Annotated closings from the Farm Bureau candidate forum.
Challenger JD Jordan (left) and incumbent State Senator John Albers (left) exchanging closing pitches at the recent candidate forum. Photos and videos shot and shared by a Cherokee resident in audience, stabilized and annotated by JD Jordan.
On April 25, the Farm Bureau & the Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce hosted a candidate forum at Canton’s historic courthouse. Incumbents and challengers from a variety of races had a chance to introduce themselves to voters and to debate a variety of audience-suggested topics.
Fortunately for the 56, both our incumbent, John Albers, and I were in attendance. And doubly so that someone in the audience captured the full exchange on their phone!
Over the course of the next two weeks, I’ll share the exchanges from this forum, covering:
In addition to simply sharing these videos, I’ve spent time fact-checking each of our statements and unscripted responses. I’ve performed this critique for two reasons:
Honesty and transparency are cornerstones of a healthy constituent experience and critical to establishing and maintaining trust between members of the public and their elected officials (candidates, too!)
To show I’m open to being fact checked, interested in feedback where I might be further informed, and open to the conversations such critiques may inspire.
If you see an errors in my critique or if you know of a data point I haven’t found, please reach out at me at jdjordan@forthe56.com and I’ll do my best to follow-up and—if necessary—make and note any corrections.
Annotated videos
Candidate closing pitches.
Each candidate was given 1:30 to make closing pitches about why voters should support them as the next Georgia State Senator for District 56. Responses were made in alternative order, with JD Jordan answering first and John Albers answering second.
Annotated transcript
JD Jordan: Closing.
Well, thank you very much for giving me this platform. Thank you all for coming out tonight and talking to all of us out in the hallway, asking us questions. I myself am a first-time candidate and I have never done a forum like this before, so I appreciate how polite everyone is and has, and I appreciate the excellent questions.
What I would ask all of you, because I think I suspect a lot of us are businesspeople, small or large, right?
True.
The hosts of the forum were two business-minded organizations—the Cherokee Farm Bureau and the Cherokee Country Chamber of commerce. Additionally, JD Jordan is the registered agent of three businesses in good standing with the state of Georgia: Sharpen Partners, a digital product design consulting firm, J+E Creative, an award-winning UX firm and film production firm he founded with his wife Ellie and which is now part of Sharpen, and The Office of JD Jordan which he uses for his writing career.
What I would ask all of you is to think about, where the role of the state is and where perhaps it oversteps that. It's one thing to say that we are a great state for business—which is true for most of us—but we also have to be a great state for people to work in, not just for the business owners.
And so, if you put yourself—if you use a professional empathy—and put yourself in the … feet of an LGBTQ person who is considering taking a job in Georgia where certain healthcare may not be allowed or certain workplace protections may not be allowed.
True.
Currently in Georgia, LGBTQ residents enjoy few state-level protections. While same-sex couples can get married in Georgia thanks to Federal law, same-sex parents lack second-parent and confirmatory adoption rights and lack access to family-leave laws. Additionally, Georgia offers no non-discrimination protections related to credit and lending, criminal-justice processes, employment, family services, housing, insurance, public accommodations—even bullying! And for the trans community, matters are even more challenging. In addition to recent legislation blocking trans youth from lifesaving healthcare (despite that care being backed by decades of research and supported by every major medical association), trans residents are also blocked from changing the gender markers on their driver’s licenses and birth certificates—a recently upheld First-Amendment right!
If you put yourself in the position of a woman who maybe isn't ready to start a family yet who's considering moving to this district.
True.
Currently in Georgia, abortion is banned at six-weeks on the basis of an uninformed and widely misunderstood “heartbeat law.” Patients are forced to endure mandated counseling and 24-hour delays during this critical treatment period, and there are no public-care options except in limited circumstances. Additionally, our state senate recently refused to take up IVF protections and many legislators—including John Albers—oppose abortion even to save the life of the mother. These conditions threaten every pregnant person’s right to life, to health, to education, to privacy, to be free from torture, and to be free from discrimination. Whether you’re pro-life or pro-choice, it remains that abortions can be medically necessary, we all have a Constitutional right to privacy (4th and 14th amendments), and the government has no business prying into personal medical decisions.
If you put yourself in the position of a middle-aged white guy who's just trying to raise their family in good schools, and those good schools are not allowed to teach topics that are important to American history and they're not allowed to circulate books that some of those kids might really benefit from reading, would you move here?
True.
Currently in the 56, we’re very fortunate to enjoy great schools, safe communities, and countless kid-friendly opportunities. But we also endure bureaucratic meddling in curriculum, divisive-topic laws, book bans, and gun laws that undermine the work of professional educators and combine to make our schools and libraries less representative, less competitive, and less safe. Protecting and providing for our kids protects and provides for us all. The children in our public schools today will grow up to work alongside us as doctors, mechanics, accountants, entrepreneurs, and community leaders.
And more than half the people in this district came here from out of state.
True.
48.4% of district residents were born out of state and 11.8% were born out of country. Only 38.6% were born in Georgia. (ACS)
This is a question that people are asking every day and they're questions I care about deeply. And I hope you'll come up and talk to me about these issues and many more too. I'm really here to talk to everyone.
True.
Want to get to know your state Senate candidate for the 56? That’s great, because I want to get to know you, too! Open communication is the cornerstone of good representation—and sadly lacking in many Georgia Senate districts, including the 56. So, let’s start the day right by catching up over a cup of morning coffee (or tea or mocha or whatever gets your day started well) and learn a little bit about one another.
Thank you very much.
Annotated transcript
John Albers: Closing.
Thank you again for having us tonight.
I also own several small businesses
True.
John Albers is the registered agent for three businesses in good standing in Georgia—Albers Enterprises, Saratoga Holdings, and Sentry AI which was organized suspiciously close to John’s appointment to the senate study committee on AI. None of these companies have a public website.
and I've served in office the last 14 years. I chair public safety, I vice chair finance.
True.
John Albers is a seven-term incumbent who currently serves as the Chairman of the Senate Public Safety committee and as Vice Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. So, if you have concerns—as I do—about mentally-ill Georgians having access to guns, criminal justice, corruption and death in our state prisons, how our tax dollars are spent, and the affordability of housing, John Albers action and inaction as a State Senate leader impact all of those topics and many more. He’s also a member of the Appropriations, Government Oversight, Regulated Industries & Utilities, and Rules committees.
We have lowered your taxes 12 times since I have been in office. We've given people back millions and billions and billions of dollars.
Hyperbole and disingenuous.
It’s unclear where John Albers got both the number 12 and the billions and billions. In the last 14 years, the state of Georgia has implemented multiple tax cuts, most notably in 2024, 2022 (the largest tax cut in our state’s history), 2021, and 2018. It should be noted, though, that all tax cuts originated in the State House, not the State Senate, so it’s hyperbolic and disingenuous for John to take credit for these tax cuts.
We work very hard as a team. I'm endorsed by law enforcement agencies, by firefighter organizations, by EMS, by 911, by the National Federation of Independent Business. And by scads of other groups, I've been named the legislator of the year over 20 times from different organizations
Probably true but unprovable.
John has a very long resume as a State Senator. At the time of this writing, there was no list of his current endorsements available online.
because like Senator Kirkpatrick, representative Thomas, and others, we get the job done and we know what it means for Cherokee County to represent them.
And at the end of the day, you want to make sure that Cherokee County stays rooted in all the goodness and the conservative values we have.
False equivilancy.
To say conversative = good is a dangerous oversimplification that others people of different political persuasions and ignores the fact that More than 80% of Americans—across regions, political outlooks, the partisan divide, gender, race, ethnicity, and age—believe in the core American values of equality, liberty and progress (Sienna College). And 70% of us—from all political persuasions—agree that no President should have blanket immunity to operate above the law (The Hill). These are not conservative or liberal values, inherently. We share them. This shouldn’t be made partisan.
The worst thing we want to do is start turning the corner and become a San Francisco, a Portland, a Chicago, and New York.
False.
The worst thing we can do is to continue to leave Federal monies on the table (which our taxes are already paying for) and continue to poorly serve our residents in terms of healthcare access, housing affordability, and prison corruption. But the cities John Albers singles out here are curiously undefined. While San Francisco and Portland have well-known issues, they aren’t as dangerous as several nearby conservative cities in Alabama or Florida. Based on Census data and FBI crime rate statistics, San Francisco has the 23rd highest crime rate, Portland has the 77th, New York has the 67th, and Chicago has the 42nd (Wikipedia). Meanwhile, neighboring Birmingham is the most dangerous city in America (Bizjournals). In fact, the red state murder rate was 33% higher than the blue state murder rate in both 2021 and 2022 and 2022 was the 23rd consecutive year that murder plagued Trump-voting states at far higher levels than Biden-voting states. Eight out of the ten states with the highest murder rates in 2022 voted for Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020 and from 2000 to 2022, the average red state murder rate was 24% higher than the average blue state murder rate. And the excuse that sky high red state murder rates are because of their blue cities is without merit. Even after removing the county with the largest city from red states, and not from blue states, red state murder rates were still 20% higher in 2021 and 16% higher in 2022 (Thirdway)
People moved here for a reason. What we want to keep it that way.
Unclear.
It’s unclear what differences John Albers is referring to.
We're blessed to live here and I've asked you to continue to send me down to the Gold Dome to serve your best interest. Thank you. And the Lord continue to watch over our great state of Georgia and God bless America.
JD JORDAN FOR GEORGIA STATE SENATE DISTRICT 56
For anyone in East Cobb, Roswell, or Woodstock alarmed by the state’s escalating attacks on our bodies, our families, our doctors’ offices, our classrooms and libraries, even our polling places, I’m running for state senate district 56 to fight for our freedoms and to deliver a better future for everyone in Georgia.
And unlike my opponent who’s spent 14 years rolling back our freedoms, failing to safeguard our kids, and gerrymandered his district to stay in office, I promise to bring everyone in the 56—regardless of ideology—the best possible constituent experience so you feel heard, valued, and supported. As we all deserve to be.
I’m running for the 56. Let’s make a better Georgia for all of us.
—
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT
Jordan For Georgia, LLC
10800 Alpharetta Hwy Ste 208 #629
Roswell, GA 30076-1467
jdjordan@forthe56.com
706.804.0456
