Draper, a civil rights attorney serving in the House since 2023, said what makes her “the best person for the job … really boils down to democracy and diversity.” She described herself as an elections and voting rights expert who helped to “flip Georgia blue for the first time in 30 years” during the 2020 presidential election and the 2022 midterms, when she said she “led the voting rights efforts” in Georgia for President Joe Biden and U.S. Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, for whom she oversaw campaign staff and thousands of volunteers. 

Draper said she’s now fighting to bring Democratic majorities back to the state House and Senate, which she estimated will likely take four to six years. 

In the meantime, she said she has worked to push through what legislation she can in the Republican-controlled House and cited as a small victory House Bill 1207, a bill she crafted that requires advanced proofing of ballots by candidates and election supervisors. Draper sought out five Republicans as co-signers to gain majority support for the bill, which passed in both chambers and awaits Gov. Brian Kemp’s signature. 

Noting that “diversity is a central tenet to the Democratic Party,” Draper said, “as a woman of color and as an immigrant, I bring perspectives to the table that are underrepresented at the Capitol.” 

Draper immigrated to the U.S. when she was 6 years old from England, where her Spanish mother and Pakistani father met. “That makes me Spakistani,” she said, eliciting laughter from the audience. “But it also makes me the only member of the Georgia General Assembly who is a member of the Hispanic caucus and the Asian American Pacific [Islander] caucus.”

Evans, a community organizer and political operative who has served in the House since 2019, emphasized her six years of experience building relationships with fellow legislators and delivering on measures to support education, the environment, gun safety and housing. 

“And I’m 100% pro-choice, 100% pro-LGBTQ and 100% pro-health care expansion,” Evans said, adding she is proud of her work developing legislation to promote literacy among school children over the past two years, including writing a bill last year to create the Georgia Council on Literacy and another bill to ensure that children are screened for dyslexia and other reading challenges and that teachers are trained in evidence-based reading and writing instruction. 

When her bills didn’t pass from the House to the Senate by the Crossover Day deadline in 2023, Evans said she persuaded Republican lawmakers in the Senate to adopt her legislation, which then passed. She now serves on the 30-member literacy council, which she said is working “to make sure that all of our children will have the broadest possible futures and that they can all learn how to read.”

Evans also said she was “proud to deliver this session $7.4 million in [federal] gun violence prevention awareness funds that will go out to community groups” and to support the passage of a bipartisan Senate bill that will give “[sales] tax breaks [on gun safety devices] where people are using their guns responsibly.” She said she also advocated for adding new funding for school security grants to the education budget, which was approved.

The candidates took similar positions on many issues, both decrying the private school voucher bill they said would drain funds from public schools, and the need for the state to better fund impoverished school districts. They described their individual efforts to curtail gun violence and promote voting rights, as well as detailed their years of experience in ground-level get-out-the-vote efforts in DeKalb County and metro Atlanta. Draper and Evans also expressed measured support of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, which they said is needed to train police and first responders. 

Among the 40 or so people in the audience, Lora Wuennenberg, 68, a Kirkwood resident and program manager at the humanitarian nonprofit CARE, said she emerged from the debate torn between the two candidates. Noting they have similar positions on the major issues she cares about, including public education, she said Draper, her current representative, impressed her as an “an activist who can mobilize people and is willing to stand up and stand out on some of the issues that may not be getting enough attention.” 

“Becky seemed more of a practical, behind-the-scenes organizer, someone who understands the bureaucracy of government and has a lot of established contacts,” Wuennenberg said, noting Evans has worked across the aisle and “found entry points” to get legislation passed. “In the Republican-controlled House, maybe she can be more effective than Saira.” 

Wuennenberg said over the next few weeks she’ll follow the candidates and look to see “how Saira thinks she can mobilize support for the bread-and-butter issues that have an impact on people’s lives” in the next legislative session. 

Arica Schuett, 36, a Ph.D. candidate in political science at Emory who lives in Druid Hills, said she also needs to spend more time studying the candidates. 

She said Draper’s focus “on mobilizing voters and removing barriers to election participation resonated” with her, while Evans’ “experience and her ability to to work with constituencies that include Republicans is important. So getting a better understanding of how each candidate would manage their position in a really Republican Legislature is what’s important to me.”

Schuett said she plans to dive deeper into their proposed legislation and voting records. “I kind of want to look a little bit more at what they’ve done, right?”

The primary election will take place May 21. 

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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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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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“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.

Read these related stories: 

https://stateaffairs.com/georgia/taxes/georgia-tax-breaks/

https://stateaffairs.com/georgia/social-services/hope-scholarship-foster-youth/

https://stateaffairs.com/georgia/social-services/aging-foster-care-georgia/

https://stateaffairs.com/georgia/social-services/georgia-foster-care-system-federal-aid/

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