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Can legislation to reduce risks posed by dangerous sexual offenders succeed this time?
Update, March 9, 2023: HB 188, the Dangerous Sexual Predator Prevention Act, sponsored by Rep. Steve Sainz, R-St. Marys, passed unanimously in the House. It now heads to the Senate. The bill requires life sentences in prison or on probation, and electronic ankle monitoring for repeat sex offenders. HB 463, which would reorganize the operations of the Sexual Offenders Registration Review Board, did not move forward.
ATLANTA — Two state legislators are planning to introduce bills that would affect how people convicted of sexual offenses in Georgia are sentenced and monitored.
One bill focuses on the highest-risk class of “sexually dangerous predators” who are repeat offenders, and the other attempts to address the staggering backlog of cases at the Sexual Offender Registration Review Board (SORRB), which rates the risks that sexual offenders pose to the public.
Rep. Steven Sainz, R-St. Mary’s, will be introducing, for the fourth time, the “Georgia Dangerous Sexual Predator Prevention Act,” intended to make life sentences — consisting of prison time, probation, or a combination — mandatory for people who are convicted a second time of one of 13 felony sex crimes. Those repeat offenders would be required to wear a GPS ankle monitor after they are released from prison.
Meanwhile, Rep. Mandi Ballinger, R-Canton, is crafting a bill that will change how SORRB operates in an effort to help the review board evaluate the risk level of more than 6,000 sexual offenders who have been convicted but not yet classified by the agency. Some of those people are incarcerated, and some are living in communities around the state while serving parole or probation.
The legislation is arising at a time when many people are concerned that the state is failing to adequately address the potential risks posed by dangerous sex offenders.
The recent kidnapping, attempted rape and murder of a young woman in Atlanta by a convicted sex offender exemplifies the need for legislative action, says Rep. James Burchett, R-Waycross, who is the majority whip and a member of the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee.
Mariam Abdulrab, 27, finished her night shift at a bar in midtown Atlanta in August 2021 and was reportedly followed home by DeMarcus Brinkley, 27, who had been released on probation 10 months earlier after serving seven years in prison for child molestation. Brinkley allegedly accosted Abdulrab at gunpoint in front of her house in south Atlanta and forced her into his car, according to Abdulrab’s boyfriend, who said he witnessed the abduction through a window. Within an hour, Brinkley allegedly attempted to rape, then shot and killed Abdulrab, leaving her body about a mile away from her home.
At the time, Brinkley had not yet been classified by SORRB. He had previously been convicted of one count of child molestation involving a 6-year-old girl.
“So we have a murder by a sexual offender that was not classified,” said Burchett. “If he was being monitored, he would have been less likely to commit this crime.”
Sainz said his bill would make it so that repeat sexual offenders are automatically monitored if and when they’re released from prison, in part by mandating long, and in most cases, lifetime probationary sentences. In 2019, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled in favor of a convicted child molester who argued the unconstitutionality of requiring sex offenders to wear ankle monitors once they’ve completed prison, probation or parole sentences.
Since that court decision, 735 of the 1,354 people classified as sexually dangerous predators in Georgia, who formerly had been required by SORRB to wear ankle monitors for life, have had the devices removed. Now most of them are tracked primarily by annual visits from county sheriffs, who are stretched to check up on all 32,000 people listed in the Georgia Sex Offender Registry.
“These higher-risk people need to be tracked when they’re out of prison,” said Sainz. “And GPS monitoring has been shown to be an effective deterrent against sexual predators.”
Sainz has expressed frustration that while the House has approved his bill three times, it has not moved in the Senate. In an effort to ensure that the bill passes this time, he told State Affairs he is considering making some changes to the bill that “would give judges more discretion when sentencing” repeat sex offenders.
Last year the bill (HB 194), which passed 110 to 59 in the House, didn’t make it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Brian Strickland, R-McDonough. Strickland said the bill stalled “because there was concern on the mandatory minimums.”
At that committee hearing, Jill Travis, executive director of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, complained that the bill mandates life in prison for a person’s second sexual offense, “no matter what the circumstances. … Life in prison means 30 years before you’re eligible for parole.”
Travis gave examples of some offenders who might receive life sentences for sexual offenses committed when they were young.
“How about improper sexual contact?” she said. “The 22-year-old substitute teacher is romantically involved with a 17-year-old student who is not actually his student. That’s a life sentence.” Travis acknowledged that the teacher would have had to have been “[previously] convicted of one of these felonies.” Travis argued for giving judges more flexibility in sentencing and around requirements for ankle monitors, asking the committee to change the sentences for several sexual offenses listed in the bill from “shall” to “may” require lifetime electronic monitoring.
Sainz complied, making that change in a last-ditch effort to pass the bill in a substitute version attached to a Senate bill related to child molestation (SB 382) in the waning days of last year’s session. The House once again passed it, but the clock ran out before the Senate could consider the amended bill. Sainz remains conflicted about altering his preferred “two strikes you’re out” approach.
“To be frank, Ms. Travis tries to find the perfect case that in theory, this could affect, and we’re trying to look at a data-based, measured approach,” said Sainz. “What she doesn’t mention are the heinous individuals that this bill would make sure that we monitor appropriately. It’s not hyperbole to say there will be more victims of sexual crimes that could have been prevented if our state had acted in a timely fashion.”
Nevertheless, Sainz said he is open to compromise this time around. “I don’t want to delay that action by insisting on the perfect bill if we can get something passed that’s acceptable to a judge and makes sure the state retains the right to GPS monitor.”
“This is difficult,” Strickland said. “It seems reasonable to make sure we’re keeping an eye on people who have a history of committing sexual offenses and taking advantage of vulnerable people. That said, if there’s a way to balance that with our desire to have a judge who sees the whole case, sees the defendant and hears all the facts, and a district attorney who may want to go in a different direction, having some judicial discretion would be a positive thing.”
The people who live in the Lakewood neighborhood in south Atlanta where Mariam Abdulrab’s body was found aren’t as measured in their view of what the punishment for sex offenders should be.
“That kind of crime, it’s the worst thing that can happen to a person,” said Robert Richardson, 72, who works as a dishwasher at the Something Special diner in Lakewood. “You hurt a person that much, that’s too bad for you. You need to be locked up for a long time, then you need to be watched like a hawk.”
“It sounds about right to me that we should keep close track of sex offenders,” said Valeria Calhoun, 64. Interviewed at the Family Dollar store on Lakewood Avenue where she works as a cashier, Calhoun said she knows the Brinkley family well, as her niece has been a lifelong friend of Demarcus Brinkley’s sister.
“He grew up in a troubled household, and I have sympathy for what his family’s going through,” she said. “But society needs to be protected. I have a bunch of nieces and girls in my family, including two granddaughters. I really don’t think people like that change. He had just gotten out of jail for doing basically the same thing.”
Tracy Alvord, who has served as executive director of SORRB since 2010, said, “Recidivism tells us a lot about a person and their drive to commit their offending behavior. When someone has been caught and yet goes on to do it again, and has a deviant sexual interest, they’re clearly at a higher risk. It’s not just someone who had this funky time in their life and they’ve stopped the behavior. They’re continuing, and they need to be monitored.”
Alvord said she would support Sainz’s bill, with or without new language giving judges more discretion in sentencing.
“As long as the focus remains on appropriate protection of the public and allows SORRB to present the judge with good, comprehensive information about the offender — because just like anybody, judges want to get it right,” she said. “Giving them some leeway to decide that a person not do their entire life in prison, and potentially do probation versus prison, depending on the case, but still being on the [ankle] monitor until and unless they are reclassified at a lower risk level, that’s all very appropriate.”
Alvord added that she’s equally invested in another bill to be proposed this session by Ballinger, which would restructure how SORRB operates. Ballinger currently serves on the SORRB board.
Due to the tremendous backlog of cases and the time that it takes her staff and board to work through them, Alvord said “the more cases we get, the more we get behind. And the concern is those higher risk sex offenders not getting the attention they need soon enough.”
While she says her team is prioritizing review of higher-risk offenders, they often don’t get enough information on some cases to do that in a timely way, particularly on offenders who move to Georgia after being convicted in other states. Some states, including Florida, she said, are slow or even refuse to provide detailed case information. Offenders with out-of-state convictions now make up about half of SORRB’s current case backlog.
In all, courts and law enforcement agencies refer about 150 cases per month to SORRB, but its 12-member volunteer board — composed of law enforcement officers, clinical counselors with sex offender expertise, lawmakers and a victims’ rights advocate — can only review and classify about 50 to 60 cases at each monthly meeting.
Alvord said the bill she and Ballinger are fine-tuning will call for the SORRB board “to focus on policy-making and assisting legislators and others to understand our work, and allow the case evaluators to do the sex offender evaluations and risk leveling, because they are really the experts at this.
“I mean, 99.9% of the time, they [board members] agree with the evaluators’ recommendation,” said Alvord. “And they spend a lot of time reading about cases when they could be using their expertise in a more advantageous way.”
To make this organizational change work, Alvord said her staff will need to expand to include more investigators, clinical evaluators and administrative staff. She has requested another $490,000 from the state to fund nine new positions for the fiscal year 2024. Currently, the total agency budget is $935,000, not counting $235,000 in federal funds for investigators that SORRB has been receiving since 2017 to help reduce the case backlog.
Ballinger’s bill will also recommend that SORBB expand its three-tiered system of risk levels for sexual offenders to five tiers, which Alvord said “will help better distinguish who is at the least possible risk and the most possible risk.”
Having five tiers of risk, she said, “would allow not just SORRB but all of the agencies responsible for monitoring or determining what’s going to happen to sex offenders to make better decisions.”
Marina Peed, executive director of Mosaic Georgia, a sexual assault and children’s advocacy center, said the proposed restructuring of SORRB makes sense.
“I can see how the additional risk levels would help better define the behavior patterns of people who willingly sexually violate other people, and also to show if some people are trying to change and making any progress,” said Peed. “But I am frankly most concerned about the capacity of SORRB to have enough staffing resources to be able to do adequate risk assessments of every sex offender that gets referred to them. Their backlog is a real problem in terms of public safety.
“The state says it wants our communities to be as safe as possible, but part of being tough on gangs and crimes is making sure that the agencies responsible for helping make that happen have the resources to do their jobs effectively,” she added. “SORRB is only one of the government agencies that are having to triage the worst of the worst cases that come before them because they don’t have enough staffing or funding. It would be really great to see that acknowledged in the state budget.”
Outside a barbecue restaurant in the Summerhill neighborhood of Fulton County, where 44 people classified as sexually dangerous predators have been released from ankle monitors in the last few years, two neighborhood friends debated the merits and drawbacks of the proposed legislation that would change how sexual offenders are treated.
“Lifetime ankle monitors sounds pretty drastic,” said Marc Ebelhar, 41. “The idea that there’s no opportunity for that person to change, and to be completely monitored at all times, seems a little Big Brother to me.”
“I appreciate that concern you have,” said Quinton Myers, 39. “But then again, think about the victims — they have a life sentence of mental and emotional abuse from being offended in a sexual manner. I have a daughter and like, God forbid anything would happen like that to her and this person goes and does it again? I can see where that law would apply. I can see that you’d want to give grace, but man, it’s such an egregious offense.”
Have thoughts or tips on how sexual offenders are handled in Georgia? Contact Jill Jordan Sieder on Twitter @JOURNALISTAJILL or at [email protected].
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Georgia Sex Predator Ankle Monitor Removals Near 670 as Legislation Stalls
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Barbershop talks and hip-hop summits: Georgia Black legislators’ group has big plans to build coalitions, boost voter rolls
The nation’s largest gathering of Black lawmakers is slated to meet in Atlanta this summer to discuss ways to boost voter participation nationwide ahead of the upcoming fall elections.
The Aug. 2-4 conference theme is “Testing 1, 2, 3.” The meeting will be the precursor to a series of events the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus plans to hold heading into the November presidential election.
“Because we’re the largest Black caucus in the nation, we’re reaching out to all of the caucuses from across the nation,” Rep. Carl Gilliard, D-Savannah, chairman of the 74-member Georgia caucus, told State Affairs. “This is the first time that I think we’re doing a total reach-out to all of the Black caucuses. We share a lot of similarities. Whether it’s voter suppression in Georgia, the same laws are going to be tried in Tennessee and the same laws are going to be tried in Florida. We share a lot of commonalities.”
Next week, for instance, the Georgia caucus is scheduled to issue a statement supporting efforts to pass a hate crimes bill in South Carolina. The bill passed in the House but stalled in the Senate, Gilliard noted.
Over 700 Black legislators represent about 60 million Americans, according to the National Black Caucus of State Legislators. In addition to the Georgia caucus, Black caucuses exist in nearly three dozen states.
Shortly after the August convention, the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus will embark on a 14-city tour throughout Georgia to focus on “getting out the vote.”
“We’re not going to tell them who to vote for,” Gilliard said of voters. “But what is happening right now is no one is talking to the people. And if the election were held today, we all would be in trouble because no one is talking or meeting the people where they’re at.”
The tour is a continuation of various actions the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus has taken this year to align with other organizations of people of color on common causes.
In March, the caucus joined forces with the Asian American Pacific Islander and Hispanic caucuses for a tri-caucus town hall. It was the first time the three groups have aligned. The Black caucus also has “reached out to partner with the Hindus of North America population and the diaspora,” Gilliard said.
“What we’re trying to do is form a coalition to get to as many diverse groups of people as we can,” he said.
Gilliard said the lack of individual and collective involvement in communities he’s seeing concerns him. It’s a far cry from four years ago.
In 2020, the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed Black man murdered while jogging in Glynn County, and Breonna Taylor, a Black woman killed by Louisville, Kentucky police serving a no-knock warrant for drug suspicion, led to more than 450 protests nationwide and on three continents.
That same year, former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams led an effort to increase the voter rolls for the 2020 presidential election. Fair Fight and the New Georgia Projects, two groups Abrams founded, registered more than 800,000 new voters.
That level of community and political engagement has since subsided, Gilliard said.
“People don’t know what’s going on,” Gilliard said. “No one is really talking to the people. You’ve got a presidential election. I’m talking about on both [political] sides. There are rallies and different events being held, but nobody has gone to the barbershop. No one has gone to the community centers or the neighborhoods. We’re going to be empowering those communities by going and taking those townhall meetings right where they’re at, not in a big municipality but in community centers and neighborhoods.”
The caucus also plans to hold a hip-hop summit to reach young people, many of whom are skeptical of both political parties.
“They’re forming their own opinions,” Gilliard said. “They’re saying, ‘Forget about Trump. We need to hear something different.’ That’s just their perception. That’s why I’m really quietly championing the young candidates behind the scenes who are running right now because we need young leaders.
“We have to get as many people together, but we also have to get them ready to work.”
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Special prosecutor to decide if Lt. Gov. Jones should face criminal charges in 2020 election-meddling case
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones will face scrutiny over whether he should be criminally charged for alleged meddling in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
The Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia said Thursday it has assigned Executive Director Pete Skandalakis as the special prosecutor to handle the case because Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is barred from investigating Jones. The council is a nonpartisan state advocacy agency for district attorneys.
In July 2022, Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney blocked Willis from investigating Jones because her actions were an “actual and untenable” conflict of interest. At the time, Willis had hosted a campaign fundraiser for Jones’ Democratic rival, Charlie Bailey, and donated to his campaign when both men were running for lieutenant governor. Willis is currently involved in an election interference case she brought against former President Donald Trump and 18 others.
McBurney’s ruling left it up to the council to decide whether Jones should be criminally charged.
“I’m happy to see this process move forward and look forward to the opportunity to get this charade behind me,” Jones said in a statement issued Thursday. “Fani Willis has made a mockery of this legal process, as she tends to do. I look forward to a quick resolution and moving forward with the business of the state of Georgia.”
The council cited state bar rules in its news release and said there would be no further comments.
Skandalakis’ appointment marks another step in the ongoing political odyssey for Jones and other lawmakers over charges that they served as “false” electors to help Trump overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
Jones is one of 16 alleged “false” electors in Georgia who gathered at the state capitol on Dec. 14, 2020, to cast ballots for Trump and then sent their false certification of his victory to the National Archives and the governor’s office.
Jones has denied any wrongdoing, saying he and other electors were acting on the advice of lawyers to preserve Trump’s chances in Georgia in case the former president won a court challenge that was pending at the time. Jones was a state senator during the 2020 election.
Trump’s campaign enlisted an alternate slate of electors in 2020 in a number of swing states where Trump was defeated, as part of an effort to circumvent the outcome of the voting, The New York Times reported Thursday.
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Georgia taxpayers get a tax credit for helping young adults leaving foster care
The Gist
Georgia lawmakers in 2022 laid the groundwork to help young adults leaving the foster care system get a good start in life while giving taxpayers another tax relief option.
At that time, the Georgia General Assembly passed House Bill 424, also known as the Fostering Success Act. This law created the Qualified Foster Child Donation Credit program. It’s a tax credit plan that allows taxpayers to redirect their state income tax dollars to qualified organizations providing support services to young adults transitioning out of foster care.
Capped at $20 million a year, the money is used to help young adults ages 18 to 25 once they leave foster care.
What’s Happening
The tax credit took effect in 2023. The number of qualified organizations participating in the program has nearly doubled to 39 this year from 20 last year.
A bill to increase the cap on the tax credit to $30 million a year failed during this year’s legislative session because the House and Senate couldn’t agree on whether to expand the annual cap. It remains at $20 million a year.
As of March 28, $153,000 of the $20 million fund has been approved for the 2024 tax year. Roughly $19.8 million remains.
“With this being the second year of the tax credit, this tax credit opportunity is still relatively new and unknown,” Heidi Carr, executive director of Fostering Success Act Inc., told State Affairs. “It takes a while to get the awareness around it up.”
Carr’s group is one of the qualified organizations participating in the tax credit program. The nonprofit is not connected to the government program.
Georgia taxpayers get a dollar credit for every dollar they donate to a qualified organization, up to a certain amount. Here’s how it works:
- An individual or business applies through the Georgia Department of Revenue to qualify for the tax credit. The taxpayer specifies how much to donate and which organization will get the donation.
- Once approved, the taxpayer makes a payment directly to the organization.
- When the organization receives the payment, it sends the taxpayer the documents required when filing their state tax return so they can get their tax credit. The organization also notifies the state of the transaction.
Why It Matters
Each year, more than 700 young adults leave the foster care system in Georgia. They are some of the most underserved and overlooked people in the foster care system. Many never return to their biological families or get adopted. Once they leave the system, they often have little to no guidance as they enter college or the workforce.
The fostering success funds will help those young people with education, housing, counseling, medical care and transportation services.
Money generated from the tax credit has enabled Connections Homes to help 20 young people so far this year, Founder and Chief Executive Officer Pam Parish told State Affairs.
The Alpharetta-based nonprofit’s main goal is matching young people who have left or are leaving foster care with mentoring families. However, the $20,000 received through the tax credit program allows the organization to do much more, Parish said.
In one instance, they helped a young mother of two in her early 20s who is attending college and dealing with cancer. The organization paid the former foster care youth’s rent and car note and was able to “do the things that we could worry about and let her worry about getting better and staying in school,” Parish said.
Without the money generated through the Fostering Success Act’s tax credit program, such help would have been a “funding struggle,” Parish added.
“Our main program is our mentorship, which is immensely helpful to our kids,” she said. “But really to get into these practical needs and [having] funding available to do that is really helpful for our organization but most importantly for these kids.”
The organization has helped some 350 foster youth in its 10-year existence, Parish said. She and her husband have eight daughters, seven of them adopted. Five became part of the family after the age of 18 due to various circumstances, including surviving trafficking, homelessness and aging out of foster care, she said.
Similarly, Wellroot Family Services has been able to help foster youth pursuing college degrees.
“The Fostering Success Tax Credit bolsters the housing and wraparound services we provide for those youth pursuing postsecondary education and has enabled us to provide scholarships to former foster youth,” Wellroot CEO Allison Ashe said. “Because of the tax credit and the generosity of donors, we were able to provide additional funds to some of the youth pursuing college degrees to use for books and other academic supplies.”
What’s Next?
It’s not too late to participate in the 2024 tax credit program. To qualify, taxpayers must get the state’s approval and make their payments within 60 days of being approved or by Dec. 31, whichever comes first.
Between January 1 and June 30, the following yearly contribution limits are based on the taxpayer’s filing status:
- Single individual or head of household: Up to $2,500
- Married filing jointly: Up to $5,000
- Individual owner of an S corporation, member of an LLC or partner in a partnership: Up to $5,000
- C corporation, trust, or pass-through entity electing to pay tax at entity level: Up to 10% of Georgia income tax liability
Learn more about the Fostering Success Tax Credit here. As with any tax matter, consult your tax adviser. You can find a list of certified foster child support organizations on the Department of Revenue website.
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Special election runoff for House seat in Columbus may be dress rehearsal for general election
ATLANTA — Two Georgia Republicans who virtually tied in a special election held Tuesday to fill the Columbus-area seat of the late state Rep. Richard Smith, will now compete in a May 7 runoff.
Sean Knox, who heads a pest control company, won only 12 more votes than Carmen Rice, a corporate administrator who’s the former chair of the Muscogee County Republican Party. Each received about 42% of 2,455 votes, finishing far ahead of Republican Donald Moeller, a dentist and oral surgeon; and independent Robert Mallard, a real estate broker. Neither Knox nor Rice earned a majority of votes to avoid a runoff.
The winner of the runoff will represent Smith’s House District 139, which covers parts of Muscogee and Harris counties, through the rest of this year and until Jan. 13. Smith died Jan. 30.
Knox and Rice also are vying to represent the Columbus district for a full two-year term beginning in January 2025, for which they’ll have to compete again with Moeller, who qualified for the May 21 primary. The Republican who emerges victorious in that race will compete with Mallard in the general election in November, along with Democrat Carl Sprayberry, a chef from Muscogee who has no primary challenger.
So, who are the two GOP front-runners hoping to replace Smith, who served in the House for nearly 20 years, rising to the powerful position of Rules Committee chair, and used his clout to bring back considerable resources to his home district?
Knox, a third-generation leader of his family’s Columbus-based pest control company, has campaigned on his business acumen and deep community connections. A Columbus native, he has served on the boards of a Boys & Girls Club in Columbus, the Columbus Convention and Trade Center, and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.
His campaign website indicates he supports job creation, economic growth and low taxes. During the special election campaign, Knox told local reporters that he, like Smith, is for small government.
“Richard was passionate about limited government but smart government and how government can help the state and the community that it serves, and Columbus benefited from his leadership,” Knox told WVTM-TV. “I will just do the best I can to continue that legacy.”
Rice, an administrative director with a background in food franchising, was the first woman elected as Republican Party chair in Muscogee County last year. She hosted former President Donald Trump and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the conservative firebrand who represents District 14 in northwest Georgia, as headliners at the state GOP convention in Columbus last June.
A self-described America First candidate, Rice is running on a platform that includes supporting public safety and law enforcement, education (including school choice and more funding for teachers), stricter border control, transportation and economic growth. Part of that economic growth includes the proposed $5 billion Interstate 14 project that would run from Texas through Georgia, with a leg stretching from Columbus to Augusta. The state transportation department so far has dismissed the project as too expensive.
“As a former foster parent, I am committed to furthering foster and adoption care reform, ensuring the well-being of vulnerable members of our community,” Rice stated on her campaign website. She’s also for “efficient, effective and limited” government.
Rice is an avid supporter of Trump and his second presidential campaign, and has echoed his claims of political persecution related to the several criminal cases and civil suits he’s faced over the past two years.
Moeller, a part-time oral surgeon and the third Republican candidate in both District 139 elections, received 6% of the vote in Tuesday’s special election. If elected to the Statehouse, he vowed to focus on “the Georgia budget” and constituents’ health care and educational needs. “We’re losing our nurses and teachers,” he said.
Also a proponent of the America First agenda, Moeller said he values free markets, lower taxes, eliminating burdensome regulations that stifle economic growth, border control that protects national security and economic interests, and defending gun rights.
Noting he served in the military for 10 years and “attended two wars,” he’s also sensitive to the needs of veterans, including those with post-traumatic stress disorder. A former college professor in health sciences, Moeller said he has engaged in “research in neuroscience and bioengineering to stop PTSD.”
The independent candidate Mallard, who got nearly 10% of the vote on Tuesday, is an Army veteran who served multiple tours in Iraq and works as a real estate broker. He and his wife, also an Army vet, run a nonprofit that engages youth, seniors and veterans in beekeeping and other therapeutic services to promote self-sufficiency.
Mallard wants to add more high-paying trades and technical certifications to the education system and develop programs for young adults emphasizing business and entrepreneurship “that opens their eyes to what’s possible, how things work and how they can build or support the economic engines that will keep putting food on their table and raising their standard of living.”
He supports gun rights, school choice, more resources for law enforcement and first responders, and secure borders, and says he’ll “work across the aisle” to find ways to address rising addiction rates among youth.
Democrat Sprayberry lost to then-incumbent Republican Smith in the 2020 general election for the same House seat, earning 36% of the vote. In 2022, he ran for the Columbus City Council and won 5% of the vote in a five-person race for an at-large seat.
The 31-year-old chef has an expired campaign website, but his recent posts on X emphasize his strong support of President Joe Biden’s economic policies, reproductive choice, gun control and government-subsidized health insurance. He’d also like the government to regulate social media sites such as TikTok and Facebook, which he said are engaging in “child exploitation.”
On March 3, Sprayberry posted a thread on X that said:
“My platform is basically the same as in 2020, with an emphasis on healthcare access, addressing rising insurance rates in the state, funding for mental health workers, working on addressing increased homelessness throughout the state, continuing efforts to lower crime rates, oversight on how federal infrastructure funds are being spent, and additionally, I would like to introduce an amendment to the state constitution to require any statewide office holder (governor, lt. gov, SoS, etc.) to step down before they could run for a federal office.”
The special election runoff for House District 139 will be May 7. The winner will serve until Jan. 13.
The 2024 election primary for all 236 General Assembly seats and other state offices will be held May 21.The general election, which includes state and federal races, including the presidential election, will happen Nov. 5.
The 2024 legislative session ended March 29, but lawmakers will continue to convene for committee meetings, interact with constituents and gather to strategize with political allies in the Legislature throughout the rest of the year.
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