Keith Grawert
Occupation: Former active duty US Air Force officer and pilot. Current member of the Air National Guard.
Previous experience holding elected offices: None.
Other community service experience: In 14 years of active service in the US Air Force, I deployed to the Middle East four times and flew nearly 500 combat sorties in Iraq and Afghanistan. I’ve also served in overseas postings in Korea and Eastern Europe, where I have extensive experience developing plans to deal with our adversaries in North Korea and Russia. My entire career has been about service to the community. I also enjoy promoting youth sports in whatever community I call home as I’ve traveled the world with the military.
Why should the voters choose you for this position?
I’m originally from Dunwoody and graduated from Marist in 1999. My 6th District roots run deep, and I’m excited to return home after serving my country in the military. I’m a committed conservative, passionate about returning public service to public office. My loyalties and priorities are not to party but to country. I believe we need to return to a model of citizen servants in Congress, hold our politicians accountable to their constituents and the Constitution, and get to work on enacting the small government reforms we need to grow our economy and shrink our government.
What is the biggest issue facing the district and how will you address it?
The economy is always the biggest issue. A growing economy is the best way to address the other issues that confront our district. Education, healthcare, military readiness, payment on the national debt and other priorities all benefit from increased funding when the economy grows. We need to aggressively roll back the regulations on business, reform the tax code and incentivize hiring. The government should help, not hinder, our country’s innovators. Additionally, we need to return the power in Congress to the people. We need to institute term limits and force our members to work for our interest, not their own.
Tom Price, the former 6th District congressman, was a strong critic of the Affordable Care Act and is now in the Trump administration working to replace it. What is your position on the ACA and will you work with or against Price to replace it?
Obamacare has not delivered on its promise and is crumbling under its own weight. I will support responsible efforts by Secretary Price to improve and replace it. As part of that replacement, we must deal with the issue of pre-existing conditions as well as provide protections for those who have received coverage through the ACA. We must look at harnessing the power of competition among providers while also expanding choices for patients. This will allow free market forces to control costs and better suit the needs of individual patients.