Why This White Woman Voted for Brian Kemp

In 1951, a white baby girl was born in a small hospital in Ogbomosho, Nigeria, West Africa. She was raised among the Nigerian people by missionary parents -- parents who dedicated their lives to ministering to and sharing the Gospel with people of color. My mom’s family came back to the States when she was a teenager, and they settled here in Georgia, where her parents taught at various colleges and public schools. She met my dad in beautiful Cleveland, Georgia when they were both in their mid-teens. They married at 18, and the rest, as they say, is history. Mom loved Nigeria and the Nigerian people. She considered that “home” for many years after she returned to the U.S. As far as I know -- and I’ve known her for 45 years now -- there isn’t a racist bone in her body. My dad was a pastor and counselor for decades before he was killed tragically in a DUI in 2015. My parents love people -- of all colors and shapes and sizes -- and they instilled that love in their four children. My husband Trevor Thomas and I are, in turn, teaching our four children to love God and to love all people as well.

I turned 18 in 1991, and I was excited beyond words to participate in my first presidential election the following year. I campaigned for George H.W. Bush. I made signs at the local Republican Party headquarters to help welcome him to Gainesville on his Whistle Stop Train Tour. I cried when he lost to Bill Clinton. In the 1996 election cycle, I campaigned early on for a brilliant, articulate, conservative Harvard PhD and United Nations ambassador by the name of Alan Keyes. Of course, he was -- and still is -- a black man. Sadly, Keyes didn’t make it out of the primaries. Herman Cain and Ben Carson are other “people of color” who I believe would have made outstanding presidents, and I would have supported them wholeheartedly if they had made it to their respective general elections. In last year’s race for governor, we the people of the great state of Georgia were faced with a choice, though not a difficult choice at all, in my humble opinion -- a conservative white man or a liberal black woman. Imagine for a moment that the characteristics had been reversed. Had Stacy Abrams been a pro-life, pro-small business, pro-biblical marriage, pro-2nd Amendment, pro-liberty candidate, and Kemp had been the socialist, pro-abortionist, anti-gun, anti-small business candidate, I would have crawled to the polls on my hands and knees, if necessary, to vote for Abrams. However, Kemp is the conservative and Abrams is the liberal. It’s as simple as that. It matters not a twit that he is a white man and she is a black woman. I will vote for a candidate with conservative values over a liberal candidate at any time of the day or week or year. I couldn’t care less what color the candidate’s skin happens to be. It truly is what’s on the inside that counts. Apparently, the Women’s March leader, Linda Sarsour, blames me for Georgia’s recent “Heartbeat Bill,” which outlaws abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected. On May 14, she tweeted, While folks are debating tactics to respond to Georgia’s heartbeat bill, let’s remember that 76% of the white Women electorate in GA (more than white men) voted for Brian Kemp over Stacey Abrams. That’s where the work needs to happen. WW continue to uphold the patriarchy. Unfortunately, Sarsour’s racist rant here is typical rhetoric from today’s left. I wish we could move on to more important issues that affect all Americans instead of dwelling on such insignificant differences as skin color. But it seems as though Democrats will continue to play the race card in order to win voters to their side and gain political power. Since there is no substance to Sarsour’s argument, she is forced to stoop to slimy, deceptive tactics like race-baiting. So yes, Linda Sarsour, this white woman voted unashamedly for Brian Kemp, and I would most definitely do it again, in a heartbeat. But it wasn’t to uphold “the patriarchy,” as you foolishly proclaim, and neither was it because Kemp is white. You completely miss the forest for the trees when you tout that ignorant garbage. As long as and whenever I have the opportunity to vote for a candidate who stands for truth, justice (for all -- born and unborn), and the American way, you can bet your liberal bottom borrowed dollar that he or she will have my support. Red and yellow, black and white, we are all precious in the God’s sight, but some are much more deserving of my vote than others. Michelle Fitzpatrick Thomas is a Christ follower, wife to and chief editor for Trevor Thomas, and a homeschooling mom to four amazing children. She is the author of the brand new Through Deep Waters: Finding Healing and Hope in Devastating Grief and Debt-Free Living in a Debt-Filled World. Her website is KingdomCrossing.com, and she can be reached by email at michelle@kingdomcrossing.com.