Congressional candidate Wayne Johnson touts experience in first bid for office

ALBANY — After an eventful career working around the world, Wayne Johnson decided he was ready to settle down to a job in education to end his work days.

“I was CEO at a couple of companies, started several businesses that ended up employing quite a number of folks,” he said. “I got into the private equity business, deploying capital, mostly in South America. I worked around the globe, worked in Serbia.

“Over my career, I’ve just had a wide range of experiences.”

After all of that, Johnson decided to get a doctorate degree and settle down to a more mundane job until retirement. But he got a more interesting offer. Instead, his path led the Army veteran into a career in government, and now he is hoping to unseat long-time Democratic U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop as the representative for Congressional District 2 in the fall.

“I thought I was going to be a college president,” said Johnson, one of five declared Republican candidates seeking the party’s nomination to challenge Bishop. “Instead, I ended up being a senior officer in the Trump administration. I have this desire to pursue a role as a public servant. I want to be the best public servant I can be.”

The Macon native was tapped to work in the Trump administration as chief transition and strategy officer and as chief operating officer for the Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid from 2017 to 2019.

After his time in government, Johnson said he had no desire to run for office. He kept up with colleagues, and one day while in Washington, D.C., learned that the Second Congressional District had been redrawn to one that was a little more friendly to Republican candidates.

In what Johnson says he thinks could be a year in which the Republican Party retakes Congress, he decided some of his skills could be useful and being in the majority would be a good opportunity to advance some of his ideas.

“Now I find myself where there’s an opportunity,” he said. “Albany’s going to play a central role in who’s going to be the next congressman. I’m deeply, deeply concerned about the soul of our country, and I’m deeply concerned about the economic future of our country. I’ve portrayed myself as a big-problem problem solver.””

As an example of problem-solving, Johnson said that when he first got to the Education Department, the college debt of only about 10 percent of disabled veterans was being dissolved, even though all were eligible. He said he contacted the Treasury Department and Veterans Administration and had an executive order drafted for the president to sign.

“Today, disabled veterans have their debts automatically dissolved,” he said. “That’s one of the things I found in Washington. There’s a lot of just stupid stuff.”

Among his other ideas is widening the access of student loans for technical training by getting the message out that the funds are available.

Closer to home, Johnson said he would like to re-open the U.S. Census to allow for a recount in areas whose population was undercounted. During a recent 30-county tour of the district, that was one of the most common complaints he heard.

The count is important because federal funds are allocated based on population.

“One thing, if elected, I’d like to re-open the census count and get more reflective numbers,” he said. “The counties just don’t have the money to mount the challenge.”

Agriculture is big business in the district, and Johnson said he would like to help farmers dig deeper wells to have better access to water from a deep aquifer and ensure they have access to sufficient labor.

On the latter, he spoke of a “purple card,” an idea he gleaned from a conversation with former U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, that would not give a pathway to citizenship but would allow workers to remain and work in the country.

“(So) what can we do to get more water without disturbing the ecosystem and second, what can we do to have an alternative process to maintain work permits for workers?” he said.

Johnson also said he would be a big backer of the military, including drone technology, and would like to see the formation of a homeland security guard force made of up first responders, including sheriffs and emergency medical technicians.

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