With Georgia District 49 State Senator Shelly Echols choosing not to seek re-election, two Hall County Republicans are now set to square off for the seat in the May primary.
One of the candidates is Shelly Echols' husband, Drew Echols of Alto. The co-owner of Jaemor Farms is making his first personal foray into politics by seeking his wife's soon-to-be-former office.
The other candidate is Flowery Branch business owner Josh Clark. Clark has previously served as a Georgia State House Representative in District 98, which represented an area of Gwinnett County.
No Democrat has qualified in the race, meaning the winner of the May primary between Echols and Clark will, essentially, decide the seat.
Both Echols and Clark appeared on WDUN's "The Martha Zoller Show" Monday to discuss their decisions to seek the office and what issues they are seeking to run their campaigns on over the next two months.
On their decision to run for the District 49 seat:
Drew Echols: "Hall County, Georgia, you go back to just the tremendous amount of leadership that has come through this county. Statewide, I feel like Hall County is a beacon on the hill, so to speak. We do a lot of things right, we do some things wrong, but we have to continue to lead right here in this district and what we need is somebody that has been here. We need somebody that is rooted in this community, that has worked hard, that has sweat in this community, that has cried in this community. I'm going to be that guy."
Josh Clark: "I served in the State House, I term-limited myself, I went home and went back to just being a citizen. Then, in 2020, I felt so concerned and frightened for the direction of our country that we stepped up and tried to reclaim that U.S. Senate seat...I had several people say 'Will you run for this seat?' ...We never thought (Shelly Echols would decide not to seek re-election), but we did pray that if it was open we were willing and we got in with just minutes to spare."
On the biggest issues facing the 49th District:
Drew Echols: "There's a lot of state roads here in Hall County that have some issues that need addressing. My business is right on the side of Ga. 365 and you can't get out on that road. That corridor, the Ga. 52 corridor, we have all these other state roads in the county that we need improvements, we need people looking at this. We need people that can facilitate these issues. I've been working all my life, volunteering and serving in different capacities. I think transportation's a big issue."
Josh Clark: "Immigration is really huge to me. It's a burden, because we have got to protect this state. We've got sanctuary cities in this state and we have got to put an end to that. We cannot have our kids, like Laken Riley, who was murdered needlessly. Our economy, folks are struggling with. We've changed what we eat, our diet, based on the costs and inflation, so we need to do everything we can do to continue to spur this economy and to keep taxes down."
On how they plan to run their campaigns:
Drew Echols: "There's a lot of people that can say a lot of things about Drew Echols, like him or not, but there are very few people who are ever going to question my work ethic...I'm going to work so hard to earn the votes of the people in the 49th District. We look forward to winning this thing and I'm going to work like a dog as your senator. We're going to work hard."
Josh Clark: "Our strategy is to take nothing for granted and to get out there and talk to the people. They're the ones I'm going to work for. They will be my bosses. When I served before, I reported back every week. Every week I would tell them what I did...We're going to make that promise again and I'm going to keep it, and we're going to win this thanks to an amazing team."
