The debate around Georgia’s Medicaid procurement process continues as one side accuses it of being hijacked by left-wing bureaucrats and the other side claims that this is a manufactured narrative. State Senator Greg Dolezal (R) weighed in on this issue in an exclusive interview with Dome Politics, arguing that the process was hijacked and these claims are based on real evidence.
The Georgia Republican expressed absolute opposition to the idea that Medicaid contracts should be awarded based on questions about DEI and transgenderism. When asked about the procurement process, the State Senator explained how competitive it was, stating that "this contract in particular came down to a 10-point differential out of a thousand-point score... It was a ten-point spread on a thousand-point scale."
"On such a tight spread, that couple of points on things like that are being used to prescreen companies for their allegiance to DEI," he continued. "That seems to play a factor here."
He also explained that this is a functional part of the ‘Woke Industrial Complex’ he believes has infiltrated all levels of government, including state and federal agencies.
Dolezal, who is currently running for Lieutenant Governor of Georgia, commented on whether he would oppose this "hijacked" process if he were to be elected. He answered that he absolutely would and stated that all vestiges of DEI must be banned from the procurement process and government agencies as a whole.
Dolezal commented on the infiltration of woke ideology into government agencies, stating, "we don’t know exactly what other areas this kind of thing has crept into. That’s why I call it the woke industrial complex, because it really has made its way into a lot of tentacles of government, and it’s very concerning."
He did credit, though, Georgia’s Board of Regents for unwinding some of their own processes that were subjected to DEI preference management. As Lt. Gov., he would follow that model.
Dolezal also credited reporters for finding evidence of the hijacked procurement process and spreading the word so that it could be properly confronted.
Dome Politics reached out to five other State Senators to respond to this issue: Sen. Blake Tillery (R), Sen. John F. Kennedy (R), Sen. Steve Gooch (R), Sen. Brian Strickland (R), and Sen. Bill Cowsert (R). However, Sen. Greg Dolezal was the only one to respond.
