Rep. Andrew Clyde, the incumbent Congressman in Georgia’s 9th Congressional District, rattled off a list of priorities for the rest of his third term, and ideally for his fourth, should he be re-elected this November. He has two primary opponents in the solidly Republican district, with a primary coming on May 19th. The others are former Gainesville former mayor Sam Couvillon and Gregg Poole, a Hall County Commissioner. Two candidates are also vying for the seat on the Democratic side.
In an interview with Now Georgia on April 1st, Clyde named several of his priorities, including:
- Cutting the federal budget, principally by rooting out “waste, fraud, and abuse” and by allowing the economy to grow.
- Protecting 2nd Amendment Rights, which he says includes opposing regulation and taxes on firearms.
- Doing away with unnecessary units of the government, citing the Department of Education as an example.
- Passing the “Fair Tax,” which would replace income tax with a national consumption-based sales tax.
- And, among social issues, opposing abortion, though Clyde stopped short of demanding that women who undergo abortions and doctors who perform them be criminally prosecuted.
Another Big, Beautiful Bill
Clyde, who wholeheartedly supported President Trump’s “One, Big, Beautiful Bill,” wants to take the president’s initiative even further.
“We firmly believe that we will have a second, and possibly a third crack, at budget reconciliation,” Clyde said. “I’ll call it the big, beautiful bill number two…we are going to go after waste, fraud and abuse because it is still significant, as we have seen in Minnesota.” He referred to instances of alleged fraud around the state, wherein Somali immigrants are accused of appropriating public funds for child day care centers that are not providing any such services.
“You would be surprised how much waste, fraud, and abuse there is in the federal government,” Clyde said.
He added that he would favor cutting subsidies of all kinds to businesses, naming electric vehicles among those that were recipients of unfair government largesse.
“We have a free market economy,” he said. “Businesses need to stand on their own two feet if they are going to be a successful business. They shouldn’t be depending on a government subsidy to keep them afloat.”
Stop subsidizing business
President Trump’s One, Big, Beautiful Bill eliminated subsidies of thousands of dollars to buyers of new and used electric vehicles, which were put in place to address global climate change, as well as to spur U.S. automakers’ innovation in the field.
Clyde voiced support for President Trump’s move to begin shutting down the federal Department of Education, saying, “All the money that is spent there, that should be going to the states. Spending for education should be state and local, not federal.” Other federal programs and agencies that should be reviewed as well, he indicated.
The Fair Tax would allow huge savings at the Internal Revenue Service, since most people wouldn’t have to file tax returns at all, Clyde said, and taxation would become much more straightforward. He also endorsed balancing the federal budget, ideally by passing a Constitutional Amendment to require it.
“I’ve told my constituents I want to take Georgia values to Washington, D.C.,” he said, pointing with admiration to the state’s own substantial budget surplus.
Pro-Life not a federal Issue, but still a concern
When a reporter noted Clyde’s attention to the abortion controversy on his campaign website—it’s the second issue mentioned, after the 2nd Amendment—he quoted the Declaration of Independence at length, citing the document’s values of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” adding that abortion was a violation of the first of these.
“That means the government is there to protect life,” he said.
He favors exceptions to an abortion ban only if the life of the mother or the baby is at stake, he said, but not for pregnancies caused by a woman or girl being raped or victimized by incest.
Asked if women who have abortions and the doctors who serve them should be imprisoned, Clyde repeatedly declined to answer. He said that in any case, the issue should be decided state by state, and not at the federal level.
End the unconstitutional tax on guns, Clyde argues
Clyde, who in private life owns a gun shop, focused on the 2nd Amendment as a top priority, and argued that taxation and regulation of the gun industry are both suspect.
“I firmly believe that there should be no tax on a Constitutional right,” he said. “Chief Justice John Marshall said in 1819, ‘the power to tax includes the power to destroy’…How can you tax a Constitutional right? It’s unalienable. They can’t take it from you, but if they can tax it, then they can make it so expensive that you can’t afford [gun ownership]. So effectively, they’re taking it from you.”
Asked if his advocacy for gun rights in any way conflicted with his own business interests, he replied, “It’s the other way around. It won’t advantage my business; in fact, it will do the opposite…because when you reduce regulation, you increase competition…It has nothing to do with my business; it has everything to do with what the Second Amendment does for us as a country.”
“The left is all about eliminating the Second Amendment,” Clyde said. “Why? Because they want to cancel you; they want to cancel your voice; Well, if you’ve got the ability to defend your voice, then you’re not going to be canceled.”
Lake Lanier, forever
Clyde pointed to what he said were more than 3,000 constituent service matters successfully handled by him and his staff over his tenure. One example was fighting off the attempt, under former President Biden, to change the name of Lake Lanier, namesake of Georgia poet Sidney Lanier, (1842-1881) who was a private and prisoner while in service to the Confederate army during the Civil War.
He said the name change would have cost $1 million even three years ago, when it was proposed, and could cost many more to businesses around the lake. “There’s over 250 businesses that have ‘Lanier’ in their name,” he said. “There’s some that wouldn’t survive.”
“I believe we’ll have complete resolution to that,” he added.
When he was asked why a Republican conservative in a safely “Red” district would have two challengers from his own party, Clyde simply said, “Well, I think you’ll have to ask them that question,” He laughed, adding, “I don’t know their motivations; they’ll have to explain their motivations to you.”
