GA Governor Candidate Rides 'Deportation Bus'

DECATUR, GA — A back-of-the-pack candidate for Georgia's Republican nomination for governor is spending the days before Tuesday's primary election riding in a "Deportation Bus" that brands immigrants as rapists and murderers.

State Sen. Michael Williams, the former co-chair of the Trump campaign in Georgia, is launching the tour of Clarkston, Decatur and Athens — the state's three so-called "sanctuary cities" — on Wednesday. During it, Williams claims he will "expose how dangerous illegal aliens ruin local economies, cost American jobs, increase healthcare costs, and lower education standards."

The campaign-trail barnstorm is being dismissed as a Hail Mary by a desperate candidate by Williams' Republican opponents and slammed as a racist, anti-immigrant stunt by Democratic hopefuls for Georgia's top political post and leaders in the communities he will visit.

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Painted industrial-gray and looking like a prison vehicle, the bus is embossed along the side with the words "Fill This Bus With Illegals: Vote Michael Williams." On the back, text reads "Murderers, Rapists, Kidnappers, Child Molesters, And Other Criminals On Board" and "Follow Me To Mexico."

Williams said in a campaign ad that he plans to fill the bus with illegal immigrants and send them out of the country. No one expects him to actually do this.

The tour targets cities with policies that discourage local law enforcement and other officials from working with federal immigration agents in routine roundups and other anti-illegal immigration actions. In Clarkston — which has garnered international praise and attention as a home to refugees who have been displaced from war-torn corners of the world — the mayor says he has put police on alert.

Mayor Ted Terry said he's concerned "vigilantes" may actually try to round up people living in the country illegally and bring them to Williams' bus.

While Williams' Republican rivals have largely ignored the spectacle, calling it a desperate, last-minute grab for attention, Democrats running for governor have condemned the bus and called on Williams' fellow GOP members to denounce it.

Georgia House Democratic Leader Stacey Abrams said in a written statement that she is "deeply ashamed we have someone standing for high office who would be so petty and mean-spirited."

"Unfortunately, this xenophobia is not alien to the rest of the Republican field," Abrams said in the statement. "It not only hurts the reputation of Georgia, it hurts the families who rely on us and depend on us."

Her opponent, Rep. Stacey Evans, issued a similar statement.

"I call on Michael Williams and all of the candidates on the Republican side — including Casey Cagle, including Brian Kemp, including Hunter Hill — to stop the attacks on the immigrant community," Evans said.

To say Williams has ground to make up between now and Tuesday's primaries is a bit of an understatement.

While polls consistently show Cagle, the state's lieutenant governor, as the front-runner with the support of roughly 40 percent of likely Republican voters, Williams ends up closer to the bottom of the list.

An AJC/Channel 2 Action News poll released April 27 showed Cagle with 41 percent of support from likely Republican voters, with Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp pulling about 10 percent, state Sen. Hunter Hill at roughly 9 percent and businessman Clay Tippins getting around 4 percent.

Williams drew the support of 3.2 percent in the poll.

The bus is scheduled to leave Williams' campaign headquarters in Gainesville at noon on Wednesday. It stops in Clarkston at 1 p.m. at Thriftown, a once-struggling grocery store that saw its fortunes revived after it began catering to refugees and other immigrant communities in the area.

At 2 p.m. it will stop at a Burger King in Decatur and, at 4 p.m., it's scheduled to stop at a Cracker Barrel in Athens.

Photo courtesy Michael Williams for Governor