Erik Yabor/Times-EnterpriseBooker Gainor, running for Georgia House District 173, delivers his livestreamed speech Sunday at the historic Zebulon Theater.

CAIRO — Former Cairo Mayor Booker Gainor took the stage Sunday night at the historic Zebulon Theater to deliver a speech citing public health and education as key issues in his run for the state legislature.

“House District 173 needs an adaptable leader,” said Gainor, running as a Democrat to unseat longtime state Rep. Darlene Taylor (R-Thomasville). “One that will actively fight and advocate for all of our needs and not just the needs of some.”

Gainor said it was time for District 173 to elect a “strong, rational and moral leader,” and that taking on the challenges facing southwest Georgia is why he decided to run for office.

“I raised my hand to put in the work that I see is needed for our communities, not just to survive, but thrive,” he said. “I raised my hand to advocate that all people can have an enhanced quality of life with affordable healthcare, fully-funded quality education and justice and liberty for all. I am driven to see the prosperity of the people and not allowing them to accept their plight.”

Legislators in Atlanta have cut millions of dollars in public health — a service Georgians could have used during the COVID-19 pandemic, Gainor said.

Gainor vowed to fight to expand Medicaid if elected to the state legislature, a solution he claimed would provide coverage to nearly 518,000 people, create more than 50,000 jobs, boost the state economy and save rural hospitals.

With 1.4 million people uninsured, Georgia holds the third-highest uninsured rate in the nation, and about 255,000 individuals don’t earn enough money to buy health insurance but don’t quality for Medicaid. Gainor noted that while some of the 219,000 earning “slightly above” the poverty line may be eligible for premium subsidies, they’re unable to use to coverage due to high deductibles and co-payments.

In District 173, Gainor noted that Decatur and Thomas counties own between 15 and 20 percent of the state’s uninsured rate, and Grady County alone owns between 20 to 25 percent.

Rural Georgia, particularly in the southwest, has higher uninsured rates and faces higher proportions of COVID-19 cases and deaths, Gainor said, and the state as a whole ranks dead last in maternal mortality rates.

“This is unacceptable to all Georgians,” he said.

Gainor saved his sharpest criticism of Taylor’s tenure in office when it came to education, criticizing the five-term legislator for voting to cut roughly $950 million in education for fiscal year 2021 — a move he said “sent local superintendents and school board members on a tedious task of damage control to avoid furlough days.”

As an educator himself at Washington Middle School, Gainor said he knows firsthand how teachers, parents and students feel during these times.

“Education should never be a tradeoff,” he said.

“During a national crisis, our state representative for House District 173 did not address the need to update Georgia’s education funding formula to include an opportunity weight to support districts serving high numbers of low-income students.”

Georgia has cut $10.2 billion in education over the past 20 years, Gainor said, and “Darlene Taylor has been our elected state representative well over 10 of those years.”

Fully funding education and ensuring schools have sufficient internet capabilities will be a key goal of Gainor’s if elected, he said.

Though just 31 years old, Gainor said age has never been an impediment in his goal of serving the public. The former mayor of Cairo, the city’s first African American mayor and the youngest mayor in the State of Georgia at the time, cited 1 Timothy 4:12 as a passage he relies on when asked to lead.

“‘Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity,'” he said, reading from the passage.

Gainor concluded by encouraging supporters to vote early, whether that be in-person or by absentee ballot.

“This is a right that we must utilize to ensure the next generation has a chance to thrive,” he said. “I encourage you to vote early by any means necessary safe to you.”

Sunday’s fundraising event also featured speeches in support of Gainor’s candidacy by former Thomasville Mayor pro tem Terry Scott and Cairo City Council member Demario Byrden, the latter of whom served with Gainor for two years in the city government.

Gainor said after the livestreamed speech that though he wished it could have taken place before a packed audience, the state of the COVID-19 pandemic made those plans impossible. Though some seats at the Zebulon were sold, Gainor said most contributions to the event were straight-up donations at the time the decision was made to limit the event to campaign staff only.

The candidate said the historic theater, the oldest single-screen movie theater in Georgia, was fitting site to host a speech for what he described as a “historic” campaign.