06/03/2026
Election season is tough. Friends get mad at friends, divides get deeper, and people’s true colors come out.
The special needs community is near to my heart – not just my son, who I admire every single day, but all people with disabilities. I try to stand up for the ones who don’t have a dad in the Senate or a mom fighting every minute of every day.
Opportunities for folks with disabilities to be seen and treated equally are few and far between. I went to Atlanta basically because of this issue, and I’m going to fight for it until I come home.
We have a candidate for Lt. Governor who simply is not compassionate to the special needs community. Maybe he doesn’t understand the struggles families face, maybe he just thinks it’s funny to make fun of them. I don’t know and I don’t really care, but I do know Georgia is better than that.
In 2025, I watched him vote ‘no’ on a bill that required school systems to build inclusive playgrounds. The ‘no’ vote didn’t bother me as much as him going to the well to speak against it. We’ve got a red button for ‘no’, a green button for ‘yes’, and a microphone if you want to speak ‘for’ or ‘against’ a bill. There were only a couple of ‘no’ votes, and I expected a few “fiscal hawks” to vote ‘no’ because they don’t think the government should pay for anything “extra” – they’d probably rather drive on dirt than pave a road. What I didn’t expect was someone going to the well to try to stop the bill. Senator Greg Dolezal blasted it as overreach and overspending. Just press red. He knew the bill was going to pass, but he still went down there and tried to hold special needs kids back. For me, that bill was just as important for the typical kids because they learn a lot being around special needs kids. Clearly, Senator Dolezal doesn’t have a child with special needs and probably nobody close to him either. I think an inclusive playground might’ve done him some good growing up.
Most recently, he mocked a competitor and elected official in the Lt. Governor’s race by openly making fun of his speech impediment on X and then tried to blame a staffer when he got called out. Everyone around the Capitol knows how much of a control freak Senator Dolezal is, so that excuse doesn’t exactly hold up. Even if it were some low-level staffer, that’s not the kind of judgment—or the kind of people—I want anywhere near the Lt. Governor’s office.
I know I’m treading on thin ice. I’ll probably lose a chairmanship and get put on the worst committees in the Senate if Greg wins, and I’m fine with that. My son is honestly better off if I’m at home than sitting in some fancy committee room. Titles don’t matter to me. The special needs and developmental disabilities community in Georgia needs a champion, and Greg Dolezal is not that.
John F. Kennedy for Georgia is. I’ve watched him, I’ve worked with him, and I’ve seen how he treats people who don’t have a voice. He’s got a backbone and a heart, and he actually listens to families like mine. So I’m standing firmly with John F. Kennedy for Lt. Governor, and I’m asking you to do the same.
