It’s no secret that our country is in trouble.
The southern border is wide open, and communities and families across the country — including my state of Georgia — are paying the terrible price. The burden of inflation isn’t getting easier, and working people are struggling to pay the grocery bill and keep the lights on. Numerous threats around the world, from Communist China to Russia to Iran, are on the move.
The cause of these problems can be found in Washington. Joe Biden is a weak, and failed, president. And Congress isn’t helping.
Step one to undoing the damage and pulling our country back from the brink is electing new, and more importantly, different, leaders. What do I mean? Leaders who focus on results, not social media follows or another primetime news hit.
That’s why I’m running for Congress in Georgia’s 3rd District. I spent more than 20 years in the U.S. Army, retiring as a Lt. Colonel in 2008. I was an Army Ranger and Master Paratrooper, and deployed to more than 32 countries. My deployments included Israel, as well as hostile fire zones in Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
For the last decade, I’ve served in the Georgia state Senate. During my time in office, we made Georgia the No. 1 state in the country to do business, delivered the largest income tax cut in state history, and championed innovative solutions to key gaps in the workforce.
We also delivered one conservative victory after another, despite the forces working against us.
Here are a few examples.
I authored the 2021 Election Integrity Act. When Stacey Abrams, misguided corporations, and the force of the national media came down on us and took away the All-Star Game, we didn’t cave. We stood strong, and we took needed steps to make it easier to vote, and harder to cheat, in Georgia.
I also authored the bill to get divisive concepts and partisan political ideologies out of Georgia classrooms. Kids should be taught how to think, not what to think.
Finally, I helped get Constitutional Carry over the finish line. We must protect the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens.
Simply put, I’ve spent my time in service taking decisive action and delivering tangible results. We can all agree that Congress needs more of that in general, but there are several areas that require immediate attention.
We must secure the southern border. I went there in January and saw what’s happening. Anyone who tells you it’s not a public health, economic, and national security crisis is lying to you.
We should get tougher on the cartels, and end the scourge of human trafficking. We must get criminal aliens off our streets. Above all, our immigration and border policies must put America’s national security first.
While we’re at it, it’s critical that we go after the scourge of fentanyl that’s invading our communities and poisoning young people. That doesn’t just mean cracking down on cartels. It also means getting tough on the source of the ingredients: Communist China.
We must take action to undo the damage of “Bidenomics,” which has left working families behind. To do that, we need to throw up a roadblock to Washington’s wasteful spending. We need to restore our energy independence, strengthen our supply chains so that we aren’t dependent on another country for critical resources, and create agricultural and technological self-sufficiency.
Globally, we need to stand with our allies and be direct with our adversaries about where we stand. It’s possible to do both without our men and women in uniform being engaged in long-term conflict.
Here at home, we need to confront the recruitment crisis facing our military, and we must hold to account the bureaucrats at the VA who’ve failed our nation’s veterans. I chaired the Military, Veterans and Homeland Security Committee in the Georgia Senate, so I’ve seen this failure up close and personal. It makes me furious, and we must do something about it.
Finally, we must get a handle on what’s happening in cities across the country. Gang activity, petty violence, and drug addiction are at a breaking point, and in our nation’s capital there’s record numbers of car jackings and homicides. Law enforcement and first responders need our support. That’s what I’ll do, and I’ll also work to create partnerships between schools, communities, and the criminal justice system to get after the mental health crisis sweeping our country, particularly among young Americans.
These are big challenges, and there are even more than the ones I’ve listed, and they all require serious, tested leadership. My record bears out that I know how to get things done, and more than any point I can recall during my life, we need leaders with that experience and mindset in Congress now.
Mike Dugan is a retired Army Ranger, former Georgia Senator, and Republican running for Congress in Georgia’s 3rd Congressional District.