A former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scientist has thrown his hat in the ring to be Georgia's 7th Congressional District's next representative.

Larry Long (D) is a candidate for U.S. House District 7 in Georgia / Photo taken by William Daughtry

Larry Long (D) is a candidate for U.S. House District 7 in Georgia / Photo taken by William Daughtry

Self-described moderate and Cumming resident Larry Long is running in a crowded, four-way Democratic Primary to face off against Incumbent Republican Rich McCormick in November.

"I worked on as a staff member for ... Waters of the U.S.," Long said. "That really opened my eyes to how the government works."

District 7 covers the western portion of Hall County, the northern portion of Fulton County, the eastern portion of Cherokee County, as well as Dawson, Lumpkin, and Forsyth Counties.

Long's core issues are health care, social security, veterans' rights, and affordability.

On the proposed ICE detention site in Oakwood

Long said "everybody wants legal immigration," but called some U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) members "thugs."

"What we don't need are a bunch of thugs going out and killing people, and detaining people — even citizens," Long said. "The people in general are not criminals, and that's the way this administration has painted them."

Long added the country has to "follow the law" with due process, and this administration ignores it.

Trump Administration

Being a former EPA scientist, Long spoke about the department under President Donald Trump's and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin's leadership.

"People at the EPA are very passionate about their jobs, and they take it very seriously, as did I," Long said. "They're just trying to ram these [proposals] through and it's just disgusting. We're going to pay for this in the long run."

He also spoke about the Trump Administration's recent rule adoption in January that will make the EPA stop calculating health care savings from air pollution rules.

This business-friendly shift in the EPA has been a theme under Trump.

"They removed the human health aspect of the model ... the EPA's model was human health and the environment," Long said. "They've also cut back on everything in the budget."

Long also railed against Attorney General Pam Bondi and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel.

"You can't get a straight answer from Pam Bondi and Patel is too busy out partying with the hockey team in the Olympics," Long said.

Health care

Long was asked if he would support a universal or single-payer health care system.

"Before I would endorse it, I would really need to see how it's going to work," Long said. "If single-payer works to where ... the cost of health care is less, that's great."

He added rural hospitals are not getting funding, which needs to change.

"I'm not in favor of large medical corporations because it's more about money than it is health care with them," Long said.

Cost of living

"We need to focus on the working class," Long said. "We've got to have a livable wage, if that's $15, fine," Long said. "I also support training at junior colleges."

Long added the federal government could work with unions more as well, and ensure people can retire on something other than Social Security.

He also pointed to tariffs as an increase in the prices of goods.

"These tariffs have caused a lot of problems ... some people quoted as high as 96% of the funds that they will collect for these tariffs actually come from the consumers," Long said. "They say 'we're going to give everybody a refund,' well that's kind of nice they're giving you your own money back."

Artificial Intelligence

Long said he was worried about the future when talking about artificial intelligence (AI).

"Even at the EPA, they were saying they were going to have AI write the impact statements ... and then reviewed by AI," Long said. "We know that it lies, and we know that it goes off on tangents, and so nobody can really control it."

Corporate PAC money

Long was also asked about corporate political action committee (PAC) funding.

"The Democrats don't take dark money," Long said. "It's extremely expensive to run a campaign ... I would support more of the party helping to fund these initial campaigns prior to the primary."

He said he has spent $47,000 on the campaign of his own money.

"That's out of my pocket, and if I don't win the primary I'm out of that money," Long said. "But I'm going to work hard to win the primary."

Long's campaign site can be found here. The primary is slated for May 19. Other candidates in the primary include camera technician Case Norton, environmental health scientist Jayson Toweh, and attorney Tony Kozycki.