Frustrated with politics? Voters should demand answers from candidates.

Like a lot of Georgians, I’m disgusted by what politics has become.

I’m sick of sitting with my 9-year-old son watching a Braves game only to have some slick political ad suddenly blast across the television, designed to scare and divide us. Sick of the glossy campaign mail that goes straight from my mailbox to the trash. And sick of politicians telling me what their consultants think I want to hear.

I want something authentic for once.

If a politician wants my vote, they need to tell me what they actually believe.

The best way to get that is to put two candidates on a stage. Ask them the same question they haven’t seen beforehand. Give each a microphone and make them answer it, right there, in front of the people they want to represent.

Maybe we’ll hate your answer. Maybe we’ll love it. But at least we’ll know what you believe.

Ads should not replace accountability

Seven months ago, I wasn’t a politician. I was a voter. And debates were one of the few places where I felt like we, the voters, still owned the process.

Now I’m the Democratic nominee for Congress in Georgia’s Seventh District, and I’ve seen how the sausage is made. If anything, I believe in debates more than I did before.

Campaigns control almost everything else.

We choose the photograph. We write the mailer. We cut the television ad. We prepare the speech. We decide what we emphasize and what we avoid.

A real debate takes the control away from us and gives it back to you. That’s precisely why debates matter.

Seven months ago, I wasn’t a politician. I was a voter. And debates were one of the few places where I felt like we, the voters, still owned the process.

Now I’m the Democratic nominee for Congress in Georgia’s Seventh District, and I’ve seen how the sausage is made. If anything, I believe in debates more than I did before.

Campaigns control almost everything else.

We choose the photograph. We write the mailer. We cut the television ad. We prepare the speech. We decide what we emphasize and what we avoid.

A real debate takes the control away from us and gives it back to you. That’s precisely why debates matter.

Because no candidate should be able to substitute money, incumbency or slick advertising for accountability.

That brings me to my opponent.

I’ve invited incumbent Republican Rep. Rich McCormick to debates across the Seventh District. I’ve shown up. He hasn’t.

When The Atlanta Journal-Constitution asked him about debating me, his answer was remarkably candid: A debate, he said, would give me “publicity” I “badly” need.

That gets the whole thing backward.

Discuss data centers, not communism

McCormick doesn’t owe me a debate. He owes his constituents the opportunity to hear him defend his record, explain what he believes and answer questions from the people he works for.

Take data centers. My neighbors are asking serious questions about power, water, the environment and whether local taxpayers will be left carrying costs while corporations collect the profits.

My position is straightforward: Big Tech knows exactly what return it expects from investing billions of dollars in Georgia. Before we make decisions that will shape our communities for decades, we should be just as clear about what Georgians get in return.

While communities ask questions, McCormick advocates for putting data centers on military bases as a way to steamroll local opposition.

Put us onstage. Ask him why. Ask me why I disagree. Ask us what happens to power rates, water and local control. Keep pushing until voters understand exactly where each of us stands. Then let them decide.

Instead of debating the real issues facing our community, McCormick pretends communism is on the ballot in the Seventh District.

I’m a Naval Academy graduate, combat veteran and small-business owner.

Calling people communists may make for a slick political message. But as a voter, that’s exactly the kind of cheap political stunt I am sick of.

I don’t want scary labels. I want real answers.

Every two years, members of the U.S. House of Representatives must come home and ask their neighbors to hire them again. That isn’t an inconvenience in representative government. It is the accountability mechanism.

Whoever wins the race should walk into the U.S. Capitol, understanding that the seat never belonged to him. It belongs to the Georgians who lent him their voice for two years.

Seven months ago, I wanted candidates to make it easier for me to understand who they really were.