Brian Kemp is Erasing Governor Nathan Deal’s Legacy

Yesterday, as “hundreds of Georgians from all walks of life [were] gathered together to dedicate our state’s new judicial center to former Governor Nathan Deal,” new reporting reiterated that despite Governor* Brian Kemp’s posing for a photo op, Kemp’s extreme agenda is undoing Deal’s celebrated bipartisan legacy, while putting all Georgians’ health care, jobs, and quality of life at risk. 

As governor, Deal blocked Georgia Republicans’ religious freedom legislation after our top employers threatened to leave the state. But on the same day Kemp posed with Deal, the AJC reported that Kemp “would not try to preemptively block” legislation that sends a “hostile message” by giving groups leeway to discriminate against LGBTQ Georgians, and would once again send our top employers looking elsewhere.

Kemp has also left the door open to cutting the popular film tax credit, which Nathan Deal treated as a “prized legislative accomplishment” and has brought thousands of jobs to the state. 

This legislative session, Kemp has pushed forward an extreme budget that guts Deal’s nationally acclaimed, bipartisan criminal justice overhaul, which even Kemp’s fellow conservatives have called “a shift that, quite frankly, doesn’t make any sense.” 

“Brian Kemp’s budget is already threatening the health and livelihood of Georgians across our state, and now he’s going after the bipartisan progress Nathan Deal built his legacy on,” said Maggie Chambers, spokeswoman for the Democratic Party of Georgia. “Both Republicans and Democrats can agree that Deal’s efforts boosted our economy and kept Georgians safer — but Kemp is willing to undermine Deal’s legacy and Georgia’s future in the name of his extreme agenda.”

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