Republican Matt Day pitches business-minded challenge to Sanford Bishop in Georgia’s 2nd District

ALBANY — Matt Day is running for Congress as a Republican, but some of the positions he is taking in one of Georgia’s most reliably Democratic congressional districts don’t fit neatly into the party’s standard playbook.

The South Georgia businessman supports tougher immigration enforcement but says undocumented immigrants should have a path to legal work visas. He argues wages at the bottom of the economy are too low to live on. He opposes making money from incarceration. He says Republicans don’t do enough to address pollution. And despite running to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, Day repeatedly declines to make the 17-term incumbent the villain of his campaign.

Instead, Day says he is running on the premise that the business experience that took him from installing glass on relatively small projects to operating nationwide construction companies can be applied to some of southwest Georgia’s most persistent problems.

“We always say that if it makes sense, it can make dollars, and if it don’t, it don’t,” Day said during a recent interview with The Albany Herald.

Day, a retired construction executive now living part time in Georgetown in Quitman County, is making his first run for elected office. He spent much of his career in Coffee County, where his businesses remain, and describes himself as a “son of South Georgia” despite acknowledging he did not originally live within the 2nd District. Quitman County is within the district; Coffee County is not.

He faces a formidable opponent Nov. 3.

Bishop, an Albany Democrat first elected to Congress in 1992, is seeking an 18th term. The district stretches across much of southwest Georgia and includes Albany, Americus and portions of Columbus and Macon. Nonpartisan Inside Elections currently rates the race “Solid Democratic,” with a partisan baseline favoring Democrats by 7.3 percentage points.

Day also enters the general election with a significant financial disadvantage. Federal Election Commission records show his campaign reported about $142,700 in receipts through June 30 and about $1,768 in cash on hand, with $50,000 in outstanding campaign debt. Of his contributions, about $68,700 came from Day himself.

But Day’s argument to voters is that money and conventional political experience are precisely what he is trying to run against.

A businessman confronting an industry he helped build

Perhaps the clearest example of Day’s unconventional campaign is his position on data centers.

His own construction companies have worked on data centers. Now, as southwest Georgia communities weigh massive proposed data-center developments and the energy infrastructure needed to power them, Day has become one of their more vocal critics.

“Well, I built them,” Day said when asked why he had focused so heavily on the issue.

Day said his company has paused its data-center work while he examines the industry’s effects more closely. He is not an advocate for banning the developments outright. Instead, he argues communities should receive far more information before local governments approve them, including what the facility will be used for, how developers will make money and whether automation associated with the project could displace workers.

“We believe that the community needs a choice first and foremost, and the community needs to have transparency,” he said.

That position puts him squarely into a debate already unfolding across the district.

Day strongly opposes a proposed 1,500-megawatt natural gas power plant in Mitchell County intended to help serve data-center demand in Lee, Dougherty, Baker and Early counties, describing it as both a major polluter and heavy water user.

He is also skeptical of converting large amounts of farmland and timberland to utility-scale solar. Day instead advocates greater use of biomass energy produced from timber, arguing it could provide renewable energy while supporting South Georgia’s forestry industry.

His environmental positions are one of several places where Day openly distances himself from many other Republicans.

“As a Christian, I pay attention to where the Bible tells me that it’s our job to take care of the garden, the world,” he said. “And I don’t think our party does enough to fight pollution.”

Agriculture at the campaign’s center

Any candidate hoping to represent the 2nd District must also contend with agriculture, one of southwest Georgia’s dominant industries and a cornerstone of Bishop’s tenure.

Bishop is not a member of the House Agriculture Committee, which writes much of federal farm policy. He is, however, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations subcommittee overseeing funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, rural development programs and the Food and Drug Administration.

Day says he has developed a 20-point agriculture plan, although a complete written version was not available on his campaign website when The Herald reviewed it.

The proposals he described center on changing the economics of farming rather than eliminating federal support.

Day argues farmers are squeezed between relatively low commodity prices and increasingly expensive inputs such as fertilizer, chemicals, fuel, equipment and labor. One proposal would allow farmers to form cooperatives that import commodities when domestic production cannot meet demand, keeping some of the profits within agricultural communities rather than leaving the importing business to outside companies.

He also wants greater scrutiny of the prices agricultural suppliers charge U.S. farmers, contending fertilizer, chemical, seed and equipment companies can charge American producers substantially more than customers elsewhere.

Day said he also supports regenerative agricultural practices aimed at protecting topsoil.

On immigration, another issue closely tied to agriculture and construction in the district, Day again takes a position he acknowledges differs from some Republicans.

He opposes amnesty and a pathway to citizenship for people who entered the country illegally but supports creating a pathway for them to obtain work visas.

“We know we need workers in this country,” Day said.

An ‘Albany Resurrection Plan’

Day’s campaign is also making an unusually specific pitch to Albany, the political center of Bishop’s Democratic base.

He calls it the “Albany Resurrection Plan,” a proposal he says could eventually serve as a model for struggling communities elsewhere.

Day described beginning with East and West Oglethorpe Boulevard, using government grants and private investment to rehabilitate abandoned properties and improve the appearance of the corridor. He would pair those improvements with a criminal justice program allowing some people convicted of misdemeanors to work full time while completing 10 to 15 hours of community service rather than going to jail.

Participants could maintain properties and public spaces while learning to operate equipment and developing job skills.

“We’re trying to keep these kids out of the system, and we’re trying to keep them working with mentors,” Day said.

Another component would involve the Small Business Administration helping entrepreneurs without significant collateral gain access to abandoned commercial property, giving them an asset around which to build a business.

Day also envisions a mentorship network connecting new businesses with accountants, lawyers, insurers and other professional services at negotiated rates.

The proposals reflect a theme running through much of his campaign: Day is not necessarily arguing that federal money should stop flowing into communities such as Albany. He argues that public dollars should be structured to help recipients eventually become less dependent on them.

“We want to bring the funds back, but we want to help these people be more self-sufficient,” Day said.

Day has also proposed creating a privately operated transitional facility outside Albany for people experiencing homelessness or, in some cases, entering the criminal justice system. His concept combines housing, transportation to jobs, a working farm and employment assistance, with residents eventually paying toward their own housing.

Some of Day’s approach is rooted in his own history.

He told The Herald that he struggled with drugs and alcohol as a young man and credited employment and mentors, rather than rehabilitation, with helping him change direction.

“When I was 18 until age 21, I did all kinds of stuff,” Day said. “I was hooked on drugs. I was hooked on alcohol, and I was not living correctly.”

“The way that I got straight is, I didn’t go to rehab, I went to work,” he said.

Recruiting industry to Albany

Economic development is where Day most clearly tries to translate his private-sector network into a congressional argument.

He said he would use relationships developed through decades in construction to recruit employers to the district, particularly companies offering wages capable of moving families into the middle class.

Among his ideas is using robotics to build a textile manufacturing industry around cotton already grown across Georgia and the Southeast, allowing more of the crop to be processed domestically rather than shipped overseas.

He also wants Albany to pursue large advanced-manufacturing employers, including businesses comparable to semiconductor manufacturers, that could provide thousands of higher-paying jobs.

His most unusual proposal may be turning Albany into a federal humanitarian and disaster-relief logistics hub.

Day argues that Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany, existing rail infrastructure and U.S. 82’s connection toward Georgia’s ports give the region assets that are not being fully exploited. Under his concept, food, medicine, hygiene products and other supplies could be stored in Albany for rapid deployment following domestic disasters. Products approaching expiration could later be shipped abroad as U.S. foreign aid rather than discarded.

“We should be a logistics hub,” Day said.

A challenger who won’t make Bishop the enemy

For all of his criticism of government and Democratic economic policies, Day is strikingly reluctant to make his campaign a personal indictment of Bishop.

He credits the congressman with delivering for farmers and repeatedly said he would consider the campaign worthwhile if Bishop adopted some of his proposals.

“It’s not just about winning the race,” Day said. “Even if Bishop sees one of these ideas and he carries it and he gets it done, I’m happy.”

“That’s why I’m not here to beat him up,” he added.

It is an unusual posture for a challenger attempting to defeat one of the longest-serving members of Congress — particularly one running in a district where Republicans cannot afford to rely solely on their own base.

Day appears to understand that arithmetic.

He openly argues that Republicans have failed to compete effectively in communities such as Albany because they have not spent enough time building relationships or recruiting candidates there. His campaign website describes priorities ranging from agriculture and manufacturing to rural health care and ending generational poverty.

That gives voters in the 2nd District a contrast that is more complicated than Republican businessman versus Democratic incumbent.

Day is asking them to replace a congressman who has represented southwest Georgia for more than three decades with someone who has never held public office, has far less campaign money and sometimes disagrees with his own party.

His case is that those aren’t necessarily weaknesses.

They are the point.