The election didn’t reveal a decisive winner for either Georgia Senate seat—which means that Tuesday’s runoff election will determine which party controls the U.S. Senate. (Georgia voters, find out more about how to vote in the runoff here.)
In preparation for the runoff, the Campus Election Engagement Project—a nonpartisan organization working to help America’s 20 million college and university students vote—has compiled a voter’s guide to the contenders’ relevant stances.
Here’s where the Georgia Senate candidates stand on the issues.
Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R) vs. Rev. Raphael Warnock (D)
COVID-19
Support administration’s response to coronavirus pandemic?
Kelly Loeffler (Rep., Incumbent)
Yes. “Trump and his administration have taken the threat of COVID-19 seriously from the beginning.” Senate and Justice Department cleared Loeffler of insider trading following early COVID briefings.
Economic response to coronavirus pandemic?
Loeffler (R)
Introduced bills to protect reopening businesses from liability if employees or customers are infected, to make stop-gap “short-term health plans a permanent solution,” and to get U.S. medical supply companies to relocate from China to U.S.
Immigration
Expand border walls? Reduce immigration?
Loeffler (R)
Yes. Loeffler co-sponsored the Asylum Abuse Reduction Act. Undocumented immigrants should not get free health care.
Warnock (D)
No. Believes immigration is “desperately broken,” and cites Jesus as an “undocumented immigrant.”
Create path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented residents, including DACA participants, or “dreamers” brought to the U.S. as children?
Loeffler (R)
No. Wants to “hold illegal immigrants accountable.” Co-sponsored bills to stop states from issuing driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants and set fines for aliens in the U.S. improperly.
Criminal Justice/Guns
Enact more restrictive legislation on guns?
Loeffler (R)
No. “Strong Second Amendment supporter.” Sponsored bill barring national firearm database.
Restrict police use of force and increase public oversight?
Loeffler (R)
No. Co-sponsored resolutions supporting “Back the Blue” and opposing calls to defund. Criticizes failure “to support law enforcement at a time when they need it most.”
Economy/Labor
Tighten or loosen regulation of banks and credit card companies?
Loeffler (R)
Loosen. Co-sponsored bills to eliminate “unnecessary” regulations, and to delay banking regulations. “Phase out all federal regulations that have been waived during the COVID-19 crisis.”
Warnock (D)
No public position on the topic of bank regulation.
Support “right to work” laws, barring unions from mandating dues?
Loeffler (R)
Yes. Co-sponsored National Right-to-Work Act, establishing right to work on a national basis.
Raise federal hourly minimum wage above current $7.25?
Loeffler (R)
No public position found on raising the minimum wage.
Warnock (D)
Yes. $7.25 an hour “is not a living wage.” Will “fight to raise the minimum to a livable wage.”
Health Care
Support the Affordable Care Act (ACA), AKA Obamacare?
Loeffler (R)
No. Supports lawsuit to end ACA. Calls Medicare for All insidious attack on liberty.
Warnock (D)
Yes. Would “protect, improve, and build upon the Affordable Care Act.”
Keep abortion legal, or ban it?
Warnock (D)
Legal. Supports “a woman’s right to choose …, a decision between her and her doctor.”
Allow Planned Parenthood to receive public funds for non-abortion-related health care?
Loeffler (R)
No. Called for investigating Planned Parenthood for receiving taxpayer funds under the Paycheck Protection Program.
Warnock (D)
Yes. Opposes “all partisan attacks defunding health care providers like Planned Parenthood.”
Civil Rights
Protect against discrimination based on sexual orientation?
Loeffler (R)
Not if it interferes with religious faith. “People of faith should be protected.” She also sponsored a bill that would essentially prohibit transgender girls from participating in athletics programs.
Support stricter ID requirements and other rules on voting?
Loeffler (R)
Yes. Introduced bill to raise penalties for voter fraud and illegal ballot harvesting.
Environment
Is human-caused climate change a serious threat, to be addressed as a top priority?
Loeffler (R)
No climate change position found. Her company previously lobbied for cap and trade when they’d likely have gotten contracts to administer it.
Tighten or loosen environmental regulations?
Loeffler (R)
Unclear, but general anti-regulatory stance. Wants to “look at what we’re doing with regard to the economy and the environment collectively.”
Rule of Law
Stance on replacing Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before the November election? (See CEEP Supreme Court guide.)
Loeffler (R)
Before the election. “Our country’s future is at stake and Trump has every right to pick a new justice before the election.”
Warnock (D)
Wait for the election. “The voices of the people that [Ginsburg] stood up for time and time again ought to be heard before there is a vote.”
Support calling witnesses and convicting Trump on impeachment charges?
Loeffler (R)
No. “This impeachment sham is an attack on what was a free and fair election.”Advertises her “100% Trump voting record [as] the most conservative senator in America.”
Warnock (D)
No position found on impeachment.
War on Drugs
Marijuana — Legalize, or ban?
Loeffler (R)
Ban. Is “concerned about the negative effects that legalizing marijuana would have.”
Warnock (D)
Legal. Wants to decriminalize marijuana.
School and Student Support
Support public funding for private or for-profit schools?
Loeffler (R)
Yes. Let states send federal funds for low-income students to both public and private schools.
Warnock (D)
No position found on school funding.
Support lower interest or forgiveness on student loans?
Loeffler (R)
No position found.
Sen. David Perdue (R) vs. Jon Ossoff (D)
COVID-19
Support administration’s response to coronavirus pandemic?
David Perdue (Rep., Incumbent)
Yes. Trump and Pence are “taking the coronavirus very seriously.” “We’ve done everything we could.”
Jon Ossoff (Dem.)
No. Calls the Trump administration’s handling of the pandemic “gross incompetence.”
Approve of economic response to the coronavirus pandemic?
Immigration
Path to citizenship for DACA participants brought to U.S. as children? Position on expanding border walls and limiting legal immigration?
Perdue (R)
Mixed. Supports Trump proposal for DACA path to citizenship tied to cutbacks in legal immigration and funding for a wall. DACA brings “chain migration.” Supported limiting visas to “create a merit-based immigration system.”
Criminal Justice/Guns
Enact more restrictive legislation on guns?
Restrict police use of force and increase public oversight?
Economy/Labor
Tighten or loosen regulation of banks and credit card companies?
Perdue (R)
Loosen. Supports “rollback of federal banking regulations.” Calls Consumer Financial Protection Bureau “rogue agency.”
Ossoff (D)
Tighten. Seeks more regulation of the banking system, reinstating Glass-Steagall Act.
Support “right to work” laws, barring unions from mandating dues for workers they represent?
Perdue (R)
Yes. Co-sponsored National Right-to-Work Act.
Ossoff (D)
No position found. Has been endorsed by United Auto Workers.
Raise federal hourly minimum wage above current $7.25?
Perdue (R)
No recent position. In 2014 said if we “increase the minimum wage, you will kill jobs.”
Ossoff (D)
Yes. “Fight to make sure the minimum wage is a livable wage.”
Support administration’s $1.9 trillion (2017) tax cuts?
Health Care
Support Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare?
Perdue (R)
No. Voted to repeal ACA. “The poorest among us will continue to be fined because they can’t afford Obamacare.”
Keep abortion legal, or ban it?
Perdue (R)
Ban. “Will continue fighting to protect the unborn.” Backed ban on most abortions after six weeks, which the courts overturned.
Allow Planned Parenthood to receive public funds for non-abortion-related health care?
Perdue (R)
No. Co-sponsored bill to end any federal funding of Planned Parenthood.
Ossoff (D)
Yes. Will defend Planned Parenthood’s “essential preventative and reproductive health care services.”
Civil Rights
Support gay marriage and other LGBTQ rights issues?
Perdue (R)
No. Sees marriage as “between one man and one woman.” In legalizing same-sex marriage, the Supreme Court “overstepped” its role.
Ossoff (D)
Yes. Supports LGBTQ Rights, and Equality Act against discrimination for gender or orientation.
Strict ID and other rules to combat possible fraud, even if limiting access?
Perdue (R)
No position found. On chaotic GA primary, “more than 150 counties didn’t have any problem. In a few we did. … This idea of voter suppression is a lie right out of the pit of hell.”
Ossoff (D)
No. Criticizes “major purges” of voter rolls and “mass disenfranchisement.” Need a new Voting Rights Act.
Environment
Consider human-caused climate change a serious threat?
Perdue (R)
No. “The scientific community is not in total agreement” about human cause. Supports Trump’s withdrawal from Paris Agreement.
Tighten or loosen environmental regulations?
Perdue (R)
Mostly loosen. Roll back “stifling Obama-era regulations.” Against reducing waste and emissions. Reduce plastic waste in oceans.
Ossoff (D)
Tighten. Will work to reverse Trump “rollbacks of clean air, clean water, and fuel economy standards.”
Address as a top priority by taxing or limiting output of greenhouse gases, supporting renewable energy?
Perdue (R)
Mostly no. Opposed Obama’s Clean Power Plan and limits on offshore drilling. Supports biomass investment.
Ossoff (D)
Yes. Will “deliver massive federal investment in clean energy, grid infrastructure, R&D.”
Rule of Law
Pick Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s replacement before November election? (See CEEP Supreme Court guide.)
Perdue (R)
Confirm nominee before the November election. “The choice for the future of the Supreme Court is clear, and our nation’s founding principles are at stake.”
Support calling witnesses and convicting Trump on impeachment charges?
Perdue (R)
No on both. Called impeachment “a partisan political weapon … aimed at overturning the 2016 election.”
Limit campaign donations? Require political ads to disclose largest funders?
Perdue (R)
No position found on campaign donation regulations.
War on Drugs
Marijuana — Decriminalize or legalize?
Perdue (R)
Supports access to medical marijuana. As of 2014, opposed recreational.
Ossoff (D)
Yes. “It’s past time to legalize, regulate and tax cannabis.”
School and Student Support
Support free or subsidized tuition for lower-income individuals?
Perdue (R)
No. Promises of free tuition are what “the Soviets did in Russia, the Germans did in ’33,” and what the Cubans and Venezuelans did.
Ossoff (D)
Yes. Supports debt forgiveness and making public college, state school, or trade school education “debt-free.”
Public funding for private or for-profit schools?
Perdue (R)
Yes. Supports “school choice,” including charter and private schools.
Ossoff (D)
No position found. Focuses on increasing teacher pay and strengthening public schools.
Foreign Policy
Oppose military attacks on Iran without congressional approval?
Perdue (R)
No. Opposed bill to require approval. Supported 2020 attack; “justice has been served.”
Ossoff (D)
No position found, although opposed Trump withdrawal from Iran nuclear treaty.
Support blocking arms sales to Saudi Arabia?
Perdue (R)
No. As Senator, voted against resolution blocking Saudi arms sales.
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