State Senator Greg Dolezal (R-Cumming) faced off against former State Senator John F. Kennedy at a debate hosted by the Atlanta Press Club this past weekend. During the debate, Sen. Dolezal accused Kennedy of voting down a ban on illegal immigrants from holding driver’s licenses.
The two Republican candidates are currently running to become Georgia’s next Lieutenant Governor and will face off in a runoff election on June 16th.
Kennedy emerged from the primary elections with a solid lead and 27% of the vote. Sen. Dolezal earned 23% of the vote and is now looking to make up the difference.
As previously mentioned, Sen. Dolezal brought up a 2015 vote in the Georgia Senate and has made it the new focus of his campaign against Kennedy. He has even gone so far as to accuse Kennedy of openly putting illegal immigrants before Georgians.
The Vote and Greg Dolezal's Record
The vote in question concerned an amendment that would have prevented deferred-action childhood arrival (DACA) immigrants from attaining driver’s licenses.
The Republican Party maintained a supermajority at the time, but chose to vote down the ban. At the same time, however, Arizona and Nebraska had passed their own laws on this matter. Those laws were ultimately struck down in the federal courts.
The Georgia GOP’s decision to vote down the ban was based on pragmatism, not policy preference.
This attack on Kennedy’s record comes as a surprise, especially since Dolezal serves as the Chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee. He was promoted as such in January 2023, but never moved to end deferred-action licensing.
Since his tenure began, the State of Georgia has continued to issue limited-term licenses to deferred-action recipients. If ending that policy was a priority, Dolezal could have led the effort to introduce relevant legislation. He has yet to do so, however.
Dolezal also voted to pass Senate Bill 442, which tightened rules on commercial licenses for noncitizens but stopped short of banning them altogether. In fact, the legislation reinforces the idea that DACA noncitizens remain eligible for driver’s licenses.
As the June 16th runoff approaches, the race between these two will only intensify as voters begin to make their final decision. Whether Dolezal's strategy pays off, only the voters can determine.
