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Kay Kirkpatrick Has Had Ten Years. Here's What It Cost You.
Early voting is underway, and Election Day is Tuesday, November 3. If you live in Senate District 32, which covers parts of Cobb and Cherokee counties, Kay Kirkpatrick has been your state senator since 2017. Whatever party you usually vote for, her record deserves a hard look.
Kay Kirkpatrick Chose the Option That Costs Taxpayers More and Covers Fewer People
Georgians already pay federal taxes that fund health coverage in states that took the full Medicaid deal. Under that deal, Washington pays 90% of the cost for newly covered workers. Georgia turned it down, and our tax dollars keep going to other states.
Kirkpatrick cosponsored the 2019 law that led to Georgia Pathways instead. Pathways requires people to prove they work, study, or volunteer at least 80 hours a month before they can get coverage. Between 180,000 and 200,000 Georgians are stuck without coverage, and in the program's first two years, only about 13,400 people were ever enrolled.
The program cost about $110 million through June 2025, and less than a third of that money went to actual health care like doctor visits and prescriptions. Most of it went to computer systems, advertising, and administration. Georgia also pays about 34% of each enrollee's health care costs under Pathways. Under the full deal, Georgia would pay 10%. That's more taxpayer money spent for fewer covered workers.
When working people can't get coverage, they wait until they're sick enough for the emergency room. Hospitals absorb those costs and pass them on through higher bills and insurance premiums for the rest of us.
Nine rural Georgia hospitals have closed since 2010, putting Georgia near the top of the nation for closures. Research shows rural hospitals close more often in states that turned down the full deal. When a hospital closes anywhere in Georgia, its patients end up in the hospitals the rest of us use.
She's a doctor. She knows better.
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Kay Kirkpatrick Voted Against Housing for the People Who Keep This Community Running
Teachers, nurses, deputies, firefighters, and young families are getting priced out of Cobb and Cherokee. Many grown kids can't afford to live in the towns they grew up in.
Georgia has one main tool for getting homes built that working people can afford: a tax credit for builders. In February 2026, Kirkpatrick voted for SB 476, which would have cut that credit in half starting in 2027 and eliminated it completely after 2031. Builders and housing groups warned it would stop projects in their tracks. Fewer of those homes get built, and the people who serve this community have to live farther away. The bill passed the Senate and died in the House.
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Kay Kirkpatrick Sided with Insurance Companies over You
Say a commercial truck runs a red light and puts you in the hospital. Kirkpatrick voted for SB 68 in 2025, which makes it harder for you to win in court and can shrink what you get. The trucking company's lawyers can now tell the jury you weren't wearing a seatbelt, even when their driver caused the crash. The law limits what you can recover for your medical bills. It can put your case on hold before you ever see the company's records.
Supporters promised this would bring stability to insurance rates. Check your next renewal notice.
Weeks before the session's tort reform vote, in January 2025, her campaign took $3,300 from Competitive Georgia Action, a group that spent the session pushing for laws like this one.
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Kay Kirkpatrick Voted to Put Your County on the Hook for a Politician's Legal Bills
Kirkpatrick voted for SB 244. Under this law, when a prosecutor gets removed from a criminal case and the case is dropped, the defendant's legal bills get paid out of the district attorney's budget, which county taxpayers fund. The provision was written with one high profile case in mind, and that defendant is now asking for more than $6 million.
Lawmakers attached it to a separate, bipartisan plan to compensate people who were wrongfully convicted. That plan was worth passing on its own. Instead, it got tied to a giveaway that lets wealthy, well connected defendants bill local taxpayers, the same taxpayers who pay for roads, sheriff's deputies, and schools.
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Kay Kirkpatrick Voted to Invite More Lawsuits Against Your Local Government
Kirkpatrick cosponsored SB 36 in 2025. The law lets people sue state and local governments, including your county and your school board, if they claim a rule burdens their religious practice. Defending those lawsuits costs taxpayers money. Georgia passed a similar bill in 2016, and Republican Governor Nathan Deal vetoed it after major employers warned it would hurt Georgia's ability to attract jobs and investment. Kirkpatrick helped bring it back anyway, and lawmakers refused to add language that would have kept it from being used to turn customers and tenants away.
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Michael Hettig Will Work for You
Michael Hettig is an attorney who lives in Woodstock. This is his first time running for office, and he isn't a career politician. He says the biggest problem families in this district face is affordability, and he's running to bring costs down and make sure hard work pays off again.
He opposes cuts to PeachCare, the program that covers kids in working families, and to Medicaid. He supports tax relief for small businesses. As a lawyer, he reads the fine print for a living, and he wants to make sure laws actually deliver for the people they're written for.
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Your Vote, Your Call
Kay Kirkpatrick has had nearly ten years to show whose side she's on. Michael Hettig is ready to work for the people of District 32.
Check your registration, find your early voting location, and see your ballot at https://mvp.sos.ga.gov
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