Former Georgia state lawmaker Meagan Hanson has announced her bid for Congress in the 2022 midterm elections, aiming to bring principles rooted in family values, hard work, and other conservative values back to north Atlanta’s suburbs.
Hanson, a mother of two, is one of several Democrat and Republican candidates to join the race for Georgia’s 6th Congressional District which includes several of north Atlanta’s suburbs like East Cobb County, North Fulton County, and Sandy Springs. Hanson announced her bid for Congress earlier this month to unseat incumbent Rep. Lucy McBath, a Democrat, who took office in 2019.
“We have a Democrat congresswoman who does nothing but rubber-stamp the liberal left’s agenda,” Hanson said in an interview with Townhall. “She has been rubber-stamping everything from H.R. 1 to federalized elections to voting for taxpayer-funded abortions. She’s not listening to our constituents, and the families across CD 6 are absolutely hurting because of the massive amounts of debt that she keeps rubber-stamping from the Biden administration and Nancy Pelosi.”
Conversely, Hanson is running on an agglomeration of platform items rooted in conservative values that she vows to implement into her community if she is elected. Her website states, “Conservative values aren’t just a talking point for Meagan Hanson. They’re how she lives her life.” Included in her portfolio of priorities are addressing cancel culture in schools and communities, investing in local infrastructure, and combating the influx of crime affecting Atlanta and its surrounding suburbs.
“One of the most pressing issues that we have right now is this unprecedented crime that is rampant among the city of Atlanta but also trickling out into the suburbs,” Hanson said. “Homicides are up 60%, we are down 400 cops in the city of Atlanta, and that is a very real issue for families across CD 6. It affects where they go to get groceries. It affects when they go get groceries. It affects the fact that they can’t go to the malls and feel safe...while that’s affecting families, it’s also affecting our economy. There are a number of businesses who have – the crime, plus COVID – just shuttered their doors altogether or are really, really struggling.”
Prioritizing safety overarches several of Hanson’s platforms as she says she'll support legislation that protects funding for the police and, at the national level, support legislation that protects our nation’s borders. Apart from crime spikes, another issue plaguing Hanson’s Congressional District is rampant cancel culture and “woke” curriculum pervading public schools – issues that influence her not only as a lawmaker but as a mother.
“We are seeing this trickle-down effect of cancel culture permeating our lives, from moving the MLB game from Atlanta, cancel culture in our schools, and basically trying to remove parental involvement from our schools, whether it be with mask mandates or certain curriculum that parents don’t want being taught. It’s permeating every aspect of our lives,” Hanson said.“I 100 percent understand now what it means to fight for your kids' future. That’s what’s on the line right now.”
Infrastructure, another crucial issue at hand, both locally and nationally, is right up Hanson’s alley. Her previous role as a state legislator in District 80 of Georgia’s House of Representatives, where she unseated an incumbent Democrat in 2017, provided her with background specific to infrastructure and transportation issues as they related to the booming city of Atlanta. And with a massive infrastructure bill on the horizon, Hanson’s experience in this niche area of politics could distinctly set her apart from other candidates in the congressional race.
“One of the things that’s really important to me – one of those ‘kitchen table,’ quality of life issues – traffic. Traffic in Atlanta is horrific. One of the things that I worked on in the state legislature was transportation and infrastructure issues,” Hanson said. Her experience included garnering funding for infrastructure and overseeing the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA). “I sat on that board and I was also in the Transportation Committee, so both of my roles with that helped me help improve the quality of life of Georgians. And I think that translates well to the federal level because right now in D.C. they’re negotiating a federal infrastructure bill.”
While the midterm elections are more than a year away, campaign efforts for Georgia’s 6th Congressional District are underway as state redistricting takes place simultaneously with the potential to make McBath’s seat more competitive. But, come 2022, perhaps Hanson will join the ranks of the record number of women flipping seats in the House chamber.
“I’m the only proven candidate in this race who’s actually won a campaign, period, but done exactly what we need to do here, which is flip a seat from Democrat to Republican,” Hanson said. “We need someone who has a proven record of actually doing what needs to be done for this District.”