State Rep. Derrick Jackson Running for Lt. Governor
(APN) ATLANTA – In our continuing coverage of the upcoming May 24, 2022 Primary General Election, this article contains our interview with State Rep. Derrick Jackson (D-Atlanta), candidate for the Democratic nomination for Lt. Governor of Georgia.
“I’m running for family. My candidacy is centered on families. We love to tout that we’re the number one state to do business, but we’re not the number one state for families,” Rep. Jackson told Atlanta Progressive News.
Georgia ranks 47th out of fifty U.S. states on women’s health care, Jackson said.
“Over seventy counties do not have an OB-GYN. Over sixty counties do not have a pediatrician,” Jackson said.
Rep. Jackson was elected in 2016 upon the retirement of now-former State Rep. Virgil Fludd (D-Tyrone); and has served three terms in the Georgia House.
“The Lt. Governor role is huge,” he said, adding that the Lt. Gov. “needs to be ready on day one if need be to step into the role of Governor if for any reason the Governor is ill or incapacitated or unfit for office.”
“We need to make sure that these [Senate] Committees have the representation that reflects Georgia. Why is it that a man is over the woman’s committee?” he said.
“If we have an LGBTQ committee, it should be someone who’s in that space,” he said.
Jackson served 22 years in the U.S. Navy, followed by ten years working in the corporate sector, specifically for General Electric, he said.
He said this adds up to “38 years of leadership and service” when six years in the State House are included.
Jackson said he authored sixteen pieces of legislation that are now law in the State of Georgia.
“It’s not just legislation that I passed, but legislation that I stopped,” he said.
When on the Energy, Utilities, and Telecommunications Committee, he said he blocked a proposal for drilling on the coast of Georgia by persuading the chairman of the Committee.
https://www.georgiaconservancy.org/offshore-drilling
“They wanted to do some drilling off the coast of Georgia. We stopped that.. because I simply said to Chairman Don Parsons, Sir, we shouldn’t authorize this because forty years ago, 32 years ago, twenty years ago, they tried it and there was no oil there,” Jackson recalls.
“We could do sonar, we have other devices [to search for oil]… other than drilling and disturbing the ecosystem,” he said.
“I have been a proponent that we have clean air, clean water to drink, so we don’t end up like Flynt, Michigan,” he said.
Jackson said he introduced a bill to raise the vaping age in Georgia to 21, which was incorporated into another bill and passed.
In addition, he introduced a bill raising the monthly maximum payment amount under Temporary Aid for Needy Families (TANF) in Georgia from two hundred dollars per month, to four hundred dollars per month.
Nine candidates are seeking the Democratic nomination for Lt. Governor: former U.S. Rep. Kwanza Hall (D-GA); Tyrone Brooks, Jr.; State Rep. Erick Allen (D-Vinings); Charlie Bailey, who ran for Attorney General in 2018; Tony Brown; Jason T. Hayes; State Rep. Jackson (D-Tyrone); R. Malik; State Rep. Renitta Shannon (D-Decatur).
APN has also published interviews with former U.S. Rep. Hall; Brooks, Jr.; and State Rep. Allen.
APN is in the process of reaching out to the other campaigns at this time.
https://atlantaprogressivenews.com/2022/04/20/former-state-rep-erick-allen-running-for-lt-governor/
Four candidates are seeking the Republican nomination for Lt. Governor: former State Sen. Burt Jones (R-Jackson); Mack McGregor, former State Sen. Butch Miller (R-Gainesville), and Jeanne Seaver.
Incumbent Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan is not seeking reelection.
(END / Copyright Atlanta Progressive News / 2022)