PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 28, 2024
CONTACT: Davis Lundy
423-240-5749
[email protected]
ALBANY, Ga. – The announced and much publicized Harris-Walz bus tour was coming here on Wednesday to show empathy for the Black population of Albany and surrounding areas of middle South Georgia. Unfortunately, and surprisingly, it never happened.
This visit by Harris and Walz and Sanford Bishop was a promise made, and a promise not kept.
“This lack of fulfillment to the promise of visiting Albany should scream a message to Black voters in Albany, and that message is Democrats really do not care about you, “ said Wayne Johnson, who is running for U.S. Congress this November to unseat 32-year incumbent, career politician, Sanford Bishop. “The Harris campaign announced they were coming to Albany, and then it did not.
“It is a clear message to the 59,000 Black residents of Albany and Black voters everywhere in the 2nd Congressional District that Harris-Walz-Sanford Bishop are taking Black voters for granted. They are assuming Black voters will just fall in line behind Harris and Bishop because of their skin color, and they are going to be wrong this time around.
“Frankly, I am sick of talking about skin color in politics,” said Johnson.
The Johnson’s campaign had planned to meet Harris and Bishop in Albany and follow the tour through South Georgia using its three spectacularly wrapped “Wayne Johnson for Congress” trucks to trail the Democrat bus from Albany to Valdosta and on to Savannah, with stops along the way. The Johnson campaign trucks are also set up to be broadcast and display the message that it is time to “Stop The Stupid In Washington.”
After being stood-up in Albany, along with a large group of picketing union workers also being stood-up, Johnson’s campaign trucks finally caught up with the Harris bus tour at the Savannah airport around 3 p.m. Wednesday and went about trailing it to a stop in Liberty County and another stop in Savannah.
“The originally announced Harris/Walz plan to travel South Georgia and visit multiple rural areas turned into the shortest political bus tour in history,” said Johnson. “It was 40 miles from the Savannah airport to a high school band practice at an upscale high school in Hinesville, in Liberty County Georgia. Then it was 30 miles back to a to the Sand Fly BBQ restaurant, then four miles to a $500 per night hotel on the South Carolina side of Savannah.
“The next day it was seven miles to downtown Savannah to make flash appearances at three small Black owned restaurants, then two miles to an arena for a rally. Oh, and neither Harris nor Walz were actually on the bus — instead, choosing to ride in their accompanying limousines.
“How do we know all this? Because me and my campaign were there! This so-called bus tour should infuriate all voters, Black and White, who have voted a Democratic ticket for years. I promise the Black voters in Macon, Albany, Columbus, and each of the 30 counties in the 2nd District that I will never take any of them for granted.”
Macon, Albany, and Columbus – Bishop’s voter base – is a long way from Savannah. However, Johnson believed it was important to go to Savannah to directly challenge Harris and Walz as to why they did not honor a promise to voters in the Congressional district he intends to represent.
He executed this challenge in a powerful way by making his convoy of wrapped campaign trucks a part of Harris’s motorcade, along the route blaring his campaign jingle to “Stop The Stupid In Washington.”
Johnson was born in Macon and has been a lifelong resident of Georgia. Johnson is a husband, father, grandfather, and U.S. Army veteran. He obtained his undergraduate and doctoral degrees from Mercer University and his master’s in business from Emory University.
Johnson is a respected former banker who has established businesses in Middle and Southwest Georgia, other parts of Georgia and internationally. He has enjoyed both cattle and tree farming and has worked for major corporations with ties to Georgia’s 2nd Congressional District.
“My message has been and will continue to be that we must “Stop the Stupid in Washington” and address the kitchen table issues impacting every family in our district,” said Johnson. “It’s time to retire Sanford Bishop.”