Carolyn Bourdeaux

Carolyn Bourdeaux (Democratic Party) was a member of the U.S. House, representing Georgia's 7th Congressional District. She assumed office on January 3, 2021. She left office on January 3, 2023.

Bourdeaux (Democratic Party) ran for re-election to the U.S. House to represent Georgia's 7th Congressional District. She lost in the Democratic primary on May 24, 2022.

In 2020, Bourdeaux participated in a Candidate Conversation hosted by Ballotpedia and EnCiv. Click here to view the recording.

Biography

Carolyn Bourdeaux lives in Suwannee, Georgia.^[1] Bourdeaux earned a B.A. in history and economics from Yale University, an M.P.A. from the University of Southern California, and a Ph.D. in public administration from Syracuse University. Her career experience includes working as a professor of public policy at Georgia State University and the director of the Georgia State Senate Budget and Evaluation Office.^[2]^[3]

Elections

2022

General election

General election for U.S. House Georgia District 7

Incumbent Lucy McBath defeated Mark Gonsalves and Lisa Babbage in the general election for U.S. House Georgia District 7 on November 8, 2022.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Lucy McBath (D)	61.0	143,063
	Mark Gonsalves (R)	38.9	91,262
	Lisa Babbage (R) (Write-in)	0.0	14

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source 1 Source 2	Total votes: 234,339
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Republican primary runoff election

Republican primary runoff for U.S. House Georgia District 7

Mark Gonsalves defeated Michael Corbin in the Republican primary runoff for U.S. House Georgia District 7 on June 21, 2022.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Mark Gonsalves	70.1	8,591
	Michael Corbin	29.9	3,666

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 12,257
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Georgia District 7

Incumbent Lucy McBath defeated incumbent Carolyn Bourdeaux and Donna McLeod in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Georgia District 7 on May 24, 2022.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Lucy McBath	63.1	33,607
	Carolyn Bourdeaux	30.6	16,310
	Donna McLeod	6.3	3,352

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 53,269
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Georgia District 7

Michael Corbin and Mark Gonsalves advanced to a runoff. They defeated Lisa McCoy, Mary West, and Y.G. Nyghtstorm in the Republican primary for U.S. House Georgia District 7 on May 24, 2022.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Michael Corbin	41.1	18,637
✔	Mark Gonsalves	27.5	12,477
	Lisa McCoy	14.1	6,380
	Mary West	9.6	4,370
	Y.G. Nyghtstorm	7.7	3,510

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 45,374
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Elfreda Desvignes (R)

2020

Georgia's 7th Congressional District election, 2020 (June 9 Republican primary)

Georgia's 7th Congressional District election, 2020 (June 9 Democratic primary)

General election

General election for U.S. House Georgia District 7

Carolyn Bourdeaux defeated Rich McCormick in the general election for U.S. House Georgia District 7 on November 3, 2020.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Carolyn Bourdeaux (D)	51.4	190,900
	Rich McCormick (R)	48.6	180,564

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 371,464
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Watch the Candidate Conversation for this race!

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Georgia District 7

The following candidates ran in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Georgia District 7 on June 9, 2020.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Carolyn Bourdeaux	52.8	44,710
	Brenda Lopez Romero	12.4	10,497
	Nabilah Islam Parkes	12.3	10,447
	Rashid Malik	8.0	6,780
	John Eaves	7.7	6,548
	Zahra Karinshak	6.8	5,729

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 84,711
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Marqus Cole (D)
David Kim (D)

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Georgia District 7

The following candidates ran in the Republican primary for U.S. House Georgia District 7 on June 9, 2020.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Rich McCormick	55.1	35,280
	Renee Unterman	17.4	11,143
	Mark Gonsalves	7.2	4,640
	Lynne Homrich	7.1	4,567
	Eugene Yu	6.0	3,856
	Lisa Babbage	5.2	3,336
	Zachary Kennemore	1.9	1,195

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 64,017
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

2018

See also: Georgia's 7th Congressional District election, 2018

See also: Georgia's 7th Congressional District election (May 22, 2018 Democratic primary)

General election

General election for U.S. House Georgia District 7

Incumbent Rob Woodall defeated Carolyn Bourdeaux in the general election for U.S. House Georgia District 7 on November 6, 2018.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Rob Woodall (R)	50.1	140,443
	Carolyn Bourdeaux (D)	49.9	140,010

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 280,453 (100.00% precincts reporting)
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary runoff election

Democratic primary runoff for U.S. House Georgia District 7

Carolyn Bourdeaux defeated David Kim in the Democratic primary runoff for U.S. House Georgia District 7 on July 24, 2018.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Carolyn Bourdeaux	52.0	7,948
	David Kim	48.0	7,348

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified.	Total votes: 15,296
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Georgia District 7

The following candidates ran in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Georgia District 7 on May 22, 2018.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Carolyn Bourdeaux	27.3	8,662
✔	David Kim	26.0	8,249
	Ethan Pham	17.8	5,666
	Melissa Davis	13.7	4,340
	Kathleen Allen	11.0	3,500
	Steve Reilly	4.2	1,335

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified.	Total votes: 31,752
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Georgia District 7

Incumbent Rob Woodall defeated Shane Hazel in the Republican primary for U.S. House Georgia District 7 on May 22, 2018.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Rob Woodall	71.9	30,450
	Shane Hazel	28.1	11,883

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified.	Total votes: 42,333
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Campaign themes

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

Carolyn Bourdeaux did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.

2020

Candidate Conversations

Moderated by journalist and political commentator Greta Van Susteren, Candidate Conversations is a virtual debate format that allows voters to easily get to know their candidates through a short video Q&A. Click below to watch the conversation for this race.

Carolyn Bourdeaux did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign website

Bourdeaux’s campaign website stated the following:

“

Healthcare
CAROLYN WILL FIGHT FOR:

Ensuring universal access to affordable, quality health care by strengthening the Affordable Care Act (ACA), protecting people with pre-existing conditions, and creating a robust affordable public option health insurance plan for individuals and small businesses.
Lower prescription drug costs by allowing the federal government to negotiate prices for prescription drugs.
Ending surprise billing.

Health care policy is personal to Carolyn. For ten years, Carolyn’s father suffered from a debilitating, prolonged illness and her mother cared for him. Her parents drained their bank accounts to pay for her father’s prescription medications. Now every day, she hears from Georgia families struggling with the rising costs of prescription drugs, insurance costs, and costs of medical care. Across our country, there are seniors who can't afford the care they need. Parents struggle to afford the insulin their children depend on to survive, and families and businesses are paying staggering sums for basic health insurance. This is a crisis.

Carolyn will fight for the millions of Georgians who are either uninsured, under insured, or struggle with the costs of insurance and prescription drugs. Due to both poor state government policy decisions (i.e. refusing to expand Medicaid) and the Trump Administration’s war on the Affordable Care Act, Georgia has the third highest rate (13.7% or 1.4 million Georgians) of those without health insurance, ranks 50th in childhood immunizations, 47th in low birthweight babies, 40th in diabetes, 43rd in infant mortality, and Georgia has the highest maternal mortality rate in the country. Health outcomes are much worse for low-income and minority communities, particularly with respect to maternal and infant mortality.

Carolyn believes strongly that affordable, quality health care is the right of all Georgians. The Affordable Care Act was a great step forward in guaranteeing that right, but the current pandemic has highlighted the fact that more needs to be done. We must begin to separate access to health insurance from our places of employment. Losing a job should not mean losing health insurance. Carolyn supports the creation of a robust public health insurance option to compete with private sector options already offered on the Affordable Care Act health insurance exchanges as well as lowering the Medicare eligibility age to 50. Carolyn will encourage the Governor and General Assembly to expand Medicaid and help over 500,000 currently uninsured Georgians obtain health insurance.

To decrease the cost of health insurance, Carolyn will work to increase subsidies and cap premiums for those health insurance policies offered on the exchanges, while ensuring that all insurance plans cover essential health services. Carolyn will also fight all efforts to eliminate the ACA’s protection for people with pre-existing conditions.

The high cost of prescription drugs is a significant barrier to keeping Georgians healthy. Carolyn supports efforts to allow the federal government to negotiate prices for prescription medications. Due to the size of the Medicare and the potential public option plan population, the government has significant leverage to negotiate lower prices. Carolyn supports allowing the importation of drugs deemed safe by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from other countries and efforts to improve the supply and reduce the cost of generic drugs.

Carolyn will also work to end surprise billing. Surprise billing occurs when patients are treated at an in-network hospital but is treated by an out-of-network physician. About 20 percent of visits to the emergency room and 10 percent of elective in-patient care results in a surprise bill. A surprise bill can result in a significant out-of-pocket cost to patients. Carolyn supports the legislation that will protect patients and take them out of the middle of insurer-provider disputes.

Confronting Injustice
IN CONGRESS, CAROLYN WILL WORK TO:

Establish a system of data collection on cases of police violence and establish a National Registry of Police Misconduct
Pass legislation that ends the transfer of military weaponry to local offices, bans racial and religious profiling, and establishes federal use of force standards for police
Pass the Eric Garner Excessive Use of Force Prevention Act of 2019

There have been 5,000 fatal shootings by the police in America since 2015. Black Americans are killed by the police at a rate twice as high as white people. This is not acceptable.

The federal government does not track police violence with any kind of reliable data collection and local police offices only have to report cases of police brutality on a voluntary basis. Carolyn will work to implement an effective program of data collection on the federal level. This will allow the federal government to track statistics, identify patterns, and investigate police misconduct across the country.

Carolyn will also fight to establish a National Registry of Police Misconduct. This registry should house records of every example of police misconduct from across the country. By giving every local police office in the country access to this information, we can prevent officers who were fired for violence from relocating themselves and perpetuating their brutality.

Additionally, Carolyn will work to pass H.R. 4408, also known as the Eric Garner Excessive Use of Force Prevention Act. This bill amends existing law and bans the use of chokeholds by police officers.

Carolyn also supports passing legislation that ends the transfer of military weaponry to local police; formally bans racial and religious profiling; and establishes federal use of force standards for police, with provisions that define clear legal consequences for offenders and ensure third-party investigation into offences.

Education & Job Training
IN CONGRESS, CAROLYN WILL WORK TO:

Make investments in our public education system because every child, no matter where they live, deserves a world-class education.
Expand programs like Pell Grants to make it easier to afford higher education, while also working to fix the student loan debt crisis.
Invest in job training and apprenticeship programs, because career training is essential to upward mobility and a stronger economy.
Provide universal pre-k to give every child the head start they need to be successful.

Carolyn is proud to send her son to Gwinnett public schools because she knows the value of a public education and how critical our schools are to ensuring that all our children have a bright future. Carolyn supports increased federal funding for Title 1 schools (those with high number of students from low-income backgrounds), fully funding the Individuals with Disabilities Act to help schools hire and retain highly qualified special education teachers and increase resources available to prepare and retain teachers.

Higher education is a key to economic success but is out of reach for far too many. Carolyn was only able to afford to go to college through the help of her community and programs like Pell Grants. Now, as a professor at Georgia State University, Carolyn sees the struggle too many of her students go through to afford the rising costs of higher education. To help make college more affordable, Carolyn supports increased funding for programs such as Pell Grants and supplemental loan programs. She believes that anyone who wants to pursue a higher education should not be held back simply because they cannot afford it.

In addition to helping prospective students afford college, we also need to provide relief for those already struggling with student debt. The student loan debt crisis is growing and if we don’t act now, the consequences will be catastrophic. Carolyn supports programs that enable folks to pay back their student loans proportionally to their income so that no one is paying more than they can afford. For those students who go into careers in public service such as teachers, nurses, police, firefighters and the military, Carolyn supports strengthening the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.

With the increased need for skilled labor, workforce training and apprenticeship programs need to be readily available and affordable for those coming out of high school and for those looking at a new career. Carolyn supports increased investments in technical education programs as well as apprenticeship programs. Workers in changing industries are being left behind, and it’s important that they have opportunities to retrain for good, quality jobs.

High quality early childhood education is an important factor in later success in school. Carolyn supports universal, affordable, and high-quality early learning opportunities for every child. This can be accomplished through a combination of tax credits, strengthening and expanding Head Start and Early Head Start, as well as partnering with states to offer universal pre-K for three and four year olds.

Social Justice And Economic Opportunity
IN CONGRESS, CAROLYN WILL WORK TO:

Create a savings bond program for children from low income families that will help address intergenerational poverty, and ensure all children graduate from high school with resources to invest in a college education, a home loan, or a small business.
Use congressional oversight to ensure strict enforcement of housing and employment anti-discrimination laws.
Invest in world class education for all of our children and address disparities in discipline, learning, and educational opportunity head on.
Address racial disparities in our health care system.
Achieve meaningful criminal justice reform.

Carolyn believes all families want the same opportunity for their children, they just face different barriers to achieving it. The average wealth of a white family is ten times that of a black family reflecting generations of discrimination and inequality. The wealth gap is the direct result of public policies like redlining that made it difficult for black Americans to purchase homes, and their modern day counterpart of discriminatory lending practices. Homes are the most common way for Americans to accumulate intergenerational wealth. Carolyn supports ending the practice of modern redlining by prohibiting banks from discrimination in housing loans.

She also will support investment in policies to create a savings bond program for children from low income families, with a goal of addressing structural, intergenerational poverty. The federal government will contribute to these funds each year, and at 18, these children will have resources to invest in higher education, buying a home, or building a small business.

Ensuring educational equality is also fundamental to opportunity for all of our children. Carolyn is proud to be a professor at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, at Georgia State University, a public university that focuses on first generation college students and graduates more African American students than any university in the country. She also knows first hand the struggles her students face in getting a college degree and is committed to making sure higher education is affordable for all families. Carolyn also supports moving towards universal pre-K and investing in quality child care so all of our children start school ready to learn.

In the 7th district, she also often hears from African American families who talk about discrimination in the K-12 school system, including significant disparities in disciplinary actions taken against black children. Discrimination in education cannot be tolerated and she will work with organizations such as Black Men United for Children and Humanity to make sure our community tracks and swiftly address disparities in education.

We must also take significant measures to address the racial disparities in our health care system laid bare by both the coronavirus and Georgia’s shocking black maternal mortality rate. Carolyn will fight to make sure that all Americans have affordable quality health care, and that health care policy is designed to be sensitive to racial disparity in health outcomes.

Last, there is no denying the devastation that our broken criminal justice system has inflicted on black and brown communities. Carolyn will advocate for policies that reverse the disturbing reality of this system including: ending mandatory minimums for non-violent drug offenses, restoring voting rights to formerly incarcerated individuals, closing sentencing disparities, and instituting systems that better reintegrate people back into society.

Restoring Our Democracy
IN CONGRESS, CAROLYN WILL WORK TO:

Ensure we have free and fair elections, where every voice is heard and every vote is counted.
Ensure our electronic elections systems are secure from hacking and foreign influence.
Fix our broken campaign finance system and curb the influence of special interests.
End partisan gerrymandering -- voters should be picking their elected leaders, not the other way around.

Hold regular town halls and meet and greets in both Gwinnett and Forsyth Counties to ensure everyone has a chance to be heard. The first piece of legislation Carolyn will co-sponsor when elected to Congress will be Congressman John Lewis’ Voting Rights Advancement Act, which restores portions of the Voting Rights Act scrapped by the Supreme Court. But we must go beyond this to ensure that everyone who is eligible and wants to vote, can vote. Carolyn supports same day voter registration as well as legislation to stop the disastrous voter purges conducted by Georgia’s Secretary of State. She will also support legislation to ensure that our election systems are secure from hacking as well as inappropriate foreign influence.

Given the public health emergency of the coronavirus, Carolyn has been a fierce advocate for a comprehensive “vote-by-mail” system in Georgia: a voter shouldn’t have to risk life and health to vote.

Meaningful solutions to pressing issues like health care, our environment, and gun violence are held back due to the influence of special interests that spend billions to push their own corporate interests. Carolyn is committed to campaign finance reform, rolling back the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, and getting special interest money out of politics. She has already taken steps to make a difference here as well. She has pledged to never accept contributions from corporate PACs and to instead hold at least 4 public town halls every year she’s in Congress. She believes that our leaders should be responsive to the people in their district -- not powerful special interests.

Districts are drawn to favor one side over the other, so much so that politicians do not believe they can be held accountable. Our current lawmakers are more afraid of losing reelection than the consequences of disenfranchising their constituents. This is why Carolyn supports non-partisan redistricting. By un-rigging the district maps that protect unresponsive politicians, we can start to break the gridlock and polarization in Washington.

For our democracy to work, voters need to have confidence that our election process is free and fair and that their representatives are listening to them, never to special interests.

Economic Recovery In The Aftermath Of The Pandemic
IN CONGRESS, CAROLYN WILL SUPPORT A FAIR AND BROAD BASED FAMILIES-FIRST ECONOMIC RECOVERY BY FIGHTING FOR EFFORTS THAT:

Support the recovery of Georgia’s small businesses from the economic fallout of the pandemic.
Ensure that the social safety net including the unemployment insurance system as well as food and housing assistance programs have the resources necessary to allow families in need to support themselves until we can get our economy back on its feet.
Fix our broken health care system to ensure all families have affordable, quality health care.
Raise the federal minimum wage and match it with the Earned Income Tax Credit to ensure every family can make a living wage.
Help spur economic recovery by creating good-paying jobs through key investments to repair our crumbling and insufficient infrastructure with a focus on tackling climate change.

Over one million Georgians have lost their jobs since the economy was shut down. Carolyn experienced the pain of economic hardship first hand, as her family went bankrupt before she went to college. She knows that federal and state governments have a responsibility to assure that struggling families have the resources to support themselves. She was also Senate budget director in Georgia and helped the state navigate the Great Recession and knows the even greater challenges our community will face during this crisis.

Carolyn will work to ensure that the unemployment insurance system, food nutrition programs, and housing assistance programs have the necessary funds to assure every worker has the resources they need to support their families until our economy recovers.

Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and have been decimated by the pandemic. As our economy begins to recover, our local factories, shops, restaurants and bars must have access to the capital they require to reopen and hire back their workers. Carolyn will support the funding of existing programs and, if necessary, the creation of new programs to ensure the availability of small business grants and loans to all that are in need.

In order to jump start our economy with good paying jobs as well as strengthen our economy for the future, Carolyn supports a major program that rebuilds our roads, bridges, transit, and broadband infrastructure. We must move from a crumbling and outdated 20th century infrastructure to modern and strong 21st century infrastructure.

Many of the heroes during this crisis have been the low-wage workers that stock our grocery shelves and staff the check-out counters, cook and serve at our take-out restaurants, and staff our nursing homes. But too many of the workers we now recognize as essential to all of us do not make a living wage. When a minimum wage job in Georgia does not pay enough to support a family, one of the first steps we need to take in recovering our economy must be to guarantee a living wage. The costs of rent, gas and food increase every year, and our wages have not kept up. Carolyn supports increasing the federal minimum wage and pairing it with increases in the Earned Income Tax Credit to ensure that everyone can make a living wage.

Expanding Transit & Mobility
IN CONGRESS, CAROLYN WILL WORK TO:

Fully support federal programs to expand funding for new methods of public transit in Georgia’s 7th district.
Support the development of an electric vehicle charging grid to facilitate the transition to zero emissions transportation.
Modernize our infrastructure with funding to address local transportation bottlenecks.

As a commuter to downtown Atlanta from Georgia’s 7th, Carolyn knows the misery of sitting in traffic as well as anyone. She knows that expanding transit and transportation options is a key to improving mobility and unlocking economic opportunity and is an essential investment as we fight climate change.

In Congress, Carolyn will support legislation to make significant investments in our infrastructure, including transit, commuter rail, and support for electric vehicles and other technologies that help us develop the green economy we need for the 21st century and unlock business opportunity for this district.

The gridlock in this area has begun to choke off jobs and economic opportunity. Most recently, WestRock and NCR relocated from the 7th district to Atlanta to be closer to transit options. As an aide to Senator Ron Wyden, Carolyn worked to successfully expand federal funding for light-rail systems that are now seen as a model for the entire nation. She additionally worked to support programs that better coordinate transportation with land use planning.

She will bring this knowledge and background to fight for our district in Congress. For years, residents of the 7th district and all Georgians have sent their taxpayer dollars to Washington to support transit initiatives and infrastructure in other states - now it is time for an investment in our community.

Expanding transportation options is not only the smart thing to do, it is the right thing to do. Exhausting commutes damage the environment and have a negative effect on the health of Georgians. Everyone in our district should be able to afford accessible, safe and reliable methods of transit -- creating a truly connected community.

Gun Safety & Reform
IN CONGRESS, CAROLYN WILL WORK TO:

Protect Americans’ right to safely own a gun; while passing common-sense, lifesaving gun safety measures.
Implement universal background checks on all gun sales, including at gun shows, a move that is supported by nearly all Americans, including a majority of gun owners.
Ban assault weapons, high capacity magazines, bump stocks, silencers, and armor piercing bullets.

For years, Congress has consistently failed to take meaningful action while innocent people, including children, fall victim to gun violence each day. Our children should not have to live in a country where active shooter drills are part of a normal routine in school. People should be able to enjoy the movie theater, mall, concert, or nightclub without fearing for their safety.

The majority of Americans, including gun owners, support gun safety measures that are meant to keep weapons out of the wrong hands. No one with a history of domestic violence should be able to purchase a weapon. Carolyn will fight to close the “boyfriend loophole” and protect the on average 52 women who are murdered monthly by their partners with firearms.

It's time to close the “Charleston loophole” and mandate universal background checks on all gun sales, including at all gun shows. This will ensure that weapons don’t fall into the wrong hands, including those on the FBI terrorist watch list.

We also need to keep our communities safe by banning items that present undue safety concerns. Assault weapons, silencers, high capacity magazines, bump stocks, and armor piercing bullets are not necessary for self-protection or hunting. These common-sense reforms will save lives and make our communities safer.

Gun manufacturers and dealers must be held accountable for their products. Carolyn will also work to repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act which gives gun manufacturers and dealers broad immunity from legal liability. The firearms industry must also be better regulated. Carolyn supports increased funding for the ATF so they can more aggressively take enforcement action on those irresponsible gun dealers and manufacturers who are supplying the illegal market for gun crimes.

Carolyn grew up around guns in a family of gun owners and was taught from an early age that owning a gun is a serious responsibility. In Congress, she will stand up to the NRA’s divisive, false narrative that suggests that we cannot both implement common-sense gun safety laws while also respecting Second Amendment rights. We can do both.

Fixing Our Immigration System
For too long, we’ve had a broken immigration system. We need to reaffirm our commitment to building a country that is diverse, inclusive, and global while also addressing valid border security concerns and upgrades.

IN CONGRESS, CAROLYN WILL WORK TO:

Pass comprehensive immigration reform that deals with problems along our border while also recognizing legal status for those who have been contributing to our society.
Protect DREAMers and establish a clear path to citizenship for them.
Reject any policies that separate children from their parents at the border and reaffirm our country’s values of welcoming immigrants and celebrating our diversity.

Reform the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). We cannot be a country that closes our border and turns people away “because we are full,” nor can we continue to have leaders who use vile, xenephobic language that demeans entire groups of people. We need an immigration system that is humane and reflects our country’s history and values.

Meaningful immigration reform isn’t about separating children at the borders or building walls and fences -- it’s about establishing a system that’s fair and lays out a clear procedure for our immigrants. Carolyn is committed to fighting for comprehensive immigration reform that recognizes economic realities, deals with security along the border, and offers a pathway to citizenship for those who have lived here and contributed to our society, including our DREAMers.

We must recognize the plight of refugees who are fleeing for their own safety, and we should increase the number of immigration judges to swiftly hear their cases and reduce the amount of time refugee-seekers have to await trial.

Part of immigration reform must also address security concerns along our borders. This means a combination of deploying new technologies, giving border agents the tools they need to effectively patrol the border, and working with other countries and our allies to deal with those who seek to cause harm.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) must be reformed so that immigration enforcement represents our values. There must be increased oversight from Congress and independent inspectors, independent ombudsmen for detained immigrants, expanded safeguards for citizens erroneously targeted, improved agency standards through mandatory reviews and updates, increased professionalism through training, and reinstating enforcement priorities.

Addressing The Climate Crisis
IN CONGRESS, CAROLYN WILL WORK TO:

Address climate change with the seriousness it deserves.
Invest in clean energy jobs and technologies; helping to clean our environment and boost our economy.
Reduce the influence of special interests, whose corruption of our system has impeded progress to address climate change.

Climate change is an existential threat to our way of life and will significantly impact the well-being of our children and future generations. The science behind climate change is clear. It’s time that we pass serious measures to curb the troubling trends of warming temperatures, heightened levels of CO2, and rising sea levels while we still can.

First and foremost, Carolyn believes that the United States needs to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement. We are now the only major country that is not part of the historic partnership. We must reverse the Trump administration’s decision to pull back from the world stage at a time when American leadership is paramount.

But solely rejoining the Paris Agreement is not enough. The existential threat of climate change calls for a Marshall Plan level of investments and regulatory efforts to ensure we move swiftly toward 100% clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy in electricity generation; 100% zero emissions for all new light-duty passenger vehicles, medium-duty trucks, and all buses; and 100% zero-carbon pollution for all new commercial and residential buildings.

By investing in clean-energy jobs, we can take important steps to curb pollution and grow our economy. We should not let China or Europe take the lead. Carolyn believes that we can use this crisis as an opportunity and invest in millions of high-quality jobs creating solar panels, building wind turbines, and revamping our infrastructure to support green transit. Carolyn additionally supports investing in critical research to invent new technologies. Tackling climate change will not just lead to a more sustainable environment; it allows for the creation of a vibrant, green-based manufacturing revival.

Unfortunately we’ve failed to take serious action to curb climate change because special interests like big oil and gas companies have spent millions to elect their allies and then tell them to vote in their interests -- and against their constituents. Carolyn supports eliminating the billions of dollars in tax subsidies and tax breaks enjoyed by the fossil fuel industry and refocusing those funds to the green economy. Carolyn has taken the bold step of refusing contributions from corporate PACs because she believes that it’s important that our leaders are fighting for the well being of people in their districts -- not powerful special interests.

Veterans And Military Families
CAROLYN WILL FIGHT FOR VETERANS AND MILITARY SERVICE MEMBER FAMILIES BY:

Assuring all veterans have access to affordable and comprehensive healthcare, including mental health care, that meets their specific needs.
Supporting services for military families.
Supporting transition from active duty to civilian life.

Carolyn will work to fully fund the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Increased funding will help fill the thousands of currently vacant positions as well as allow for an increase in pay which will help lessen staff turnover. A fully funded and staffed VA will help cut the wait time for services. Carolyn also supports the expansion of community-based medical options and telehealth services. Such services would be of particular benefit to veterans in more rural areas.

The stress and trauma faced by many of our military service members can result in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and other mental health issues. Veteran suicide is a severe and growing problem (60,000 veterans took their own lives between 2008 and 2017). Carolyn will work to guarantee veterans access to mental health care through expanding the number of mental health and addiction clinicians treating veterans and investing in training for mental health providers.

We must not only honor the sacrifices made by our service members, but we must honor the sacrifices made by their families by giving them the support they deserve. Due to the many relocations of our military service members, military parents face unique childcare issues. Carolyn will support increased funding for high-quality child-care in military communities. The safety and adequacy of military housing is a significant problem for our military families. Due to neglect much of military housing needs renovation, including lead abatement. A 2019 poll of military families found that 56 percent had negative or very negative experiences with their housing. Carolyn will fight for increased federal oversight of housing contractors to assure military housing is safe.

The transition from active service to civilian life is often difficult for our veterans. Carolyn will work to increase job training and apprenticeship opportunities for veterans, increase assistance in starting small businesses, and support programs that help connect veterans to jobs. Carolyn will work to expand and improve the GI Bill through expanding options for the utilization of the GI bill and expanding outreach efforts to increase awareness of the GI Bill. On any night approximately 35,000 veterans are homeless. Carolyn will fight for the investments needed for rapid re-housing through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Supportive Services for Veterans Family program and permanent supportive housing through the Housing and Urban Development Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program.

Jobs & The Economy
IN CONGRESS, CAROLYN WILL WORK TO:

Increase investments in job training and apprenticeship programs so that everyone has a path to a living wage.
Ensure that college is affordable by increasing Pell Grants, service loan forgiveness programs, and ensuring that student loan payments are pegged to income.
Increase funding to ensure Georgia has the infrastructure needed for a 21st century high tech economy.
Support legislation that helps us build a green jobs economy to address the climate crisis.

Our economy cannot continue moving forward until our workers earn a living wage. The cost of rent, gas, and food increases every year. Yet wages have not grown as they should. We need to increase the federal minimum wage to account for inflation and also pair this with the expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit, to ensure that all hard-working individuals are able to achieve a living wage.

Small business is the backbone of our local economy. Carolyn will work to give targeted tax relief to our small community businesses. Carolyn will also work to ensure that the reasonable and necessary regulations faced by small businesses are implemented in an efficient and business friendly manner while also partnering with our local business community to identify and then work to eliminate those regulations that are overly burdensome and/or no longer serve the purpose they once did.

Many studies show that education is the key to the 21st economy, and college or career training and apprenticeships programs are essential to upward mobility. However, the costs of higher education have skyrocketed as states have disinvested in our public universities. No young person should be unable to go to college because he or she can’t afford it. Programs like federal Pell Grants used to cover 80 percent of the cost of higher education, today, they only cover around 30 percent. In order to make college more affordable, Carolyn supports legislation that would significantly increase the maximum Pell grant value for individuals already eligible and would also expand the benefits of Pell grants to more middle-class Americans.

Carolyn has visited some of the union run training centers in the metro area, and she is strongly supportive of their apprenticeship programs that give young people a path to a career and a good wage. She will work to increase investments in job training and apprenticeship programs so that everyone has a clear career pathway that leads to a living wage job.

Most of us living here in Gwinnett and Forsyth face a “soul-sucking commute.” The time we spend stuck in traffic could be spent on so many other things, including being with family. Infrastructure investments must be made in our district in order to attract businesses and preserve our quality of life. Carolyn supports a significant federal infrastructure bill that will help repair our crumbling roads and bridges, fund a variety of transit options, and employ Georgians at a time of record unemployment.

Over 330,000 Georgia households do not have access to broadband internet. In normal times this lack of a 21st century high-tech infrastructure would be a significant economic development disadvantage. In the age of pandemics where schools are forced to move to on-line learning and many businesses are requiring their employees to work from home, those households without internet access are facing an educational and economic crisis. Carolyn will work to ensure that any infrastructure legislation includes funding to guarantee every household has access to high speed broadband internet.

Last, Carolyn believes that we must invest in new technology and infrastructure to address the climate crisis. This is going to entail creating incentives for millions of high-quality jobs creating and installing solar panels, building wind turbines, building electric cars, and revamping our infrastructure to support transit and alternative fuel power generation. Carolyn additionally supports investing in critical research around clean energy innovation and new technologies. Tackling climate change will not just lead to a more sustainable environment; it also opens the door to a vibrant, green-based manufacturing revival.

Women's Issues
IN CONGRESS, CAROLYN WILL:

Fight for equal pay through support for the Paycheck Fairness Act
Work to ensure paid family medical leave
Stand up and fight for a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions, including the right to choose
Support efforts to lower the Georgia maternal mortality rate, including advocating for Medicaid expansion
Support finally ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment

Women who work full time, year-round are paid, on average, only 82 cents for every dollar paid to men, resulting in a gap of $10,194 each year. On average Latina women are paid 54 cents, black women 62 cents, white women 79 cents, and Asian women 90 cents for every dollar paid to white men. At the current rate, the wage gap will not close until 2059. Carolyn will work to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act which would help break the harmful patterns of pay discrimination and strengthen the workplace protections for women.

The Equal Rights Amendment has been ratified by the 38 states needed to add an amendment to the Constitution. However, the Mitch McConnell controlled Senate refuses to extend the deadline for ratification. Carolyn will use her power in Congress to continuously advocate for and protect this vital amendment as we work to finally ratify it.

Carolyn strongly supports a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions, including the right to choose. Although the Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized a woman’s right to privacy and control over her own body as a constitutional right, anti-choice advocates have worked for years in states like Georgia to pass laws to undermine women’s reproductive health. Most recently, the Republicans in Georgia passed legislation to criminalize abortion, with penalities of up to 10 years in prison for doctors and women. This legislation passed in a state where women are more likely to die in childbirth than any other state in the country. Carolyn has worked to expand women’s reproductive health care for years and will support legislation to codify Roe v. Wade and make sure that women have access to contraception.

Georgia today has the highest maternal mortality rate in the country - a rate equivalent to maternal mortality in Uzbekistan. The situation is even worse among minority and low-income communities. Carolyn will support efforts to increase the number of maternity care health professionals in underserved areas, support Medicaid expansion in Georgia, make pregnancy a qualifying life event allowing people to enroll in the Affordable Care Act marketplace insurance plans outside of open enrollment periods, support increased funding for implicit bias training among health professionals, and support nationwide efforts to examine maternal deaths.

Giving families time off to bond with their newborns, newly adopted children, or to care for a sick family member without facing financial stress is essential, and Carolyn supports the development of a national paid family medical leave policy. The United States is the only developed country in the world that does not provide even a modest form of paid family leave -- it’s time for this to change.

LGBTQIA+ Rights
IN CONGRESS, SHE WILL FIGHT TO:

Pass the Equality Act that would make explicit the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity as protected characteristics.
Pass the Do No Harm Act which would clarify that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act is intended to protect religious freedom without allowing the infliction of harm to other people.

Carolyn was proud to work for now-Senator Ron Wyden when he became the first U.S. Senate candidate, and then Senator, to publicly support marriage equality in 1995 -- a policy that Carolyn advocated for even then. In Congress, Carolyn will continue her fight for LGBTQ+ individuals.

Federal laws protect the civil rights of people on the basis of race, national origin, biological sex, disability, and religion. Unfortunately, our laws do not provide the same protections based on sexual orientation or gender identity. A recent survey found that 25 percent of LGBTQ+ respondents experienced discrimination because of their sexual orientation or gender identity in the previous year, with over half reporting that discrimination negatively affected their work and community environments.

To ensure that the LGBTQ+ community receives the anti-discrimination protections that they deserve, Carolyn supports passage of the Equality Act. The Equality Act builds on existing civil rights law to explicitly protect sexual orientation and gender identity from discrimination under federal law. The Equality Act would prohibit discrimination in public spaces and services, including retail stores, banks, legal services and transportation, as well as federally funded programs on the basis of identity.

Carolyn also supports the Do No Harm Act to clarify that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) was intended to protect religious freedom while also protecting others from harm. RFRA was passed over 20 years ago with the purpose of protecting minority religious groups’ constitutional right to freely exercise their religious beliefs and was supported by a broad coalition including many in the civil rights community. Certain court rulings on RFRA allow businesses to discriminate based on the owner’s personal religious beliefs. The Do No Harm Act ensures that religious freedom is used as a shield to protect the Constitutional right to free exercise of religion and not as a sword to discriminate.

^[4]

”

—Carolyn Bourdeaux’s campaign website (2020)^[5]

2018

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's candidate surveys

Carolyn Bourdeaux participated in Ballotpedia's candidate survey on May 15, 2018. The survey questions appear in bold, and Carolyn Bourdeaux's responses follow below.^[6]

What would be your top three priorities, if elected?

“

Healthcare reform (expanding medicaid and bringing down Marketplace insurance costs), standing up to the NRA to move forward with common sense gun reform to protect our children and communities and protecting women's health.^[7]^[4]

”

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about? Why?

“ Healthcare first and foremost, also corporate finance reform and gerrymandering. We need a system that is of the people, for the people, by the people, not special interests.Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; invalid names, e.g. too many^[4] ”

Ballotpedia also asked the candidate a series of optional questions. Carolyn Bourdeaux answered the following:

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow and why?

“

Alice Rivlin, first head of the Congressional Budget office^[4]

”

What qualities do you possess that would make you a successful officeholder?

“

Experience, passion and a drive to always do better.^[4]

”

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

“

An elected representative owes it to her constituents to truly represent their best interests. Fundamentally that means being accessible and accountable to the people she represents.^[4]

”

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

“

My first job was working for my father's business. He was a teacher for most of his career, but when I was in high school he started his own business designing and selling large paper animal hats. I used to help him sell them. My first full time job after college was as staff to a member of Congress. I then became a legislative aide for Representative and then Senator Ron Wyden working on healthcare, social issues and transportation.^[4]

”

What is your favorite thing in your home or apartment? Why?

“

The notes my six year old son leaves me on the fridge. He is just learning to spell. Recently he wrote "No mor Ise Creem Tonite" when he thought I was eating too much chocolate ice cream.^[4]

”

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

“

When I was in college my family went bankrupt. I lucky in that I was able to finish school with the help of loans, grants and support from the local community.^[4]

”

What process do you favor for redistricting?

“

Nonpartisan redistricting. We need to stop playing games with our democracy.^[4]

”

Both sitting representatives and candidates for office hear many personal stories from the residents of their district. Is there a story that you’ve heard that you found particularly touching, memorable, or impactful?

“

I hear many horrifying stories of how our healthcare system has abandoned people. One is of a man who worked moving boxes in a warehouse. He was in a lot of pain, but didn't have insurance and so didn't go to the doctor until the pain became debilitating. At that point it was too late. He was diagnosed with Rheumatoid arthritis. Had he gotten medical care earlier he could have gone on medication that prevented most of the damage. Instead, by the time he saw a doctor it was too late. He is now on disability, unable to work; both his life and livelihood ruined.^[4]

”

Campaign website

Bourdeaux's campaign website stated the following:

CAROLYN ON HEALTH CARE

Our health care system is in an acute crisis. We need affordable, quality health care for all. Our health care system costs significantly more per capita than any other country in the developed world—and the destruction of the Affordable Care Act has real consequences for our community. We can do better and I will fight for a system that puts patients before profits.

My own family struggles with the cost of health care. My mother cared for my aging and very sick father until both recently passed. She couldn't come visit us in Suwanee because all of her income was eaten up paying for medications, including ones to treat my father’s diabetes. Between 2002 and 2013, the price of insulin has tripled, and in 2017, it continued to rise. My parents used to hit their yearly cap for drug insurance in November, in 2017, they started reaching it in July.

Why is the cost increasing? One reason is that Congress has prevented Medicare from using its purchasing power to negotiate a better deal on drug prices. And why have they done this? Because pharmaceutical companies give lots and lots of money to politicians. In 2016, these companies gave $60 million to representatives in Congress.

The decision-making around health insurance and the Affordable Care Act is also incomprehensible to me. Congressman Woodall, the incumbent in the 7th District, voted for a bill that would mean 67,000 fewer people in this district would have health insurance. The bill discriminates against those with pre-existing conditions and would allow insurance companies to avoid covering basic services like mental health, emergency and maternity care.

I talked with doctors who cared for a Gwinnett man who worked as a laborer moving boxes. Because Medicaid wasn't expanded, he didn’t have health insurance. He was suffering from pain in his joints. However, it was only after the pain became so bad that he had lost the use of his hands that he went to see a doctor. He learned he had rheumatoid arthritis. That’s a treatable disease, if caught early. But he had fallen through the cracks of our system and will remain in pain and on disability for the rest of his life.

Let’s be compassionate and fiscally responsible. Let’s expand Medicaid and bring $2.2 billion back to our state every year—keeping more people working and bringing down the financial and human costs of late stage health care. Let’s put a public option on the marketplace and bring down premiums by increasing competition.

CAROLYN ON EDUCATION

Like many families in this district, I deeply value our public schools and public education. I am the mother of a six-year-old who is enrolled in public school in Gwinnett. We must ensure that we support and invest in a world-class education system.

I am the daughter of public school teachers and am on the faculty at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University. Georgia State graduates more African American students than any other university in the country, including historically black schools. I am proud to be a part of this effort.

As Governor Deal and President Obama have both observed, our college graduation rate for 24-35-year-olds in Georgia needs to move from 40 percent to 60 percent by 2020. That will take investment across the board, from pre-K through higher education — and job training programs to keep up with a changing economy.

Early childhood education:

I believe that we need to move toward a universal pre-K program, allowing every child, no matter where he or she lives, to receive the same high-level education.

K-12 schools:

We cannot have a world-class education system without our incredible and dedicated teachers. We need to ensure that our K-12 teachers are supported with good salaries and a strong system of professional development. We also need to develop early warning systems that allow us to target and dedicate resources toward students who are in the early stages of facing academic difficulties before these problems escalate.

We also must ensure that every child leaves high school with a clear career pathway that includes the education and skills that will allow them to compete successfully in a global marketplace. That includes investing in apprenticeship and technical education programs because college isn’t right for everyone, and that’s OK.

Higher Education:

Higher education — a key to Georgia’s economic future — is increasingly unaffordable to so many students. We should never be in a situation where a young person thinks they cannot go to college because they cannot afford it.

To do this, we need to support and bolster programs such as Pell grants and supplemental loan programs, and we must create programs where college loan repayments are pegged to income so that students are not dragged down by debt after they graduate.

We should support the expansion of programs like those developed by Georgia State University to help increase student success, including funding for targeted bridge loans to help students who face unexpected fiscal challenges in making payments. We should also expand a college completion early warning system that identifies and quickly intervenes to help students who show early signs of struggling to complete a particular degree program.

CAROLYN ON WOMEN’S HEALTH AND ISSUES

Women make up over 50% of the population but only around 20% of the representatives in Congress. This is reflected in our national policies from women’s health to women’s pay. We need to change this.

Women’s Health: Before the Affordable Care Act passed, my hairdresser, a young woman, couldn’t have a baby because she purchased health care on the individual marketplace and the only plans she could purchase refused to cover maternity care. This is unacceptable. We all have a responsibility for the next generation that will come after us whether we choose to have children or not.

The Affordable Care Act included maternity care and contraceptive coverage as essential medical services that all plans had to cover. The Republican Congress has voted repeatedly to allow insurance companies to remove this coverage. I’m here to fight for women’s health and this includes making sure we have insurance coverage for maternity care and contraceptives.

Choice: I am pro-choice and support the basic framework of Roe v. Wade. I also believe that the government should play no role in a woman making decisions about her own body. We get to this point by supporting organizations such as Planned Parenthood that provide access to contraceptives for women and by making sure that adoption is an accessible option for all women and families.

Comprehensive Paid Family Leave: Giving families time to bond with their newborns, newly adopted children, or to care for a sick family member without facing financial stress is also a policy that I strongly support. The US is the only developed country in the world that does not provide even a modest form of paid family leave. (Source: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jul/25/kirsten-gillibrand/yes-us-only-industrialized-nation-without-paid-fam/)

We do need to be sensitive to the business implications in the design of such a policy as well as the fiscal implications for the federal budget. However, we have successful models piloted by states that are great for families, are not budget-busters, and have not had a negative impact on business. It can be done.

California has had paid family leave policies since 2004 which provide six weeks of benefits to families and is administered through their disability insurance program. 89% of California employers report that this policy has had no effect or a positive effect on productivity, 91% say it has had no effect or a positive effect on profitability, and not surprisingly, 99% report it has had a positive effect on morale. (Source: http://knowledgecenter.csg.org/kc/content/economics-paid-family-leave)

Equal Pay: Women deserve equal pay for equal work. Currently, women make 80 cents for every dollar a man earns. A black woman makes 63 cents and a Latina only 54 cents. (Source: https://www.aauw.org/research/the-simple-truth-about-the-gender-pay-gap/)

In 1963, Congress passed the Equal Pay Act and while women have been making (slow) gains, the goals of the law have not been fully realized. Women of color are even more heavily penalized.

Last fall, the Trump Administration rolled back Obama era protections for women that 1) required paycheck transparency from employers that are federal contractors; 2) restricted use of forced arbitration around pay and sex discrimination and harassment complaints. We need to reverse policies like this and continue to press for pay transparency which will allow more complete enforcement of the Equal Pay Act as well as protecting all workers from employment practices such as the abusive use of binding arbitration provisions.

CAROLYN ON TRANSPORTATION

We need to invest in transit. I’ve heard folks in the 7th district describing their commutes as “soul-sucking.” The congestion and lack of transit options is causing the district to lose businesses who are moving to be closer to Marta. WestRock could have brought 800 jobs here instead of Sandy Springs, but we lack great public rapid transit. Link It’s harming our quality of life, and undermining our home values.

The business community recognizes this and is working on promoting a vision of Gwinnett with links to Marta or Bus Rapid Transit.

We deserve the same federal tax dollars that have been supporting the development of transit systems in other states. It’s time for a federal-state-local partnership to bring some of this money back home.

CAROLYN ON GUN VIOLENCE

We have lost our way as a country with respect to gun policy and it must stop now. As a mother, I keenly feel the grief of parents who have lost their children – all our children from Parkland to Orlando, from Sandy Hook to Las Vegas - and responses such as “arming our teachers” or in any way inviting more guns into our schools is sickening. We must ban bump stocks, restrict civilian access to military style assault weapons, restrict access to high capacity magazines, and make sure we have universal, comprehensive background checks, closing the gun show loophole.

I honor the students from Parkland who are driving this country to action. Our youth have such potential power, and we need to support them in their mission for change. Our children deserve to live in a world where their biggest worry is studying for a math test, not whether they'll live through the week or watch classmates and teachers die in front of them.

I grew up with guns. My father owned a gun. My grandmother shot squirrels off her bird-feeder from her upstairs porch with a bb gun. My grandfather passed on to my uncle a wonderful historic gun collection, and many members of my family are hunters. But we were taught from an early age that guns are weapons and owning a gun is a serious responsibility – it’s time that our country recognize this as well.

CAROLYN ON REFORM

Healthy democracies listen and respond to the needs of their citizens. Our current system is dangerously skewed to benefit special interests and extreme partisans. Bipartisan solutions to pressing issues like healthcare are stuck in political limbo—damaging lives and ruining futures. Link

The polarization is worsened by the way our districts are drawn. Incumbent Congressman Rob Woodall himself admits, “It’s gerrymandering that makes these things noncompetitive, right?” He acknowledges that “Gwinnett County, if it was one district, it would be an incredibly competitive district.” [link] We must insist on district lines that are non-partisan, instead of protecting incumbent politicians.

Special interests have too much power in our political system and the public has too little. Overturning Citizens United is an uphill battle, but we must restrict corporate influence on our elections. And we must prioritize small-dollar donors through public-financing matches.

CAROLYN ON EQUITY

Every child deserves access to a world class education regardless of zip code. That includes good pre-K options that provide the learning foundation for opportunities later in life.

Equal Pay is critical. I am so grateful for the progress made by my mother's generation, but we have to keep moving forward and keep making progress. We must close just the gender gap overall, but also the even larger gap that still exists for women of color.

Criminal justice reform is long over due. As a society we claim to believe in equality under the law, now is the time to stand up to the private prison lobby and make this value a reality.

We need to provide basic access to health care for everyone. I have heard so many horror stories of people in this district that lost their job and ability to provide for their family simply because they don't have lack of access to health screenings and other basic care.

These stories include a construction worker who had a stroke that could have been prevented by taking free blood pressure medication if he'd only know he was at risk and a man who lifted boxes for a living who got rheumatoid arthritis and couldn't afford to see a doctor until it was too late to save his joints. These men and so many others who were independant hard working citizens have now lost the dignity of work. They are now on disability with expensive healthcare needs paid for by the state. This is a cycle that we can and need to end.

CAROLYN ON JOBS & THE ECONOMY

ur economy here in Georgia’s 7th district should reflect our increasingly diverse and international population. To move our economy in the right direction, we need to put people first by investing in education, apprenticeships and job training programs, ensuring that health insurance is reasonably priced while providing access to quality care, giving our small businesses the tools they need to thrive, providing better public transit options, investing in our infrastructure, and ensuring a living wage.

PROVIDING JOB TRAINING AND EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES: I never want to hear that a young person can’t go to college or learn a trade because he or she can’t afford it. We know education is the key to the 21st economy, and college, career training and apprenticeships are essential to upward mobility. However, the costs of higher education have skyrocketed, placing it out of reach for far too many. To combat these rising price tags, we must invest more in aid programs like Pell grants and supplemental loans. For those out of school, college loan repayments should be pegged to income so that graduates can pursue their dreams and not be dragged down by debt.

For some, college is not the right option, and that is OK; we should invest in job training and apprenticeship programs so that everyone has a clear career pathway that leads to a job that pays a living wage. A better educated and trained workforce will also result in a stronger economy.

INVESTING IN INFRASTRUCTURE:

Let’s be honest, most of us living here in Gwinnett and Forsyth face a “soul-sucking commute.” The time we spend stuck in traffic could be spent on so many other things, including being with family. Our district must invest in infrastructure to attract businesses and preserve our quality of life.

In Gwinnett in particular, the lack of public transit means businesses are looking elsewhere. Workers struggle to have a reliable way to get to work. Investing in transit is both the right thing to do and will grow our economy. If we continue to ignore our traffic problems, businesses will continue to avoid the area, like two large corporations, WestRock (article) and NCR (article), both of whom left the district and took 2,450 jobs with them, to be closer to MARTA.

Better public transit options not only make Gwinnett and Forsyth more attractive to companies and homeowners, but also provide new jobs. The Gwinnett County Commission’s latest vote on a contract with MARTA and initiating a referenda on funding for transit is a good first step, but this vote should be held in November, not in a special election next March (link).

INVESTING IN CLEAN ENERGY:

By investing in clean energy like solar, wind, and hydroelectric power, we can not only keep our environment clean, but we can also create jobs and stay competitive in future markets. Right now, our country currently provides over $21 billion in subsidies for fossil fuel technology (link) – these subsidies need to be repealed and reinvested in tax credits for clean energy technologies. We also need to support research and development around clean energy. At the very least, clean energy technology should compete on a level playing field.

PAYING A LIVING WAGE:

Our economy cannot continue moving forward until our workers earn a living wage. The costs of rent, gas, and food increase every year, yet wages have not grown as they should. We need to increase the federal minimum wage to account for inflation and also pair this with the expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit, administered as a reverse payroll tax, to ensure that allhard-working individuals are able to achieve a living wage, without over-burdening small businesses.

A COMMON-SENSE TAX POLICY:

The Trump Administration’s recently passed tax bill is not really a tax cut so much as a cash advance on our national credit card. The legislation increases our national debt by $2 trillion – to $21 trillion overall in 2018 (Congressional Budget Office, The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2018 to 2028. Deficit increases from the tax act are discussed on p. 106. Debt numbers in Table 4-4, p. 87 (link))

Worse, the debt-financed benefits of the tax bill largely go to the wealthiest Americans and big businesses (link). Over the next ten years, 50 percent of the benefit goes to the top 5 percent of earners (link). When the individual income tax portions of the bill expire in 2027, 83 percent of the benefits will go to the top 1 percent of households (link)!

House Speaker Paul Ryan and the current Congress are proposing to cut Social Security and Medicare, claiming we “don’t have enough money.” We cannot place the weight of paying for the tax bill on our seniors. While I do support a decrease in the corporate income tax rate, this current tax cut is simply unaffordable and should not be paid for by middle-class seniors.

We can do better. We should provide tax cuts, like the earned-income tax credit, for the middle-class and working Americans, to ensure that anyone who works hard can make enough to have a decent standard of living and support their family. We can do all of this and find a way to pay for it. We can start by rooting out the special interests and eliminating their special tax breaks.

ROOTING OUT THE SPECIAL INTERESTS:

To truly have an economy that works for everyone, we need to give the power back to the people and take it away from the special interests. Too many members of Congress, like my opponent, answer first to the corporate PACs that write their checks, not the people who live and work in their districts. I have taken a pledge to not accept any corporate PAC money because I know the interests of us here in the 7th district must always and will always come first. When we cut back on the advantages special interests receive in our current economic environment, we will create a fairer and stronger economy for everyone.

CAROLYN ON THE ENVIRONMENT

Just as we judge prior generations for their failure to recognize human rights, I think that future generations will judge us for our failure to address the environment and climate change. I have a 6 year old son and I’ve started to think about what his future is going to look like.

One prediction is that given the rate of the bleaching of our coral reefs, we will lose 90% of our coral reefs by 2050 and that this will produce a catastrophic destruction of ocean life and this also will produce a massive disruption of our food chain and loss of fisheries. My son will be in his 30s when this happens.

We already face increased flooding on our coasts, but by 2100 experts predict we will lose most of southern Florida and coastal cities around the world will be underwater. We will either need to make massive investments in infrastructure to stave off flooding or will have to deal with huge population resettlement. My son will be old – late eighties - by the time the full effects are felt but the growing impact will affect his day to day life in ways we cannot fully predict.

Meanwhile, our government is subsidizing the destruction of our planet. The US provides $20.5 billion in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry each year. I see a place to start to balance our budget. We must reinstate the Paris Climate Accord which calls for an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050 and align our energy policy and investments to meet these goals.

CAROLYN ON IMMIGRATION

We know that our diverse future and global enterprise depends on talented people from all over the world joining our community. We need a system that recognizes the value of immigrants, while protecting all workers with fair labor practices.

We are long overdue for comprehensive immigration reform that recognizes the realities of our communities and labor markets. The security of our border and our country is best served when we focus enforcement resources on criminals who mean us harm. And we urgently need a path to citizenship for the Dreamers, who came here as children and are invaluable members of our communities.

CAROLYN ON VETERANS & MILITARY FAMILIES

From a young age, my parents instilled the value of service as a key factor in my life, something I’ve never forgotten. My grandfather served in World War II, and one of our close family friends growing up was a prisoner of war in Vietnam for 8 years. I am grateful to them and to all veterans who decided to give back and serve their country.

The 7th district is home to tens of thousands of veterans and service members, and we need to do everything we can to thank them for serving us and keeping us safe. We, as a country and as a community, must do better to serve and repay them for the sacrifices they have made.

When service members return home from tours of duty and make the transition into civilian life, we must provide them with accessible, quality health care through the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Trump Administration has failed to fully fund the VA and give it the tools needed to be successful. The Administration’s lackluster approach to the VA is taking its toll. Too many veterans fail to get the care they need - that is unacceptable. One veteran who cannot get the care he or she needs is one too many.

We also must do more to support our veterans through the transition back into civilian life. This sometimes requires sufficient access to mental health programs. The suicide rate among veterans has been increasing, constituting an alarming trend. Our veterans and service members face many difficulties in the transition back into civilian life, and we must ensure every service member has the care he or she needs to transition effectively.

A key part of this service-to-civilian transition is access to employment and educational opportunities. Our veterans are some of the hardest-working, disciplined and motivated potential employees in the world, yet veteran unemployment levels remain too high. Veterans and service members deserve tools and financial help to return to school and begin/continue their education, and we must give them the education benefits they deserve and have been promised.

CAROLYN ON LGBTQ+ RIGHTS

In the past 10 years, our country has taken immense steps forward to ensure equal rights for members of our LGBTQ+ communities. I am proud to have worked for Senator Ron Wyden when he became one of the first Members of Congress to come out in favor of marriage equality.

While we have taken major steps forward, including the Supreme Court ruling in favor of marriage equality, we still have a long way to go. I will always oppose discriminatory bills aimed at stripping rights away from the LGBTQ+ community. I oppose the Trump Administration's efforts to ban transgender individuals from being allowed to serve in the military, and I will fight to ensure anyone who wants to serve and make that sacrifice has the chance to do so.^[8]

Committee assignments

U.S. House

2021-2022

Bourdeaux was assigned to the following committees:^[Source]

Key votes

See also: Key votes

Ballotpedia monitors legislation that receives a vote and highlights the ones that we consider to be key to understanding where elected officials stand on the issues. To read more about how we identify key votes, click here.

Key votes: 117th Congress, 2021-2023

The 117th United States Congress began on January 3, 2021 and ended on January 3, 2023. At the start of the session, Democrats held the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives (222-213), and the U.S. Senate had a 50-50 makeup. Democrats assumed control of the Senate on January 20, 2021, when President Joe Biden (D) and Vice President Kamala Harris (D), who acted as a tie-breaking vote in the chamber, assumed office. We identified the key votes below using Congress' top-viewed bills list and through marquee coverage of certain votes on Ballotpedia.

Key votes: 117th Congress, 2021-2023

Vote

Bill and description

Status

Yea

Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (H.R. 3684) was a federal infrastructure bill passed by the 117th Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden (D) on November 15, 2021. Among other provisions, the bill provided funding for new infrastructure projects and reauthorizations, Amtrak maintenance and development, bridge repair, replacement, and rehabilitation, clean drinking water, high-speed internet, and clean energy transmission and power infrastructure upgrades. The bill required a simple majority vote in the House.^[9] Click here to read more.

Passed (228-206)

Yea

American Rescue Plan Act of 2021

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (H.R. 1319) was a bill passed by the 117th Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden (D) on March 11, 2021, to provide economic relief in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Key features of the bill included funding for a national vaccination program and response, funding to safely reopen schools, distribution of $1,400 per person in relief payments, and extended unemployment benefits. The bill required a simple majority vote in the House.^[10] Click here to read more.

Passed (220-210)

Yea

Inflation Reduction Act of 2022

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (H.R. 5376) was a bill passed by the 117th Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden (D) on August 16, 2022, to address climate change, healthcare costs, and tax enforcement. Key features of the bill included a $369 billion investment to address energy security and climate change, an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies, allowing Medicare to negotiate certain drug prices, a 15% corporate minimum tax, a 1% stock buyback fee, and enhanced Internal Revenue Service (IRS) enforcement, and an estimated $300 billion deficit reduction from 2022-2031. The bill required a simple majority vote in the House.^[11] Click here to read more.

Passed (220-207)

Yea

Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act

The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act (H.R. 3617) was a bill approved by the House of Representatives that sought to decriminalize marijuana, establish studies of legal marijuana sales, tax marijuana imports and production, and establish a process to expunge and review federal marijuana offenses. The bill required a simple majority vote in the House.^[12]

Passed (220-204)

Yea

For the People Act of 2021

The For the People Act of 2021 (H.R. 1) was a federal election law and government ethics bill approved by the House of Representatives. The Congressional Research Service said the bill would "expand voter registration (e.g., automatic and same-day registration) and voting access (e.g., vote-by-mail and early voting). It [would also limit] removing voters from voter rolls. ... Further, the bill [would address] campaign finance, including by expanding the prohibition on campaign spending by foreign nationals, requiring additional disclosure of campaign-related fundraising and spending, requiring additional disclaimers regarding certain political advertising, and establishing an alternative campaign funding system for certain federal offices." The bill required a simple majority vote in the House.^[13] Click here to read more.

Passed (220-210)

Yea

Assault Weapons Ban of 2022

The Assault Weapons Ban of 2022 (H.R. 1808) was a bill passed by the House of Representatives that sought to criminalize the knowing import, sale, manufacture, transfer, or possession of semiautomatic assault weapons (SAW) or large capacity ammunition feeding devices (LCAFD). The bill made exemptions for grandfathered SAWs and LCAFDs. It required a simple majority vote in the House.^[14]

Passed (217-213)

Yea

National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 (S. 1605) was a bill passed by the 117th Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden (D) on December 27, 2021, authorizing Department of Defense acitivities and programs for fiscal year 2022. The bill required a simple majority vote in the House.^[15]

Passed (363-70)

Yea

James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023

The James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 (H.R. 7776) was a bill passed by the 117th Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden (D) on December 23, 2022, authorizing Department of Defense activities and programs for fiscal year 2023. The bill required a 2/3 majority in the House to suspend rules and pass the bill as amended.^[16]

Passed (350-80)

Yea

American Dream and Promise Act of 2021

The American Dream and Promise Act of 2021 (H.R. 6) was an immigration bill approved by the House of Representatives that proposed a path to permanent residence status for unauthorized immigrants eligible for Temporary Protected Status or Deferred Enforced Departure, among other immigration-related proposals. The bill required a simple majority vote in the House.^[17]

Passed (228-197)

Yea

Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022

The Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022 (S. 3373) was a bill passed by the 117th Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden (D) on August 10, 2022, that sought to address healthcare access, the presumption of service-connection, and research, resources, and other matters related to veterans who were exposed to toxic substances during military service. The bill required a simple majority vote in the House.^[18]

Passed (342-88)

Yea

Chips and Science Act

The Chips and Science Act (H.R. 4346) was a bill approved by the 117th Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden (D) on August 9, 2022, which sought to fund domestic production of semiconductors and authorized various federal science agency programs and activities. The bill required a simple majority vote in the House.^[19]

Passed (243-187)

Yea

Women’s Health Protection Act of 2021

The Women's Health Protection Act of 2021 (H.R. 3755) was a bill passed by the House of Representatives. The bill proposed prohibiting governmental restrictions on the provision of and access to abortion services and prohibiting governments from issuing some other abortion-related restrictions. The bill required a simple majority vote in the House.^[20]

Passed (218-211)

Yea

SAFE Banking Act of 2021

The SAFE Banking Act of 2021 (H.R. 1996) was a bill passed by the House of Representatives that proposed prohibiting federal regulators from penalizing banks for providing services to legitimate cannabis-related businesses and defining proceeds from such transactions as not being proceeds from unlawful activity, among other related proposals. Since the House moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill in an expedited process, it required a two-thirds majority vote in the House.^[21]

Passed (321-101)

Yea

Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 (H.R. 2471) was a bill passed by the 117th Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden (D) on March 15, 2022, providing for the funding of federal agencies for the remainder of 2022, providing funding for activities related to Ukraine, and modifying or establishing various programs. The bill required a simple majority vote in the House.^[22]

Passed (260-171)

Yea

Equality Act

The Equality Act (H.R. 5) was a bill approved by the House of Representatives that proposed prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity in areas including public accommodations and facilities, education, federal funding, employment, housing, credit, and the jury system, among other related proposals. The bill required a simple majority vote in the House.^[23]

Passed (224-206)

Yea

Respect for Marriage Act

The Respect for Marriage Act (H.R. 8404) was a bill passed by the 117th Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden (D) on December 13, 2022. The bill codified the recognition of marriages between individuals of the same sex and of different races, ethnicities, or national origins, and provided that the law would not impact religious liberty or conscience protections, or provide grounds to compel nonprofit religious organizations to recognize same-sex marriages. The bill required a simple majority vote in the House.^[24] Click here to read more.

Passed (258-169)

Yea

Continuing Appropriations and Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2023

The Continuing Appropriations and Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2023 (H.R. 6833) was a bill approved by the 117th Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden (D) on September 30, 2022. It provided for some fiscal year 2023 appropriations, supplemental funds for Ukraine, and extended several other programs and authorities. The bill required a simple majority vote in the House.^[25]

Passed (230-201)

Yea

Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act

The Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act (H.R. 7688) was a bill approved by the House of Representatives that sought to prohibit individuals from selling consumer fuels at excessive prices during a proclaimed energy emergency. It would have also required the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether the price of gasoline was being manipulated. The bill required a simple majority vote in the House.^[26]

Passed (217-207)

Yea

Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021

The Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021 (H.R. 8) was a bill approved by the House of Representatives that sought to prohibit the transfer of firearms between private parties unless a licensed firearm vendor conducted a background check on the recipient. The bill also provided for certain exceptions to this requirement. The bill required a simple majority vote in the House.^[27]

Passed (227-203)

Yea

Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act

The Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act was a federal elections bill approved by the House of Representatives and voted down by the Senate in a failed cloture vote that sought to, among other provisions, make Election Day a public holiday, allow for same-day voter registration, establish minimum early voting periods, and allow absentee voting for any reason, restrict the removal of local election administrators in federal elections, regulate congressional redistricting, expand campaign finance disclosure rules for some organizations, and amend the Voting Rights Act to require some states to obtain clearance from the U.S. Department of Justice before implementing new election laws. The bill required a simple majority vote in the House.^[28] Click here to read more.

Passed (220-203)

Yea

Bipartisan Safer Communities Act

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (S. 2938) was a firearm regulation and mental health bill passed by the 117th Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden (D) on June 25, 2022. Provisions of the bill included expanding background checks for individuals under the age of 21, providing funding for mental health services, preventing individuals who had been convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor or felony in dating relationships from purchasing firearms for five years, providing funding for state grants to implement crisis intervention order programs, and providing funding for community-based violence prevention initiatives. The bill required a simple majority vote in the House.^[29] Click here to read more.

Passed (234-193)

Yea

Impeaching Donald John Trump, President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors.

This was a resolution before the 117th Congress setting forth an article of impeachment saying that Donald Trump (R) incited an insurrection against the government of the United States on January 6, 2021. The House of Representatives approved the article of impeachment, and the Senate adjudged that Trump was not guilty of the charges. The article of impeachment required a simple majority vote in the House.^[30] Click here to read more.

Passed (232-197)

Yea

Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022

The Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act was a bill passed by the 117th Congress in the form of an amendment to a year-end omnibus funding bill that was signed into law by President Joe Biden (D) on December 23, 2022. The bill changed the procedure for counting electoral votes outlined in the Electoral Count Act of 1887. Elements of the bill included specifying that the vice president's role at the joint session of congress to count electoral votes is ministerial, raising the objection threshold at the joint session of congress to count electoral votes to one-fifth of the members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, identifying governors as the single official responsible for submitting the certificate of ascertainment identifying that state’s electors, and providing for expedited judicial review of certain claims about states' certificates identifying their electors. The bill required a simple majority vote in the House.^[31] Click here to read more.

Passed (225-201)

External links

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Candidate

U.S. House Georgia District 7

Personal

Footnotes

Political offices
Preceded by Rob Woodall (R)	U.S. House Georgia District 7 2021-2023	Succeeded by Lucy McBath (D)

[show]

Georgia's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Jon Ossoff (D)

Raphael Warnock (D)

Representatives

District 1

Earl Carter (R)

District 2

Sanford Bishop (D)

District 3

Brian Jack (R)

District 4

Hank Johnson (D)

District 5

Nikema Williams (D)

District 6

Lucy McBath (D)

District 7

Rich McCormick (R)

District 8

Austin Scott (R)

District 9

Andrew Clyde (R)

District 10

Mike Collins (R)

District 11

Barry Loudermilk (R)

District 12

Rick Allen (R)

District 13

David Scott (D)

District 14

Marjorie Greene (R)

Republican Party (9)

Democratic Party (7)

[bio-1] Representative Carolyn Bourdeaux, "About," accessed April 19, 2021

[bio2-2] Carolyn Bourdeaux, "Meet Carolyn," accessed April 19, 2021

[PrevBio-3] LinkedIn, "Carolyn Bourdeaux," accessed April 13, 2020

[quotedisclaimer-4] 4.00 ^4.01 ^4.02 ^4.03 ^4.04 ^4.05 ^4.06 ^4.07 ^4.08 ^4.09 ^4.10 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.

[5] Carolyn Bourdeaux’s campaign website, “Issues,” accessed August 27, 2020

[6] Note: The candidate's answers have been reproduced here verbatim without edits or corrections by Ballotpedia.

[BPsurvey-7] Ballotpedia's candidate survey, "Carolyn Bourdeaux's responses," May 15, 2018

[bourdeauxissues-8] Carolyn Bourdeaux 2018 campaign website, "Issues," accessed September 27, 2018

[9] Congress.gov, "H.R.3684 - Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act," accessed April 15, 2022

[10] Congress.gov, "H.R.1319 - American Rescue Plan Act of 2021," accessed April 15, 2022

[11] Congress.gov, "H.R.5376 - Inflation Reduction Act of 2022," accessed January 20, 2023

[12] Congress.gov, "H.R.3617 - Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act," accessed January 20, 2023

[13] Congress.gov, "H.R.1 - For the People Act of 2021," accessed April 15, 2022

[14] Congress.gov, "H.R.1808 - Assault Weapons Ban of 2022," accessed January 20, 2023

[15] Congress.gov, "S.1605 - National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022," accessed April 15, 2022

[16] Congress.gov, "H.R.7776 - James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023," accessed January 20, 2023

[17] Congress.gov, "H.R.6 - American Dream and Promise Act of 2021," accessed April 15, 2022

[18] Congress.gov, "S.3373 - Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022," accessed January 20, 2023

[19] Congress.gov, "H.R.4346 - Chips and Science Act," accessed January 20, 2023

[20] Congress.gov, "H.R.3755 - Women's Health Protection Act of 2021," accessed April 15, 2022

[21] Congress.gov, "H.R.1996 - SAFE Banking Act of 2021," accessed April 15, 2022

[22] Congress.gov, "H.R.2471 - Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022," accessed January 20, 2023

[23] Congress.gov, "H.R.5 - Equality Act," accessed April 15, 2022

[24] Congress.gov, "H.R.8404 - Respect for Marriage Act," accessed January 20, 2023

[25] Congress.gov, "H.R.6833 - Continuing Appropriations and Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2023," accessed January 20, 2023

[26] Congress.gov, "H.R.7688 - Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act," accessed January 20, 2023

[27] Congress.gov, "H.R.8 - Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021," accessed January 20, 2023

[28] Congress.gov, "H.R.5746 - Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act," accessed January 20, 2023

[29] Congress.gov, "S.2938 - Bipartisan Safer Communities Act," accessed January 20, 2023

[30] Congress.gov, "H.Res.24 - Impeaching Donald John Trump, President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors.," accessed April 15, 2022

[31] Congress.gov, "H.R.2617 - Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023," accessed January 20, 2023

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	v • e State of Georgia Atlanta (capital)
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Carolyn Bourdeaux

Biography

Elections

2022

General election

General election for U.S. House Georgia District 7

Republican primary runoff election

Republican primary runoff for U.S. House Georgia District 7

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Georgia District 7

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Georgia District 7

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

2020

General election

General election for U.S. House Georgia District 7

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Georgia District 7

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Georgia District 7

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

2018

General election

General election for U.S. House Georgia District 7

Democratic primary runoff election

Democratic primary runoff for U.S. House Georgia District 7

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Georgia District 7

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Georgia District 7

Campaign themes

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

2020

Candidate Conversations

Campaign website

2018

Ballotpedia survey responses

Campaign website

Committee assignments

U.S. House

2021-2022

Key votes

Key votes: 117th Congress, 2021-2023

See also

External links

Footnotes

Information about voting

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