Meet the GA House Rep. District 147 Candidates – Stephen Baughier

Stephen Baughier isn’t a local native, but having lived in Houston County for over 40 years, he considers it to be his home.

“My dad is retired Air Force. He was in Myrtle Beach, but when he retired, he took a job here. I grew up here from that point and went to Warner Robins High School where I graduated back in ’96,” said Baughier. “After that, I went into the Navy. I was serving in the Navy during 9/11, which was kind of surreal. Upon leaving the Navy, I came home, started a family and finished up my accounting degree. I received a bachelors and a masters in accounting at Georgia College and State University. I later re-enlisted in the Air Force reserves here at Robins Air Force Base.”

Baughier is an active father of two who has coached a few of his son’s little league teams. His roots in accounting prompted him, two years ago, to start a personal financial retreat called Camp FI (financial independence). It is a weekend getaway where people get together to talk about personal finance and improving their lives. The camps give them a real-life support system to move forward confidently with their finances. It is somewhat in this same manner that Baughier hopes middle Georgians will entrust him to be the voice that helps to get their issues addressed as their representative in Atlanta.

The desire and decision to run for State Representative, for Baughier, grew from his discontentment with the direction in which the current administration was headed.

“I’m not pleased with the direction in which leadership has been steering the state,” he explained. “I feel like, in my whole life, I’ve served in a lot of different ways. I believe if you have the ability to serve, then you also have a duty to serve. So when this opportunity came up, I felt like it was my duty to run for the seat and to give voters another option other than what they’ve had.”

In particular, Baughier pointed out that he doesn’t believe current leadership has the right priorities. “I think that we’ve lost track of the fact that we’re all people. The government’s job is to look after and take care of people—and not specific people, but all people. To me, that’s sort of the core of why I wanted to run and why I think we need a change in leadership.”

Baughier went on to share insight on what he hopes to focus on and accomplish if his run for office is successful. “The most immediate thing is to get a handle on the coronavirus. The pandemic has changed our daily lives in major ways, and we really need to get control of that. That’s the number one priority,” he stressed. “We need to get as close as back to normal as possible, and then we need to start looking at the things that have come to light that were problems before that we didn’t notice as much.”

As a specific example, Baughier cited health care. “Most people’s health care is tied into their employment. With this coronavirus, we had thousands and thousands of Georgians who lost their jobs through no fault of their own, and some of these jobs are not going to come back,” he stated. “Because they’ve lost their jobs, they’ve lost their health coverage as well. So once we get the immediate issue of the corornavirus handled, and we can kind of get back to normal, we don’t need to lose sight of the fact that we have a broken system and we need to start working to fix it so that we can be more resilient for the next crisis that hits.”

Baughier also spoke on the topic of essential workers and his desire to give them the respect that they deserve. “It’s very interesting, during the COVID shut-down, who ended up being seen as the most essential workers. We glorify a lot of professions, but when the going gets tough, it’s those professions that typically don’t get the glory, that turn out to be the essential workers. I want to make sure or at least point out that I’m going to press to make sure we value those essential workers appropriately moving forward.”

Although he comes with less political experience than his opponent, Baughier feels that many Georgians just might be ready for a fresh change.

“Everybody is just exhausted right now. Everything is just exhausting. This is in no small part to the way that the coronavirus has been handled by current leadership. People want a change, and I’m an option for that change. Current leadership has been in place for over six years, so I’m giving them an option. If they like the way things have been handled, they’re not going to vote for me. If they want change, then they have an option.

“I have a background as a military veteran, as a father, as a volunteer, an accountant and a business owner. With all of these things, I feel that I am uniquely experienced to be a voice and representative for most everyone in middle Georgia, regardless of what party they most identify with.”

For more information, Baughier encourages citizens to visit his webpage at www.StephenForGeorgia.com.

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