Sonya Halpern

Healthcare Expanding Medicaid will be one of my top priorities in office. Everyone should have access to health insurance regardless of their income or employment status. When someone you love has fallen ill, I don’t believe the first thing you should have to ask yourself is if calling an ambulance will bankrupt your family. I will fight for your right to quality, affordable health care. Abortion / Contraception I will also fight back against any efforts that attempt to take away a woman’s right to choose. Women’s health care is too often a secondary issue in the state legislature - until it comes time to take our rights away. I will do everything I can to protect and expand our power over our own bodies. Criminal Justice / Public Safety There are many changes I will fight for in office to accomplish that, including eliminating mandatory minimum sentencing, and undoing the decades of overcriminalization that have made Georgia the #4 state for incarceration. Conviction should not always mean confinement - having so many people incarcerated is not only inhumane but costs the state over one billion dollars per year on prisons alone, money that could be better spent on education, health care, or any of the other critical needs facing our state. Civil Rights I will fight hard against any attempts to roll back the hard-won rights of LGBTQI Georgians and support legislation which ensures that no one is discriminated against because of who they are or who they love. Education I believe that everyone who wants to pursue a college education should have the chance to do so, which is why I will support legislation to restore the original promise of the HOPE Scholarship, one which makes college accessible to all families who couldn’t afford it otherwise. Economy Economic mobility must be possible for anyone, not just a lucky few. Unfortunately, we live in a district where it is harder to move up than almost anywhere else in the country. While metro Atlanta has grown enormously in the last twenty years, that growth has often come at the expense of communities which have been ignored and underserved for a long time. Criminal Justice / Public Safety Our justice system has repeatedly failed in its mission to treat all people equally, regardless of skin color, income, or background. Being Black is not a crime but the rates of arrest, sentencing, and incarceration of Black people make it clear that our state treats it like one. Being poor is not a crime but the fact that people have to sit in jail if they can’t come up with bail money means a lack of resources becomes a lack of freedom. We must restore a sense of humanity to our criminal justice system. Civil Rights I will support legislation which expands access to the ballot box by investing more in our local county boards of education, making it easier to have your absentee ballot be counted, and implementing same-day voter registration. I will also advocate for a fair, nonpartisan redistricting process which creates more competition in our elections instead of protecting incumbents. Education As Senator, I will commit to reinvesting in our K-12 public schools so that opportunity isn’t limited to people born in the wealthiest neighborhoods. Restoring equity to our education system is key to building a stronger future for our district and our state.