candidates

Learning from Bee about Securing our Elections

Bee Nguyen made history as well as local headlines in 2017, when she became the first Asian-American Democratic woman to be elected to the Georgia General Assembly (winning the seat previously held by Stacey Abrams). Now, she’s making headlines nationally as she campaigns to become Georgia’s third female and first Asian-American secretary of state. If she wins, she’ll also be the first Asian-American to hold statewide office in Georgia.

Nguyen (pronounced “win”), a daughter of Vietnamese refugees, faces competition in the Democratic primary in May. Four others ­— all men — have declared their candidacy. Of the five, Nguyen is the only one currently serving in the government, which is especially significant given the politically charged environment.

Getting to know Nakita Hemingway for Agriculture

Nakita Hemingway was born in Savannah, Georgia and raised in Decatur, Georgia. She is one of three siblings in a single parent home where a passion for helping others was instilled from a young age. “Those years of my life were the most profound, because that’s when our beliefs and values for working and fighting for people were formed.” Hemingway says. Driven by her mother, they always found a way to give back, from letting someone sleep on their couch to giving away their Christmas presents to kids who didn’t have any.

“My values are not focused on material things, they’re focused on people.”

Hemingway spent her summers with relatives in South Georgia. There, she learned all there is to know about farming from her farmer grandparents. Her time on the farm formed a lot of who she is now and what she cares about.

Behind the Scenes with Nicole Horn for Labor

Nothing is more important to Nicole Horn than ensuring all Georgians have equal job opportunities and an effective safety net when they need one. Horn speaks with authority; growing up with a father who worked seasonal jobs during the warm months, her family relied on unemployment benefits to get by during the rest of the year.

“My father was a union member, and my mom was a nurse. They were people who worked really hard,” Horn says. “He depended on unemployment every winter, because he would be laid off. We lived paycheck to paycheck, and there wasn’t a lot of wiggle room. So, when I think about people going four to six months without unemployment benefits — benefits they earned — I know it is not an easy task. And it’s not something we’re talking about enough.”

Horn knows what it’s like to count every penny from her days working an hourly job as a waitress in her teens and early 20s. The last 15 years also taught her how to run a business and balance budgets. As a business owner, she has watched employees start families and buy their first houses because of the jobs she could offer them.

“These experiences inform how I will lead the Department of Labor,” says Horn, who is running to be Georgia’s next labor commissioner.