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Request a DemoHarried homeowners relieved to see bill criminalizing squatting
ATLANTA — A bill passed by the General Assembly last week would make squatting a misdemeanor criminal offense, punishable by up to a year in jail, a $1,000 fine, or both.
Squatters who forge fake leases could be charged with a felony. And judges can impose more fines based on the fair market value of rent that landlords lose. Unlawful squatting is entering and residing on the land or premises of another without the knowledge or consent of the owner.
The Georgia Squatter Reform Act would also speed up the legal process by which such intruders are removed from a home, which currently can take several months to two years. That’s often because such eviction cases are handled as civil matters in the state’s superior courts, many of which have been backlogged since the pandemic.
The bill would direct local law enforcement to issue citations and arrest people accused of squatting if they don’t provide a valid lease or proof of payment within three days. And it would move evictions involving squatting to magistrate courts, and require cases to be heard within seven business days after filing.
“Currently in Georgia law, we’re giving squatters tenant rights,” said Rep. Devan Seabaugh, R-Marietta, the lead sponsor of the bill, which passed unanimously in both chambers. “And my bill would take that away. It basically says, ‘You’re an intruder, you’re a criminal, and we’re going to treat you like a criminal.’ ”
Who's the trespasser here?
The bill would become law upon its expected signing by Gov. Brian Kemp, which can’t come soon enough for property owners like Tim Arko, who spent seven months last year trying to remove squatters from his DeKalb County home.
When Arko, 34, went to check on his just-vacated rental house near the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta last year, he was surprised to find a car in the driveway, air mattresses and several people inside the house, and about a dozen pit bulls in cages in the backyard. When he identified himself as the owner and asked what they were doing there, he said a man told him, “Oh, I’m renting this, I paid my rent, it’s my house now.’ ”
“I said, ‘No, I've never met you in my life. I have no idea who you are. If you paid someone rent, you got scammed,’ ” recounted Arko, who at the time co-owned and managed several rental properties. The man flashed a gun at him, and Arko ran away through the backyard, hopped the fence, then drove home.
Things went downhill from there. Arko called 911 and told the dispatcher that people were trespassing on his property. He said the dispatcher told him since he wasn’t in immediate danger, police would check into it when they could, and to stay away from the property. Not satisfied, Arko went back, this time with a rifle. A tense standoff took place, and when DeKalb County police arrived, it was Arko who was arrested, handcuffed and taken to jail.
Arko said while sitting in the back of the police car, he heard police officers apologize to the squatters, who brandished a key to the house and insisted they’d signed a lease with Arko’s sister and paid her 12 months of rent upfront, in cash. Arko does not have a sister.
By day’s end, Arko had been told by police that it was now a civil matter, that he was barred from entering his property, and that he’d have to file an eviction to get the intruders out. That eviction process would run from February to August, and ultimately cost him over $100,000 in lost rent, legal fees and diminished resale value of his home.
After he prevailed in court and was finally able to get back into his house, Arko found holes in the walls, appliances and the air conditioning unit gone, and damaged floors that reeked of marijuana. He said he decided to cut his losses and sold it to a house flipper.
In April 2023, while Arko was still fighting the occupation of his home, two people died from an alleged overdose, according to his next door neighbor, Mackenzie Cullum, who told State Affairs she saw the deceased rolled out of the house in body bags, and “a girl on her knees, screaming and crying.”
One of the people who died was Estercardo Ivory, the 41-year-old man Arko had first encountered at his home, according to DeKalb County Police. Previously charged with a felony in Gwinnett County, Ivory had initially responded to Arko’s dispossessory complaint with this brief answer: “I paid money to live here. I'm a tenant.” It was enough to keep his legal defense alive, but Ivory never made it to court.
Cullum and her partner Catherine Lyle said they regularly witnessed people using and selling drugs on Arko’s property, which became littered with needles and drug bags, as well as beer bottles, mounds of trash, dog poop and burnt-out stoves.
During the seven months that “six familiar faces” and many strangers came and went, some openly carrying guns, Lyle said, “We both didn’t feel safe in our house, in our yard. We also didn’t feel comfortable taking a walk at night. It was a very stressful time.”
Arko said he’s now out of the property management business, and heading back to law school this fall. Learning of the new legislation to punish squatters and expedite their eviction, he said, “Anything would be an improvement. Right now, the cops just call it a civil matter and walk away. They say they can’t do anything about it because they don’t know who to believe. All the burden is placed on the homeowner, which isn’t fair.”
Squatters, squatters everywhere
Over the past year or two, metro Atlanta has become a hotbed for squatters, who are also finding their way into homes across other parts of Georgia, according to many realtors.
A fall 2023 survey of institutional investors in single-family rental homes who are members of the National Rental Home Council found there were 1,200 illegally-occupied homes in and around Atlanta. Of those, 35% were located in Fulton County, 25% in DeKalb County, and 20% in Clayton County.
The council’s CEO David Howard said Atlanta topped all markets with homes occupied by trespassers, followed by Dallas/Fort Worth with 475 and Orange County, Fla. with 125.
“Beyond the obvious property rights issues involved with trespassing, the impact of this kind of activity extends well beyond the concerns of the individual property owner,” said Howard. “There are serious public safety issues at play here: Who is in the home? What is happening in the property? What is the risk to others in the neighborhood?”
And, Howard noted, squatter activity, which can tie up rental properties for months or years, impacts “the availability of affordably-priced housing.”
“Every incident of illegal occupation means there’s one less home available for a family in need of quality, single-family rental housing,” said Howard.
Since 2020, average rent in Atlanta has increased by about $368, or 22%, according to Rent.com. And Zillow reports the median rent for a one-bedroom property in metro Atlanta is now $1,594 and a two-bedroom unit is $2,125. Across Georgia, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $933 and a two-bedroom is $1,120.
“Squatting is a huge problem,” said Betsy Bradfield, advocacy director for the Georgia Association of Realtors, noting that realtors are reporting that squatters have taken over homes for sale and rent all over metro Atlanta, as well as in Albany, Gainesville and Valdosta.
“A lot of our female realtors are especially nervous, and they refuse to show houses alone right now,” said Bradfield. “Other people are starting to get worried and are carrying pepper spray with them. Of course a big problem is that realtors can’t get into some houses, because the squatters have changed the locks and won’t let them in.”
That’s the scenario Albany realtor Nyame Fields faced when she went to check on a property owned by one of her elderly clients who had hired a man she thought was a contractor to renovate it. Fields said when she arrived she found the locks had been changed, and the man, his wife and kids, and several other adults had moved in.
“He said, ‘I have a lease,’ and threatened to call the cops if I didn’t leave,” she recalled.
In the ensuing several months, Fields said, “They turned it into a trap house … Random people were constantly stopping by for a few minutes, then leaving; there were dogs and cats procreating rapidly, and a lot of people living in squalor. It was pretty harrowing for the homeowner,” who, Fields said, eventually took the man to court and “got him evicted.”
Bradfield testified in favor of House Bill 1017 before the Senate Judiciary Committee last month, telling lawmakers that some private properties invaded by squatters have been turned into venues for “human trafficking and drug cartels.”
Also testifying was Kristin Verrill, managing attorney for the Veterans Law Project at Atlanta Legal Aid, whose clients are low-income veterans, many with service-connected disabilities. She told the committee many veterans have become “victims of rental scams,” wherein they believe they’re lawfully renting from legitimate property owners, and pay large deposits and monthly rent through an online portal, only to find out later that the lease they signed was fake, and that they’re facing eviction.
Verrill told State Affairs this “secondary squatter scam” is especially problematic for low-income tenants, who may already have a prior eviction in their rental history. “Another eviction could prevent them from getting jobs or renting elsewhere,” she said.
Seabaugh said he heard from constituents about squatters invading the homes of active duty military members while they are deployed out of state, who return to Georgia to find their homes “trashed and taken over by criminals.”
Army Reserves Lt. Col. Dahlia Daure told WSB-TV that she came home from her active-duty job in Chicago last year to check on her home in Ellenwood, which she’d just renovated for $35,000 and was under contract. A squatter with a long criminal record had moved in and refused to leave, claiming he had a lease. Police offered no relief, and told her it was a civil matter.
“I was beside myself and felt violated,” said Daure. “Had I not been serving my country, I would have been in my home.”
The impending sale fell through while she plodded through the eviction process.
“I can’t ask them to leave. I can’t put them out,” she said. “The police can’t put them out. What justice is that? … I want to go shoot out the windows, turn off the water, cut wires, but I can’t. That’s a crime. Law-abiding citizens can’t do that,” said Daure.
The squatter was later ejected and arrested on drug charges.
A faster legal process, both criminal and civil
Verrill said the squatter reform bill, which includes not just criminal penalties for squatters but also a civil process for people like her clients who were duped, to give them a chance to prove they had valid reasons to believe they had a right to the property, “provides protection for scam victims and property owners and creates a clear process for law enforcement and courts to follow.”
She said the bill was amended in the House to make sure “the judge is the fact finder, not law enforcement, which is how it should be.”
Howard said the legislation is an improvement on the current legal options available to address trespassing and “provides a more efficient and streamlined path for property owners to regain control of their homes. The bill includes a number of common sense provisions for determining who has a legal right to occupy the property.”
Besides creating the new criminal offense of squatting, the legislation removes the right for a jury trial for those accused of squatting, and moves the eviction portion of squatter cases to magistrate courts. Cobb County Chief Magistrate Judge Brendan Murphy, who co-chairs the legislative committee of the Georgia Council of Magistrate Court Judges, said those two elements of the bill will significantly speed up the process over current law.
An emerging national challenge
Georgia may be plagued by squatters, but so are many other states.
This week in New York, a group of eight migrants found squatting in a Bronx apartment were arrested on drug and weapons charges, five months after the homeowner initiated eviction proceedings against them. Meanwhile, in Queens, a pair of alleged squatters are suing a property owner over their right to stay in a $1 million home. The homeowner was arrested for changing the locks.
New York legislators filed a bill last week to define squatting as criminal trespassing and to penalize it more harshly.
Last week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 621, which gives homeowners immediate legal remedies against squatting and creates new criminal penalties on squatters.
“We are putting an end to the squatters scam in Florida,” DeSantis said in an announcement. “While other states are siding with the squatters, we are protecting property owners and punishing criminals looking to game the system.”
A bill introduced in South Carolina last week would also expedite the removal of squatters and provide stiffer criminal penalties.
The squatting issue has worked its way up to White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who on Monday was asked how worried Americans should be about squatters during a press briefing.
"This is obviously a local issue,” she replied. “The rights of property owners and renters must be protected. And we believe that ultimately, local governments must take action to address it. … Everybody wants the same thing. They want to feel safe in their communities.”
Read this related story:
https://stateaffairs.com/georgia/justice-civil-rights/how-to-prevent-squatters/
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New middle Georgia House district up for grabs due to influential incumbent’s departure
The Gist
For the first time in over a decade, voters in parts of middle Georgia’s Bibb and Houston counties will vote for a new state House representative.
House District 143 is a newly redrawn district that now extends from Macon to Warner Robins. That redistricting prompted the departure of longtime incumbent Rep. James Beverly, D-Macon. His term ends in January.
Democrat Anissa Jones and Republican Barbara Boyer are vying for Beverly’s seat. Both are uncontested in the primary.
The two appear on the May 21 primary ballots, but the primary is, in effect, a dress rehearsal for the Nov. 5 general election because neither has a primary opponent.
Jones is a chiropractor who has held numerous seats on civic and local government boards. Boyer is a retired attorney who now runs an antique shop. Georgia is an open primary state, meaning voters can choose the party ballot they wish to vote for.
What’s Happening
House Minority Leader Beverly announced in March he would not seek re-election, in part, because his district had been redrawn. A federal judge ordered state lawmakers to redo their electoral maps because they diluted Black voting power.
Before the remapping, House District 143 was largely Democrat, majority Black and consisted primarily of Macon County. The redrawn district now includes parts of Macon and extends 20 miles south to Warner Robins and remains majority Black.
Boyer, a political newcomer, said Republicans asked her to run because of her legal background. She sees the redistricting as good for middle Georgia.
“Macon and Warner Robins have always sort of been merged together in a lot of ways, and I just don’t see there’s a problem with it.”
The new House district, for example, now includes parts of nearby Houston County, which has “a pretty good school system,” Boyer said.
“I’m interested in how they run their school system compared to how Bibb County runs theirs,” she added. “Our [Macon-Bibb] district really needs a lot of help with their school system.”
If elected, Boyer said she would work to improve education, curb crime and bring more businesses to middle Georgia.
“I think I cross party lines pretty good,” she said. “I have a lot of Democratic friends and a very diverse group of friends. So I think I have a better chance of getting some Democrat and independent votes.”
Jones is a Macon native. She is the former vice chair of the Macon Water Authority Board, an alum of Leadership Macon and a past president of the Main Street Macon Board.
Jones did not return calls from State Affairs for comment.. Her top issues include public safety, economic development and more investment in infrastructure, according to her website.
Why It Matters
The winner of House District 143 will fill a vital seat that Beverly has held since 2011. He often advocated for legislation addressing health inequities, including a last-minute proposal by state Democratic leaders to expand Medicaid.
The Peach Care Plus Act would have let the state get a federal waiver to buy private health insurance for people who make around $20,000 a year. The measure failed. Beverly, a Macon optometrist, also pushed for legislation that would reduce maternal mortality among Black women.
He also led the Democrats’ effort to pass the Safe at Home Act, a bipartisan bill to protect tenants’ rights. The bipartisan bill requires rental properties to be “fit for human habitation.” Landlords must give three days’ notice and can’t shut off cooling before an eviction. Gov. Brian Kemp signed the bill into law in April.
Beverly said his decision to leave was also based on the likelihood that Democrats will not win a majority in the 180-member House.
In addition to Beverly’s departure as House minority leader, the Senate also will lose its minority leader, Sen. Gloria Butler, D-Stone Mountain. She has served since 1999. The two are among 16 legislators who are retiring. Most of the 236-member Georgia General Assembly will be running for office, many unopposed.
What’s Next?
Early voters casting ballots in person have until Friday at 5 p.m. Poll officials, however, have the discretion to keep the polls open until 7 p.m., a Georgia Secretary of State official said. Polls will reopen Tuesday, primary election day, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Residents voting in Tuesday’s primary can check their precinct location here.
Boyer and Jones will face each other in the Nov. 5 general election. The winner will succeed Beverly, who will leave office in January.
Meet the House District 143 primary candidates
Barbara Boyer
Age: 68
Residence: Macon
Occupation: Retired attorney who now owns an antique store in Macon. “I love to stay busy.”
Party affiliation: Republican
Top issues: Improving education, attracting more businesses and addressing public safety, especially encroaching crime.
Campaign cash on hand: $600 as of May 7
Family: She and husband Wesley, a bankruptcy attorney, have a daughter and granddaughter
Dr. Anissa Jones
Residence: Macon
Occupation: Chiropractor
Party affiliation: Democrat
Top issues: Public safety, economic development, more investment infrastructure.
Campaign cash on hand: $30,679.92 as of May 6
Have questions, comments or tips? Contact Tammy Joyner on X @lvjoyner or at [email protected].
All you need to know heading into the May 21 primary
Gist
Georgia’s primary is only days away, and there’s a lot to unpack.
The May 21 primary will be the first time some Georgians will be voting in new districts for state and congressional candidates. They’ll also be voting in local races for sheriff, judges, school board or county commission members. Primary winners who have challengers will go on to compete in the Nov. 5 general election. Georgia is an open primary state, meaning voters can choose the party ballot they wish to vote for.
This year, Georgians who voted by absentee ballot in the primary could face challenges due to mail delivery delays.
What’s Happening
North Georgia and metro Atlanta are seeing significant mail delivery delays. The holdup, according to media reports, appears to be at the United States Postal Services’ new Regional Processing and Distribution Center in Palmetto. The problem has led to dangerous situations in which people are not getting critical medication.
Georgia’s U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff recently grilled USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on the delays. Ossoff told DeJoy during an April 16 hearing that on-time delivery rates were abysmal. He said 66% of outbound first-class mail had been delivered on time while 36% of inbound mail had been delivered on time in the past three months.
DeJoy blamed the problem on the difficulty in condensing operations at the facility.
With the approaching primary, state lawmakers are concerned mail delays could disrupt the election process.
Mike Hassinger, a spokesman for the Secretary of State, told State Affairs that Georgia voters are ready.
“Georgia voters are already registered,” he said. “They know how they like to vote. More than half of them vote early. About 5% vote absentee by mail, just in general, and then the rest are voting on election day. So we’ve been able to set up systems that are familiar with Georgia voters so that the percentage who might be worried about their absentee-by-mail ballots are relatively small.”
Why It Matters
Georgia emerged as one of the country’s most important political battleground states during the 2020 election. The Peach State will once again play a key role in deciding who wins the 2024 presidential election in November.
In the May 21 primary, Georgia voters will whittle down their choices for whom they’ll send to Congress and to the state capitol next year.
Under a federal court-approved redistricting process last year, Georgia now has new congressional and state district electoral maps. Those maps created one majority Black seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, five new majority-Black districts in the state House and two in the state Senate.
The redistricting resulted in new seats, intriguing matchups and former politicians returning to the fray. You can see the newly drawn maps here.
What’s Next?
Here’s what you need to know to ensure a smooth voting process:
To vote early.
Early voting is April 29 to May 17. Find your polling place here.
To vote absentee.
Here’s what you can do to avoid problems if you vote absentee:
- Get your absentee ballot application done early. You can request an absentee ballot here. (The registration deadline for the May 21 primary was April 22.)
- Track your application through Georgia BallotTrax. You must have a valid absentee request on file with your county board of elections to see your absentee ballot status in Georgia BallottTrax.
- If you’ve been having mail delays, place your completed absentee ballot in an official drop box during advanced voting instead of using the United States Postal Service. Check your county voter registration and election office for drop box locations. And, yes, your absentee ballot counts. It is counted in the final tally, not just close races.
- If you change your mind about voting absentee and decide to vote in person, take your absentee ballot to your local election office, where workers will void it.
- If you need to contact your county election office, find that information here.
Update: This story has been updated with the mail-in ballot registration deadline for the May 21 primary.
Have questions, comments or tips? Contact Tammy Joyner on X @lvjoyner or at [email protected].
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Education activist Beth Majeroni challenges state Sen. Ben Watson in GOP primary
The Gist In a rare primary challenge, incumbent Republican Sen. Ben Watson faces conservative education activist Beth Majeroni in the state Senate District 1 race in the Savannah area. Watson has run unopposed or handily defeated Democratic challengers in seven previous general elections and hasn’t faced a Republican challenger since 2010, when he won 65% …
Senate District 53 incumbent Colton Moore draws criticism, challengers in his re-election bid
Senate District 53 is in the far northwest corner of Georgia, home of Lookout Mountain, Civil War reenactments and conservative firebrand U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. It’s a mostly white and Republican working-class pocket of the state where some people identify more Tennessean than Georgian.
Like Taylor Greene, state Sen. Colton Moore gained national attention and made a name for himself in the district through the same type of incendiary politics.
Moore’s antics have drawn Republican challenger Angela Pence for the May 21 primary election. Democrat Bart Bryant will be on the primary ballot next week and will face the Republican primary winner in November’s general election.
Pence, in March, told State Affairs: “While Moore grandstands for retweets and shares, real crises in his district, like toxic water contamination in our schools and skyrocketing property taxes — due to an outdated education funding formula — have gone unaddressed.”
Moore’s predecessor, Jeff Mullis, is supporting Pence.
“He doesn’t represent his district very well,” Jeff Mullis, who represented Senate District 53 for 22 years before retiring in 2022, told State Affairs. “He has been in the House for two years and now in the Senate, and he has never passed a bill of any kind that is his. He can’t influence a bill. He can’t even pass gas.”
The Senate Republican Caucus kicked Moore out last September after he launched verbal attacks against fellow Republicans for refusing to go along with him in his call for a special session to take action against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Willis is prosecuting former President Donald Trump for election interference. Moore predicted a civil war if Trump doesn’t win in November.
Then, in March, the state House of Representatives banned Moore from the chamber after a tirade against the late Speaker of the House David Ralston.
Moore and Ralston crossed swords numerous times during Moore’s time in the House, where in 2018 he became the youngest elected official in Georgia history at 24, representing District 1. He was elected to the Senate in 2022.
Moore repeatedly voted against dozens of key bills in this year’s session, including ones involving child trafficking and law enforcement. He was the only senator to vote no on the state’s fiscal year 2025 budget, which included tax cuts.
“He’s refused to help his local communities, cities and counties when they’ve had a request,” Mullis said. “He’s stopped grants for the area because of his actions.”
State Affairs repeatedly tried unsuccessfully to reach Moore for a response and to learn of his legislative priorities if he were to win a second term in the Senate. He said in March that criminal justice reform was a priority.
Moore has said previously that he and his staff spend hours, sometimes days, reviewing legislation coming up for votes. He said he follows “a strict standard of principles.”
“When it comes to a piece of legislation, and in my opinion, any piece of legislation that misuses taxpayer money, it’s not the proper role of government. I typically vote against that,” Moore told State Affairs in March. “Bills that subdue individuals’ freedoms that shouldn’t be subdued, legislation that I think grants government power that it shouldn’t have, anything like that.”
Moore’s politics have been heavily influenced by the Georgia Freedom Caucus, for which he is the vice chair. It favors social conservatism and small government and opposes immigration reform.
Moore’s challengers say his behavior is keeping things from getting done in their district, which includes Chattooga, Dade, Walker and Catoosa counties. The district also includes northwest Floyd County and the unincorporated Floyd County community of Armuchee.
Democratic challenger Bart Bryant said Moore’s Ralston rant prompted him to run against the incumbent. Bryant planned to run against Taylor Greene but ceded the race to fellow Democrat Shawn Harris, a retired Army brigadier general.
“Mr. Colton Moore has zero respect,” said Bryant, an electrician living in Menlo. “That doesn’t represent me. We need to respect one another. I’m running on respect to start with.”
Bryant said issues in the district are going unaddressed, such as mental health and overcrowded jails. As a former sheriff’s deputy, he’d work to get better pay for law enforcement personnel.
Pence also did not respond to State Affairs for comment but in the March interview zeroed in on Moore’s performative representation.
“The people don’t need any more unhinged sideshows — they need someone who will roll up their sleeves, put in the real work and score concrete wins that positively impact their daily lives,” she said.
Pence is a former Libertarian who tried unsuccessfully to get on the Georgia ballot to run against Taylor Greene in 2022. The small-business owner believes in limited government as well as economic and individual freedom. She is a lifelong North Georgia mountain resident who homeschools her children.
Incumbent Colton Moore
Age: 30
Residence: Trenton
Occupation: auctioneer and truck driver
Party affiliation: Republican
Key platform issues: Criminal justice reform
Previous public service experience: Georgia House of Representatives from 2019 – 2021; Georgia Senate, January 2023-present.
Campaign cash on hand: $24,410.33**
Family: Information not available
**Data as of May 8. Information is from the Georgia Campaign Finance Commission
challenger angela pence
Age: Early 30s
Residence: Chickamauga
Occupation: Small-business owner
Party affiliation: Republican
Why I’m running: “I’m running to be the voice for ordinary citizens who want real results,” she told The Mountain-Valley Independent.
Key platform issues: She is anti-abortion.. She is against government funding of gender-affirming care for minors. She is an advocate for “true school choice” and will work to “remove government tape and ridiculous requirements so that we can get the power back into the hands of the educators.”
What is your advantage over the other candidates?: She plans to bring principled, effective leadership to a district that has gone unheard.
Previous public or community service experience: She has coached youth sports and is active in the local chamber of commerce as well as various civic and grassroots initiatives.
Campaign cash on hand: $1,701.65***
Family: Military wife and mother who homeschools her nine children.
***Data as of May 7. Information is from the Georgia Campaign Finance Commission
Challenger Bart Alexander Bryant
Age: 58
Residence: Menlo
Occupation: Electrician
Party affiliation: Democrat
Why I’m running: He says the incumbent’s behavior in the Legislature is disrespectful.
Key platform issues: Mental health issues: They’re “a problem statewide.” Second Amendment: “If you haven’t committed crimes and you want to own a firearm, you can own it.” Abortion rights: “I hate abortion but there’s a place for it in our society.” Better pay for law enforcement.
What is your advantage over the other candidates?: “I’ve worked a real job all my life. I kind of have my finger on the pulse of what the public talks about. [Being a senator is] not a real hard job. All you have to do is listen and vote appropriately. I’ll be able to communicate across the [political] aisle.”
Previous public or community service experience: He has been a longtime member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, where he served as a shop steward, a liaison between union leaders and members. He is a former Chattooga County deputy sheriff. “Being a peace officer, you have to make some hard decisions.”
Campaign cash on hand: Bryant said he is financing his campaign with about $500 of his own money.
Family: Married to wife April for 36 years.
Have questions? Contact Tammy Joyner on X @lvjoyner or at [email protected].