospitals, emergency medical services, telehealth and maternity care.
“Whether we need Medicaid or not, if you go into an emergency room and that emergency room is overrun with people, then you are being impacted by our unwillingness to expand Medicaid,” Bottoms said.
Medicaid was also a concern for some attendees at Saturday’s event.
“If you don’t have the expansion of Medicaid you have longer lines, so that helps in a lot of regards,” Dumas said.
Bottoms’ Republican opponent, Rick Jackson, has said commercial health insurance is better for patients than Medicaid, according to his campaign.
Bottoms has also criticized Jackson’s candidacy, saying electing him would be “putting Trump in the state capitol.”
“If they’re pleased with the cost of gas, the cost of groceries, cost of housing, then maybe Rick Jackson is your guy,” Bottoms said.
Improving literacy rates is another focus of Bottoms’ campaign.
According to the Georgia Board of Education, 67.1% of students statewide read at grade level or above. In Central Georgia, the figure is 70% in Houston County, while in Bibb County, 45.2% of students read at grade level or above.
Bottoms said Georgia needs to invest more in education.
“We are not funding education in the way it needs to be funded, we are not allotting money accordingly based on poverty rates in this state,” she said.
Bottoms also discussed her position on immigration, pointing to her record as Atlanta mayor, when she said her administration did not work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“We will be a welcoming state, meaning that no matter your country of origin, no matter your race, no matter your nationality,” Bottoms said.
Bottoms also stopped in Columbus on Thursday ahead of her Macon visit.
Rick Jackson was scheduled to visit Perry last Tuesday, but his campaign postponed the event, saying he was feeling under the weather. His campaign said he is now scheduled to visit Perry on Friday, Sept. 4.
Source: www.13wmaz.com