Crime and education were fiery topics during Monday’s gubernatorial debate, which saw a rematch between Gov. Brian Kemp and challenger Stacey Abram. Libertarian candidate Shane Hazel joined the pair at the Atlanta Press Club debate Oct. 17.

ATLANTA — Crime and education were fiery topics during Monday’s gubernatorial debate, which saw a rematch between Gov. Brian Kemp and challenger Stacey Abram.

Abrams and Kemp faced each other on the debate stage in 2018 before Kemp narrowly defeated Abrams by an estimated 55,000 votes in the November election that year.

Libertarian candidate Shane Hazel joined the two at the Atlanta Press Club debate Oct. 17, where the candidates presented differing views on various topics ahead of the Nov. 8 general election.

Crime and gun laws draw friction at debate

Kemp has insisted that his policies and plans for going after street gangs and adding stiffer penalties on such perpetrators are helping to crack down on gun violence.

“During the pandemic, when I was talking to people about how we respond and what we were dealing with, I was hearing from educators and athletic directors and other people saying, ‘We gotta get our kids back in the classroom because we’re losing them,’” Kemp said. “They’re being recruited by street gangs because they’re not in the classroom. So those are the kinds of things that we are focused on to make sure that these kids are under the right environment.”

But Abrams disagreed, referencing mass shootings and other acts of gun violence that have occurred in Georgia and other parts of the country.

“Street gangs are one part of the problem but we have a governor who has weakened gun laws across the state, flooded our streets with guns by letting dangerous people get access to those weapons,” Abrams said. “Georgia does not have a waiting period. We do not have universal background checks. And one of the few permits that we had that was helping keep us safe stopped 5,000 people who should not have had weapons from getting them got weakened by this governor with his criminal carry law.”

Kemp stood by his signing of the state’s “constitutional carry” law, which eliminates the need for background checks to carry a concealed weapon in Georgia.

“Yes, more people are buying guns. That’s because they think that’s the only way to protect themselves because guns have flooded our streets,” Abrams said.

Abrams interjected Kemp’s repeated claims that background checks are performed when anyone purchases a gun.

“If you purchase a weapon in Georgia through a private sale (background checks are not required),” she said.

Hazel stood true to the Libertarian model of less government involvement, supporting fewer gun laws.

“Most private citizens, like I said before, go throughout their day without doing any harm to anybody,” Hazel said. “However, the people in the government with all of the guns still go after people with a badge when it shouldn’t have to.”

Candidates differ on educational priorities

Moderators keyed in on Kemp’s focus this year on content being taught in schools — in part, his signing of a bill the prevents teachings of certain race-related topics. If reelected, he plans to allocate $65 million to address learning loss from the pandemic.

Kemp said the planned funding is just a next step in the process of what’s already been done, including a $5,000 teacher pay raise.

“We have been pushing for those things. You can talk to school superintendents around the state … we have worked with them, really over the last year and a half, two years, on learning loss,” Kemp responded. “We’ve passed two different pieces of legislation dealing with the teacher pipeline, which is getting more teachers into the system. Our plan is working with higher education, including our HBCUs and others to make sure we’re getting more of the right people and more of them in the classroom to help mentor our children.”

Abrams she plans to use some of the state’s $6.6 billion surplus to expand pre-K access and an $11,000 teacher pay raise.

“We can make certain that we are increasing access to the pipeline because teachers aren’t in the pipeline because they make enough money to take care of themselves and their families,” Abrams said. “That is why under this governor, we have a 67% retention rate. Any other CEO who lost more than 30% of their workforce would be fired.”

Kemp pointed to Abrams’ previous criticism of Kemp reopening businesses and schools earlier than other states during pandemic shutdowns.

“If Stacey Abrams had been your governor over the last four years, you wouldn’t have that excess revenue because she wanted the state to stay locked down and criticized me when I opened it back up,” Kemp said.

He has used some of the revenues for additional income tax refunds to taxpayers and plans to do a one-time property tax relief grant; Hazel argued against using taxes to fund education, especially as some taxpayers don’t use the public school system.

Kemp leaned in on his record, his signing of the Parental Bill of Rights, allowing parents to intervene in their child’s education.

“Quite honestly, people are tired of their kids being indoctrinated in the classroom but we’ve also worked with our educators on these pieces of legislation to make sure that they make good common sense,” Kemp said. But I would also say that people are tired of these issues like not having fairness in girls sports and other things.”

Abrams rebutted, indicating that the overregulation of Kemp’s policies on teaching restrictions and parent interference in classrooms leads to teacher turnover.

“When a teacher is told that you have to lie to a child, which is what happened with the divisive concepts like legislation, teachers are not being able to teach a whole history of our students,” Abrams said. “As the next governor of Georgia I will repeal those laws.”

Kemp addresses discussion on contraceptive ban

When asked if he planned to push for further abortion or contraceptive restrictions, Kemp responded, “No, I would not.”

He later added “No, that’s not my desire to do that,” before deflecting to what he deems as “bad policies” by Pres. Joe Biden’s administration.

The moderator’s question to Kemp stemmed from a recent recorded conversation between Kemp and an unknown person at a University of Georgia tailgate. The recording captures the unknown person questioning Kemp about a potential emergency contraceptives ban.

Kemp does not directly say during the recorded conversation if he would support such a proposal but said it “depends on where legislators are” on the issue during a legislative session, which starts in January.

Abrams has vowed to repeal Georgia’s new abortion law, which bans abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected.

Abrams responds to conceding to Kemp in 2018 loss

Following Kemp’s victory over Abrams in the Nov. 6, 2018 election, Abrams did not concede until 10 days later.

During the debate, Abrams said after conceding she then proceeded to lay out challenges faced by voters under Kemp’s leadership as secretary of state.

She referenced stories of students being denied access to vote and voter complaints that were included in her lawsuit against her 2018 lawsuit against the Secretary of State claiming voter suppression.

“We didn’t win every single claim, but we forced massive changes to the election laws,” Abrams said. “As governor, I intend to stand up for the right to vote. I will always acknowledge the outcome of elections but I will never deny access to every voter because that is the responsibility of every American to defend the right to vote.”

Kemp pointed to his leadership as secretary of state, when he implemented online voter registration in the state.

“For someone to say that we have been suppressive in our state when we’ve seen turnout increase over the years including with minorities like African Americans, Latinos and others, is simply not true,” Kemp said.

A federal judge has ruled against Abrams’ voting rights group Fair Fight Action’s claims of Georgia voter suppression in the 2018 lawsuit, although the judge noted several state practices that are burdensome to voters.