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Joe Reed (Georgia)

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This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.
Joe Reed
Image of Joe Reed

Independent

Elections and appointments
Last election

November 3, 2020

Education

Bachelor's

Georgia State, 1978

Other

Georgia State, 1994

Personal
Birthplace
Detroit, Mich.
Religion
Catholic
Profession
Educator and administrator
Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Joe Reed (independent) ran for election to the Georgia House of Representatives to represent District 129. He lost in the general election on November 3, 2020.

Reed completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Reed was born in Detroit, Michigan. He earned a bachelor's degree in early childhood education from Georgia State University in August 1978. He also earned a master's degree in special education and an education specialist degree in school supervision and administration from Georgia State University in April 1994. Reed's professional experience includes working as a teacher, coach, and assistant principal in Dekalb County Schools. He has also worked at Burruss Correctional Training Center and has served as a GED instructor at Central Georgia Technical College. Reed has worked with the Backlot Players in support of local theater in Forsyth, Georgia and with Friends of High Falls State Park to support park activities. He has also served as president of Brushy Creek Estates Homeowners Association.[1]

Elections

2020

See also: Georgia House of Representatives elections, 2020

General election

General election for Georgia House of Representatives District 129

Incumbent Susan Holmes defeated Sharonda Bell and Joe Reed in the general election for Georgia House of Representatives District 129 on November 3, 2020.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Susan Holmes
Susan Holmes (R)
 
69.6
 
18,966
Image of Sharonda Bell
Sharonda Bell (D)
 
26.2
 
7,152
Image of Joe Reed
Joe Reed (Independent) Candidate Connection
 
4.1
 
1,130

Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 27,248
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Georgia House of Representatives District 129

Sharonda Bell advanced from the Democratic primary for Georgia House of Representatives District 129 on June 9, 2020.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Sharonda Bell
Sharonda Bell
 
100.0
 
3,683

There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 3,683
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Georgia House of Representatives District 129

Incumbent Susan Holmes advanced from the Republican primary for Georgia House of Representatives District 129 on June 9, 2020.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Susan Holmes
Susan Holmes
 
100.0
 
7,979

Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 7,979
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Campaign themes

2020

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

Joe Reed completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Reed's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

I am a husband and together with my wife we have five children and five grandchildren. I am a teacher and school administrator with 40 years of experience working at all levels of education from early childhood through high school and in a prison GED program. I actively volunteer in my community and work daily to be physically active and healthy. I never vote strictly by party. I always research the candidates and vote based on the stated positions and belief statements of each candidate. So, over time, I have voted for Democrats, Libertarians and Republicans. Most recently I have voted in Republican primaries because, based on where I live now, that is where elections have been most often decided. But, as I watch both major parties pull away from the center of American political thought, I realize that the best ideas do not come from any one political party. For that reason, I am running as an Independent. I realize that will make it more difficult to get elected in a predominantly Republican section of the state. But I believe that, like me, there are many other citizens who are tired of the unproductive arguing and hateful dialogue that has put political party over country and between neighbors. . I hope you will review my platform, (https://www.joereed4gastatehouse.com) communicate with me by email, by phone or in person, and consider me as you vote in the 2020 state election.
  • More than 60% of state representatives and state senators were elected after being unopposed in the general election in 2018. This happens because gerrymandered districts make competition between parties unlikely. Requiring Independents to collect signatures from 5% of the registered voters in their district is extremely difficult and cuts off another avenue of competition.
  • COVID-19 has sent a clear message that our healthcare system has inequities and that the overall health of Americans is not nearly as good as it should be. We don't exercise enough. We don't eat what we should. We engage in bad and dangerous health habits. We expect doctors to fix the problems we created and we expect others to share the financial burden we could have frequently avoided. The overwhelming majority of people who have gotten seriously sick or died from COVID-19 had serious health issues including obesity, diabetes, COPD and hypertension.
  • COVID-19 has also made it clear that as individuals and families we are not saving enough of our income. We must set aside money out of each paycheck to provide for emergencies and for our future retirement. For the people who don't have access to employer sponsored savings plans, we need to provide incentives to encourage personal savings now in order to prepare for the next financial crisis.
My experience as an educator for the last forty years has made me especially interested in helping shape educational policy and encourage lifelong learning. Providing a comprehensive education from Pre-K through grade 12 has been and will continue to be a primary role of our state government. Because of the mobility of our families, especially military families, I recommend that Georgia adopt a curriculum that is rigorous and similar to as many other states as possible.

While I strongly value public schools, I will support vouchers for private schools as long as their tuitions and fees are commensurate with the costs of educating a child in the public schools. Secondly, minorities, economically disadvantaged children and disabled students should be able to attend the private school. Lastly, the students and schools must be evaluated in the same way as public schools.

There is a serious shortage of trained, certified and quality teachers. We must respect the profession by not hiring teachers with provisional certificates. Instead we should recruit our best and brightest students to become educators. We should require them to serve a year with a reduced teaching load and strong mentoring by our best teachers before they receive their final teaching certificate. We also should reinstitute the policy of allowing retired teachers to return to the classroom full-time while still receiving the retirement benefits they have already earned.
I have been blessed with many people who have been great examples and positive influences in my life. I look up to my father and try to follow his example. He had a very challenging childhood but never used it as an excuse and managed to accomplish so much with his life.
The last chapter of Arthur Ashe's Autobiography is a letter to his daughter, Camera. In it he outlines what he values and his hopes for his daughter. He died when she was very young from AIDS. I wish every parent would read that letter and then write their own.
Honesty, fairness, humility and servant-leadership are characteristics that I hope to demonstrate as an elected official.
I am a good listener and I want other people to experience success in their lives. If I can facilitate that success without taking away their sense of accomplishment it is meaningful for both of us.
You must behave in the best interests of your district and your state and not just for those who voted for you or for a particular party.
I want to leave the world a better place for my grandchildren. I want to leave a cleaner planet and I don't want them to be burdened by the poor financial decisions of the last 20 years of government.
I remember President Kennedy's funeral but the event that impacted me more were the Detroit riots in 1967. I was ten years old then.
My first job, other than mowing lawns and cleaning gutters, was as a dishwasher and busboy at a Coco's Restaurant. I just had it for the summer. It certainly made me value getting a good education!
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. It is meaningful to see adult behavior through the open and honest eyes of a child.
Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird
Cat's in the Cradle by Harry Chapin
The lesson my children worked to teach me is that it is not good to want something for someone else more than they want it for themselves. It rarely works and it destroys relationships.
Because state representatives represent only about 30% of the number of constituents as state senators, they are obligated to be more accessible and responsive to them. The budget is the most important thing the legislature does each year. The House has the primary responsibility for creating the budget each year and making certain that it is balanced and reflects the priorities and needs of all our citizens.
No. I think every elected legislator brings different experiences and areas of expertise to the chamber.
Responding to the COVID-19 crisis with a responsible budget and a serious plan to help our citizens be healthier and have access to necessary healthcare at a clear and fair price for all is a challenge we must address and solve.
The governor and state legislature must respectfully acknowledging each others' roles in serving the citizens of the state and work together to provide the most effective service possible.
I believe building relationships is the best way to get anything meaningful done. That's why I'm running as an Independent. I want to work effectively with everyone.
I would like to be on the education committee. I would also like to be involved in a committee that might help to provide rural Georgia with satisfactory internet service.
I admire U.S. Senator Sam Nunn. I like his idea of two years of service in return for financial assistance for college or technical school.
No.
I have knocked on more than five thousand doors and met thousands of citizens. No one story stands out but the isolation of our elderly, especially those who are sick or mobility challenged, is something that must be addressed.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

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Footnotes

  1. ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on May 4, 2020


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