It is with great humility and appreciation for this wonderful community that I am announcing that I will seek reelection as the State Representative for Georgia House District 72.
Every time I’ve had the privilege to stand before the voters, I have pledged that I will work as hard as I know how to represent this district’s interests at the Georgia Capitol. I again renew that pledge.
I also believe the most important thing any elected official can do is be responsive to those who elect him and I have strived to always remember that during my five years in office. I will continue to do so if given the opportunity to serve for two more years.
I believe voters want solutions, not politics. I believe voters are fed up with elected officials and political candidates that spend all their time attacking the motivations and ideas of their “opponents” rather than offering anything of substance themselves.
Voters simply want what they’ve always wanted: government interfering in their lives as little as possible. As an unapologetic conservative, I believe the best way to advance this district’s and state’s interests is by focusing on legislative initiatives that limit government, keep our taxes low and promote individual responsibility. While in office I have tried my best to represent this district in a positive, results-oriented manner. I will strive to continue to do so if given another two years.
Ideologically, I believe empowering the free-market, rather than government, is the best way to grow our economy.
I believe in reducing spending, rather than raising taxes, to balance our state’s budget.
I believe in ensuring we have a criminal justice system that spends tax dollars efficiently and keeps our families as safe as possible.
I believe in guarding personal liberty against government overreach and expansion.
I believe in providing an educational system that allows every child in Georgia to strive for and achieve their very best.
I believe in ensuring Georgia has a tax and regulatory system that fosters job creation and economic growth.
I believe in promoting a culture of life in Georgia that protects those that cannot protect themselves.
I also believe that every single hard-earned tax dollar that is sent to the state treasury needs to either be spent efficiently or returned to the hard-working citizens of Georgia.
However, it is not enough to simply have conviction and ideas. An effective legislator must be able to turn those convictions and ideas into legislation and ultimately law. Some of the initiatives I have helped author and advance during my five years in the legislature and are now law include:
• Legislation to close a loophole in our child molestation law that now keeps children safer from predators.
• Amendments to both our driving laws and controlled substances act aimed at providing a safer Georgia for our teens.
• Legislation to allow health insurance to be sold across state lines to provide Georgians with more choice and competition in the health insurance market.
• Comprehensive immigration reform legislation to protect Georgia taxpayers from the social and economic consequences of illegal immigration.
• Education legislation aimed at filling the shortage of qualified math and science teachers in our public schools to ensure Georgia’s students get the kind of instruction they need to compete in today’s challenging job market.
• Tax reform legislation that provided some of the most significant tax relief to Georgians in decades; including a big step toward eliminating the “marriage penalty” in Georgia’s tax code and eliminating the ad valorem or “birthday tax” on Georgia’s automobile owners.
• Five years of balanced state budgets that have reduced the size of our state government by more than twenty percent and moved Georgia to the 2nd lowest per-capita spending state in the country.
These are the type of initiatives I want to continue to work on over the next two years.
I am a husband to an incredible wife, a father of two young children, a Sunday school teacher, a youth sports coach, an active volunteer at my children’s school and a partner in a small business.
I want the same things for this community and state that every other parent does: a safe place to raise a family, quality educational opportunities for our children and a vibrant job market and economy that reward hard work and entrepreneurship.
We have so much to be proud and optimistic about in our community and state and I will continue to work to move Georgia in the direction that ensures all of these things are possible for our families.
It has been the greatest honor of my professional life to represent this great community, the community that I grew up in, at the state Capitol. I would be honored and humbled to have the opportunity to represent the hardworking citizens of Fayette and Coweta County for another two years.
Matt Ramsey
Peachtree City, Ga.
[Rep. Matt Ramsey (R-Peachtree City) was first elected to the District 72 post in December 2007. He is a law partner with Warner, Hooper, and Ramsey, P.C., in Peachtree City. His email is matt.ramsey@house.ga.gov.]
