Decision 2024: Meet Calvin Dennis Palmer, candidate for Georgia House District 142
Early voting began on October 15 and ends on November 1. Election day is November 5.
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) –Calvin Dennis Palmer and Miriam Paris are on the ballot for Georgia House District 142.
41NBC’s Monica Diaz-Meek spoke with Miriam Paris ahead of the November 5 election.
Candidate name: Calvin Dennis Palmer
Running for: Georgia House District 142
Campaign Website: Facebook
MONICA- Welcome back. Today we have Calvin Palmer who’s running for Georgia House district 142. Thank you for being here today.
CALVIN- Thank you. Thank you for doing this. I like this.
MONICA- I want to ask you a few questions. First off, what are the main priorities you plan to address if you are elected and how do you plan on doing so?
CALVIN- My platform, and I think this covers almost everything you want to talk about. It’s lower taxes, less regulation and educate our children. Those things alone probably just cover a multitude of things that would grow the economy, that would grow Bibb County. My whole district is in Bibb County. I’m going to be more interested, invested in this county than probably any other state representative ever has, is because of the density of population in North Macon.
In those areas. That makes this really vital to me. I live here, and so I’m going to be intimately involved in everything that goes on. People ask me so many times, they say, do you think you can beat your opponent? Who do you think you can run against this person? I’m not running against anybody. I’m sure everybody within their own purview thinks that this is what we need to do. I think that I’m running for the people of Bibb County. I’m not running against anything. I want to do positive things and move forward with what I’m doing. And I think there are some, tweaks we can do. Maybe we can work together on some things between the state and the county that’ll make, get things better. We got three interstates running through us. Let’s capitalize on that.
MONICA- Now, why do you think that you are the best person for this position?
CALVIN- I’ve been involved in politics all my life. Just like my dad was. And he got me involved in politics and seeing the political climate and the political landscape. Is is interesting to me that doing interviews like this. And I appreciate y’all doing this for us, that it lets us air some of the things that there are probably, systemic in our county that we need to look at. I think by being involved in politics, knowing the candidates before, during and after they get elected. Being able to be friends with those, politicians, those elected officials for knowing who they are, for knowing how they believe, for being able to have a reason. Discussion. And many times I’ve had politicians come back and tell me, thank you for your reasonable discussion about things. Then you’re not calling me name. You’re not, you know, throwing stones at me. I said, well, we’re trying to get something done for Bibb County. I’m not trying to pad my own nest. I’m not trying to get them in many times just by talking to politicians. Let me tell you what this group of people need. You may be so involved in so many things. So let’s talk about this specific thing. Makes sense. And sometimes we’re successful. Sometimes we do get things move in the direction that people want. That’s what you do. You’re servant of the people. I want to serve the people more than I want to serve me, or the political system, or party or anything. I’ll serve the people that they can.
MONICA- Lastly, what is your reaction to record breaking voter turnout? What does that say about this election cycle to you?
CALVIN- If the figures are right that I heard and I like that all these enablers, the first day of voting in 2020 was 136,000 state wide. We’ve heard that the first day of voting in 2024 was over 300,000 people. It tells me that people are excited about this election. People are maybe a little apprehensive about what’s been going on. I think the apprehensive about the cost of living, cost of insurance, the cost of rent, the cost of all these things that people don’t seem to be able to afford anymore. People are moving back in. I’ve heard two instances where people have had to combine household because they’re a little bit apprehensive about public schools, so they want to send their child to private school. That may be an issue we might have to look at, but it’s not that. Is it real or not real? That’s not the key issue. So apprehensive about it that they’ve actually combined household. You got grandparents to help them pay tuition for private schools. I’ve heard two personal instances that I could tell you about em. And they say, well, well, because we used to could do this formally. We could do this, but we could afford food, gas and things like that. But we can no longer do that and send the child to private school. So that’s one thing. Medical costs, health care costs, drug cost for people to get those have gone up and people are coming out to vote. Exactly. I think there’s an apprehension that we need to change fundamentally. The thinking that’s involved in government is, are we? I mean, I know you hear all the stories, but our people feel like if we can change this, this the hierarchy that’s up there, that’s moving, that maybe if we change it, maybe we can move to a different level where we can’t afford food, where inflation is not so high, cost of living not so high. And I think that’s why people have turned out so.
MONICA- Thank you so much.
