THOMASVILLE — Geoff Duncan said he got into politics to make a difference, not to make a point.

The former state representative earned the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor and is campaigning across the state. Early voting is ongoing, and election day will be Nov. 6.

“I’m a policy over politics guy,” Duncan said during a stop in Thomasville last week.

Duncan was second in the Republican primary, behind state Sen. David Shafer by nearly 22 percent of the votes. But Duncan pulled more than 52 percent of the votes in the July runoff, earning the spot to go up against Democrat nominee Sarah Riggs Amico.

Duncan was elected to the state House of Representatives in 2012 but resigned his seat in 2017 to run for lieutenant governor. A resident of Forsyth County, which has a population of more than 220,000, Duncan wrote the rural hospital tax credit bill.

“I sat at my kitchen table and came up with a big idea and had enough patience and intestinal fortitude to see it through,” Duncan said.

Nearly 60 hospitals are taking part in the Georgia HEART Hospital Program. He also said the rural hospital tax credit bill gives people a peek into how he makes decisions.

“I think it’s a prime example of what the community can truly be when government gets out of their way,” he said. “There are other big issues we can tackle, issues around poverty and other tough issues government programs don’t seem to be solving, adoption, foster care, homelessness, hunger, health care for low income individuals.

“There are a multitude of issues where we can start to believe in we the people more than we the government.”

Duncan said voters are telling him they want to see Georgia’s continued growth and continued economic activity.

“This continues to be a great place to run your business but the other thing we hear is Georgia is a great place to raise your family,” he said.

Duncan also said he’s trying to point out Georgia’s success to the 10 percent in the middle who may make the difference in the election.

“I’m trying to remind them that of all the great success we’re having here in Georgia. We’ve got fully-funded K-12 education, 3.8 percent unemployment, every single taxpayer in Georgia just received a personal income tax cut — that’s all under conservative leadership and why would we want to abandon that direction we’re headed in.”

Duncan also said he is opposed to the continued calls for Medicaid expansion.

“Medicaid is bad health care. It is not an effective tool,” he said.

Expanding Medicaid, Duncan said, “kicks the can down the road not years but only months. And that can becomes a concrete pylon in just a few months, and we’re not going to be able to even kick it.”

He also said Medicaid doesn’t provide enough reimbursement for doctors to relocate from urban areas to more remote locations. He also wants to improve technology and expand access to telemedicine and bring in price transparency.

“I’ve talked this issue in the Legislature and I’ve watched the value of empowering communities,” he said. “I’ve watched a tax credit program that allows corporations and citizens to write checks directly to their rural hospitals and they get a big tax credit but most importantly the hospitals get those dollars and they get to use them where their community wants them to use them not where some clunky government program wants them to spend the dollars. We’re hearing great stories of hospitals buying new equipment and hiring new specialists.

“I think Georgia can lead on this health care issue.”

Duncan, who is married with three children, said he wants voters to see someone who has the same perspective they have, that of a small business owner “who understands how truly hard it is to create a job, how hard it is to keep the person employed, and I also look through the lens of a father of three young kids in a public school system.”

Duncan also said the “greatest gift” that can be given to a child is a quality K-12 education and he said he believes the state’s best days are ahead of it.

“I believe that. Every voter I’ve met on both sides of the aisle believes that,” he said. “I understand the importance of education I understand the opportunities that education gives.

“I think as we continue to move forward, as we continue to become the state we want to be, we can tackle some big issues with conservative solutions,” Duncan said. “I’m looking for ways to make this a better state, not by making government bigger but by allowing our communities to be more engaged and involved.”