DALTON, Ga. — Chuck Payne says his entire adult life has been about service to others and he hopes to continue that service with a second term in the Georgia Senate.

“I’m honored that the people have given me this responsibility, and I hope they will see fit to allow me to return to the Senate,” he said.

Payne, a Republican from Dalton, faces Democrat Michael Morgan of Whitfield County, a lab manager, in the Nov. 6 election for state Senate District 54, which covers all of Whitfield and Murray counties and parts of Gordon and Pickens counties.

State Sen. Chuck Payne talks about why he wants to be re-elected

Payne served in the U.S. Army for four years in the 82nd Airborne Division. After leaving the Army, Payne and his wife Angie returned to Whitfield County, where he began a career with the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice, first at the Dalton Regional Youth Detention Center as a probation/parole specialist and then as a juvenile probation officer in first Catoosa County and then Murray County.

“I loved working with kids. I wanted them to know their lives had value and that the future belonged to them,” Payne said.

Payne attended his first meeting of the Whitfield County Republican Party back in 1991. During the following 25 years, he held party offices at the state, congressional district and local levels, including multiple terms as chairman of the Whitfield County Republican Party.

Payne describes himself as a “fiscal hawk.” That’s why he said he opposes calls for Georgia to expand Medicaid coverage to all adults under 65 earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. Currently, Georgia limits Medicaid coverage only to people who meet certain criteria, such as parents of minor children or pregnant women.

The federal government would cover 90 percent of the cost of the expansion.

“We need to stop relying so much on the federal government,” said Payne. “That $22 trillion debt? That’s you and me, and it’s only going to get worse if we don’t put a stop to the spending.”

Payne said he opposes suggestions to force the private sale or gift of guns to undergo the same background checks that purchases from licensed dealers must.

“I don’t see anyway that can be enforced,” he said.

Payne said if re-elected he will fight for a religious freedom bill, to prevent the government from imposing on a person’s exercise of his religious rights.

The federal government passed such a law by unanimous consent in the House of Representatives and near-unanimous consent in the Senate in 1993. A version of that bill passed the state Legislature in 2016, but Gov. Nathan Deal, who voted for the federal law when he served in Congress, vetoed the measure under pressure from major corporations.

Payne said he hopes that if Republican Brian Kemp, currently the secretary of state, is elected governor, such a bill could become law.