Congressional candidate Wayne Johnson draws attention with campaign stunts; says District 2 voters are ready for a change

ALBANY – When Vice President Kamala Harris didn’t make a stop in Albany during her recent tour of south Georgia, Wayne Johnson said he was “perturbed.”

“I was excited about Harris and Walz coming to Albany,” the Republican Congressional candidate said. “You know why? Because it was going to bring attention to Albany … and middle and southwest Georgia … all of a sudden we were going to be on the map.”

Johnson said Harris’ non-appearance suggested she was taking Albany’s voters, the majority of whom are black and historically vote blue, for granted.

The Macon native is running to represent Georgia’s 2nd Congressional District, which covers all of middle and southwest Georgia. He’s up against long-time, Democratic incumbent Sanford Bishop.

Johnson is an Army veteran and businessman. Former President Trump appointed him as a senior official with the U.S. Department of Education in 2017. He stepped down and called for student loan reform in 2019. He calls himself a “commonsense conservative” with a focus on actionable change for “kitchen table” issues.

When Harris didn’t show up in Albany, Johnson said he and his campaign team decided they were going to make their presence known. In trucks wrapped with Johnson’s face and slogan, “Stop the stupid in Washington,” Johnson said the group followed along Harris and Walz’s campaign trail all the way to Savannah – showing up at the hotel where Harris was staying and accidentally joining the motorcade.

Republican voters laughed at Johnson as he told this story and another about showing up at Bishop’s campaign kickoff in Macon during a Dougherty County Republican Party event Sept. 10.

He spent part of his speech at that event talking about the small crowd size at Bishop’s kickoff events and accusing Biden and Harris of driving the U.S. to “a total socialistic state.” As the group prepared to watch the presidential debate, Johnson said it was going to be “telling.”

“Anything that Kamala Harris says she’s going to do, she could actually be doing it right this second if she wanted to,” he told the crowd. 

During his speech, Johnson never explicitly touted support for Trump, but his disses of Harris and Walz suggested it. However, when Johnson dives into his campaign priorities, he paints a vision for the U.S. that blends ideals from both presidential candidates.

Johnson said he supports Medicaid expansion – something the state of Georgia hasn’t yet done and that Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, have been openly against.

“I came from a poor background myself, and I know how critical it is,” he said. “We shouldn’t be squabbling over Medicaid and Medicare.”

One of his greatest campaign priorities has been connecting with the farming community, he said.

“I’ve come to … respect and be fearful of the fact that all of our farmers – our small farmers and even our big farmers – are in serious peril,” he said.

Johnson said the passage of the Farm Bill is paramount; that the delay in its passage is “unbelievably bad.” As a member of Congress, he said he pledges to do everything possible to get the bill passed and to ensure that its terms are up to date and relevant with current standings in agriculture like reference pricing.

Through his visits with farmers, Johnson said he also has heard about challenges with visa workers. He said he wants to create an office that allows for visa farm workers to renew their visas locally rather than having to travel home to do so, risking the loss of needed labor. He also called the minimum amount farmers have to pay their workers as well as provide housing and transportation, “extraordinary.” These two issues must be dealt with in the Farm Bill, he said.

Johnson said he doesn’t understand how Congressman Bishop hasn’t “raised hell” about the Farm Bill’s passage while serving on different House agriculture committees. Johnson said he’s already had conversations with the House speaker’s office about securing those same seats Bishop holds if he were elected.

Another priority for Johnson is accessible, affordable housing. He said he wants to implement programs that allow families to get into brand new, three-bedroom, two-bedroom houses for less than $1,000 a month.

He said he wants to remove the tax on social security for seniors. He said he believes there should be more federal regulation on energy costs to solve what he called an energy crisis.

“Everybody is hurting from the cost of electricity,” Johnson said. “Farmers will tell you it’s their single most expensive input cost. Our energy policies are critically important.”

Johnson said he also supports leaning into natural gas as a part of this energy crisis solution and to lower the gasoline price to under $2 per gallon.

“It can be done if we remove the federal excise tax and if we actually drill for oil, and if we use pipelines,” he said. “I was in Alaska when the pipeline was constructed, so I know what could happen, and I believe the ‘Eskimos’ are plenty happy with the wells up there because it doesn’t affect them.”

The Trans-Alaska pipeline resulted in The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, which set aside 44 million acres of land for Native groups. This was enacted surrounding concerns about land rights because the pipeline crossed directly through Native land. Natives also brought up environmental concerns.

Johnson said he plans to push for a better method of processing those seeking asylum at the U.S. borders – where they can be “adjudicated within 72 hours, whether they have a right to be here or not.”

He said he’s been shocked to see how illegal immigration impacts District 2. He said poor communities within the district – Randolph County, Bainbridge, Macon – are facing large quantities of illegal immigrants living in their communities and straining community services.

“I’ve heard concerns about safety and security, but what I’ve mostly heard is a concern or demonstrated outright anger over the fact that people are having to wait longer in the health clinic lines,” Johnson said. “They’re having to wait for other food banks and things like that because of illegal immigrants.”

The Congressional candidate said Trump’s campaigning target is “low-propensity Republicans,” or those who are Republican but normally don’t vote.

Johnson said he’s focused on high-propensity Democrats – those in District 2 who have long voted for Bishop and who are largely black . He’s trying to reach these voters through direct text messages and events like the free concert he hosted Saturday at the Albany Municipal Auditorium. At the Republican event on Sept. 10, he told attendees that he’s trying to sway voters right in “Sanford’s backyard.”

He said for 31 years District 2 has had the same representative and remains one of the poorest, least-populated districts in the nation. Johnson said many of the constituents he speaks to, especially those in poor areas, tell him change will be good.

Staff Photo: Lucille Lannigan
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