Graves Demonstrates Conservative Leadership at Hall County Forum

Tom Graves, Republican candidate in Georgia’s 9th District, demonstrated at Friday evening’s Georgia Teen Republicans and Hall County Young Republicans forum that he is the top candidate to fill Congressman Nathan Deal’s unexpired term in just 18 short days.

The debate, held at the Georgia Mountains Center, focused on jobs, rebuilding the economy and tax reform.

Graves stuck to his message of lower taxes, less spending and limited government as the path to get this country back on track and provided a bold, clear conservative voice that young Republicans are eager to get behind.

“I’ve been the author of the Jobs Act in both 2009 and 2010, which eliminated and reduced taxes and regulation on businesses here in the state of Georgia,” Graves said. “You take that to the federal level and it’s about getting government and taxation out of the way.”

Graves said he supports replacing the current tax system with the FairTax. “We need a simpler, fairer, voluntary system that empowers the taxpayer and doesn’t empower the government.”

The former state representative from Ranger said if government would get out of the way, small businesses would “ignite the entrepreneur spirit” and create jobs. Graves said in Washington he would work towards, “eliminating the capital gains tax, reducing the corporate income tax, repealing the unused portions of the stimulus bill and vote down the cap and trade.”

In addition to being the front-running candidate among young conservatives, Graves dominated last week’s straw poll in the crowded field of Special Election hopefuls, gaining 53 percent of the straw-poll votes on the seven candidate ballot.

Graves has been endorsed by FreedomWorks, RedState’s Erick Erickson, Club for Growth PAC, the nation’s premier free-market, free enterprise group of conservatives, the Atlanta Tea Party and was the first candidate to be certified 100 percent pro-life by the Georgia Right to Life PAC.

Graves represented the 12th House District from 2003 until March 23, 2010. Graves announced last May that he would seek the 9th District Congressional seat that was vacated by Congressman Nathan Deal, who is running for Governor.

For more information about the campaign, go to www.GravesForCongress.org.

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Graves, who was in his fourth term representing House District 12, was first elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 2002. He has chaired numerous subcommittees, served in several leadership positions and been recognized statewide as a conservative leader. He received a 2009 “National Legislator of the Year” from the American Legislative Exchange Council, a 2009 “Guardian of Small Business” Award from the National Federation of Independent Business, the 2009 “Legislator of the Year” Award from the Georgia Retail Association, the 2009 “Legislator of the Year” from the 9th Congressional District of Georgia and was nationally recognized as the “Legislative Entrepreneur of the Year Award” by the Freedom Works Foundation for his tireless effort to stem the tide of expansive government and reduce the tax burden on Georgians. Georgia Trend named Graves to its 2009 “40 under 40, Georgia’s Best and the Brightest.” Graves has been endorsed by Club for Growth PAC, the nation’s premier free-market, free enterprise group of conservatives, FreedomWorks PAC, RedState’s Erick Erickson and was the first candidate to be certified 100 percent pro-life by the Georgia Right to Life PAC.

Graves grew up in White, Georgia and graduated from the University of Georgia, where he earned a Bachelors of Business Administration in Finance. Graves is a small businessman, past member of the Gordon County Board of Elections and an active member of the Gordon County Chamber of Commerce. He is married to Julie, a native of Marietta, and the couple has three children, JoAnn, John and Janey. They attend the Belmont Baptist Church in Calhoun.