Shane Hazel hopes to give voters another option in Georgia governor's race

ATLANTA - With just about a month to go until Election Day, most voters have heard a lot about the rematch between incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp and Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams. But Georgians will see a third name on their ballots this fall--Libertarian Shane Hazel.

"I think Georgia needs another choice. We've got a Republican and a Democrat and what we've seen over the years is more and more government invasion into our lives," said Hazel.

Hazel first ran for office as a Republican in 2018 when he tried to unseat incumbent U.S. Rep. Robb Woodall in the 7th Congressional District. Woodall won the primary with about 72% of the votes.

His first campaign as a Libertarian was in 2020 when he ran for Senate against Republican David Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff. While Perdue garnered the most votes, Hazel won 115,039 votes (2.32%) in that race, forcing the contest to a January runoff, which Ossoff won.

In Georgia, a candidate must get 50% plus one vote in order to win a race without a runoff.

Hazel could be a factor again this fall. The most recent InsiderAdvantage/FOX 5 poll put Kemp at 50%, Abrams at 45% and Hazel at 2%, with 3% of voters undecided.

Kemp won the 2018 race with 50.22% of the November vote--8,744 votes over the 50% threshold.  Libertarian Ted Metz received 37,235 (0.95%) votes, only about a third of what Hazel got in the 2020 Senate race.  

Hazel's platform centers around personal liberty. The Cherokee County podcaster wants to eliminate income and property taxes, nullify federal and state education mandates and get rid of health care mandates like vaccinations.

FIREARMS

Hazel strongly supports the Second Amendment and called the state's new permit-less carry law "a step in the right direction."

"The Second Amendment was just a codification of your right to protect your life, liberty and property," Hazel explained. "Take it a step further, as governor, as a Libertarian, say let's get rid of the ATF. Let's nullify the ATF. Let's move them out of Georgia and allow people to provide for their own self-defense the way they think they should."

MARIJUANA

"It's a plant. By nature, it's your right," said Hazel, who advocates for legalizing cannabis.

Thursday President Joe Biden announced he will pardon all federal marijuana possession offenses and called on governors to do the same at the state level.

"Sometimes the Democrats get it right. Sometimes the Republicans get it right, but when we err on the side of freedom for peaceful people, you're never going to get it wrong," Hazel said.

ABORTION

Hazel, a father of three, said he is pro-life, but expressed concerns about the state government's role in either sanctioning or banning abortion.

Currently, Georgia's "heartbeat" abortion law outlaws the procedure in most cases once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is at around six weeks of pregnancy.

"The best idea that we have as Libertarians I think is to decentralize this down to the city and the county level where those populations maybe of different cultures and different backgrounds decide differently for their areas and we respect those people's cultures and their decisions on what they want to do. Personally, I'm very pro-life, but I don't know in terms of taking money through force and coercion to fund things that are against people's conscience whether they're pro-life or pro-choice that we can do such a thing in an effective manner and live in a peaceful society."

Hazel will debate Abrams and Gov. Kemp on October 17. Election Day is Nov. 8.