‘Antithesis to AOC’: Matt Gurtler Vies for Georgia US Congressional Seat

Matt Gurtler is known as the most conservative member of the State House of Georgia. For the last four years he has voted against bloated spending bills and protected the rights of Georgians while keeping government in its “proper role”. Now, he is looking to take his principles to Washington DC as a Congressman from Georgia. His primary is on June 9^th.

“I got involved in politics around 2007. I was in ROTC at a senior military school (University of North Georgia)”. Gurtler intended to be an officer in the Army infantry. But after two years devoted to a military path, “I heard of this guy; Ron Paul who woke me up”.

He was homeschooled and raised in his family’s construction company. He still operates the business with his father and brothers in Northeast Georgia.

He credits Ron Paul with lighting his political path, “Ron Paul woke me up to a lot of things, but one of the first issues was going to war without declaring it”. As a military man, Gurtler felt personally vested in the question of war and peace,

If we’re going to war, we should debate it openly. -Matt Gurtler

He points out that constitutionally speaking, elected officials should be voting on these matters. “They were not following Article 1, Section 8”. That was a major motivating factor for Gurtler to try to help Paul get elected to the White House in 2007, “Of course, he didn’t get nominated. I stayed in school and graduated, but ended up not commissioning [to the military]”.

After graduating, he saw an ad for an aide position to his State Representative in House District 8 of Georgia, “I applied, interviewed, and got the job”. After serving in that position for four years, he ran for the seat of his former boss, who was retiring. “While I was an aid, I really seen the ins-and-outs of the state capitol.”

The capitol down in Atlanta is a mirror of DC just on a smaller scale; bloated budgets, interfering in the free-market through subsidies, the same sort of establishment tactics going on -Matt Gurtler

Gurtler was troubled by elected Republicans selling out the principles they claimed to believe in, “Republicans are supposed to be for limited government and they weren’t voting that way.” He sums up his outrage simply stating, “that was hypocritical”.

I follow the Constitution, I never vote for tax increases and I don’t vote for anything that increases the size and scope of government. -Matt Gurtler

In his re-election campaign to the State House, Gurtler made history. “The Speaker of the House and the previous Governor campaigned against me. First time in Georgia history that Republicans came against a fellow Republican member of the House.” According to him, the powers-that-be were outraged that he fought against massive spending bills.

My votes have everything to do with the proper role of government. -Matt Gurtler

When he votes against a spending bill that might have law enforcement funding (or some other proper allocation of resources), it also has, “hundreds of millions of dollars for subsidies that interfere in free-markets” and “that is not the proper role of government”.

The government is not there to solve every problem in the world; it is there to protect individuals’ life, liberty, and property. -Matt Gurtler

Gurtler is endorsed by the most hated man in Washington (aka Representative Thomas Massie). When asked about it, he beams with pride and adds that he is also, “proud that Rand Paul endorsed me.”

He is used to taking the heat for hard votes and is ready to join his friend—Representative Massie—in the swamp. When asked about the recent Coronavirus stimulus bill he says, “it was wrong to pass the biggest stimulus bill in history without a roll-call vote”. Gurtler wholeheartedly believes Massie did the right thing in calling for a vote.

It is literally your job [as an elected official] to vote yes or no on bills; if you cannot do that, find a different job. -Matt Gurtler

He reminds me that most of that money in the stimulus bill did not relieve actual victims of the virus, “75% of the bill was just pork, that’s ridiculous; we should have had more people voting against it based off the principle that it is not accountable, transparent, nor is it what government should be doing”.

I have had so many people tell me that I am the antithesis to AOC; they say, ‘you are so far to the right and she is so far to the left.’ We are about the same age, as well. -Matt Gurtler

Gurtler has fought against many things while at the State House, but he also has accomplishments that he is proud of for passing. His legislative achievements include guns, life, and liberty.

He introduced a Constitutional Carry bill that would make Georgia weapons licenses optional for law-abiding citizens. Gurtler and his fellow members of the legislator, “got three candidates for governor back in 2018, to go on record that they would support constitutional carry”. He is hopeful that it will become law soon, “our current governor is one of those candidates”.

Gurtler cosponsored the Life at Conception Bill (aka the “heartbeat bill”). It protected, “the most innocent among us – the unborn” from abortion after a heartbeat is detected. He adds, “I spoke in favor of that bill and it passed by a mere one vote”.

He introduced a bill to end the omnibus style budgets where they put funding for 49 different departments into 1 bill. Although it is not passing with the current elected officials, Gurtler is optimistic that his efforts have awakened the people to the corruption of “politics as usual”.

Based on the non-aggression principle, as long as you are not hurting anybody, we should always have compassion for people and treat them how we want to be treated. -Matt Gurtler

A constituent of Gurtler asked about his stance on gay marriage. He chuckled as he responded, “I have never been asked that”. But he quickly defined the non-aggression principle and explained that if your behavior is not physically violent, the government should not restrict you.

We would love support from liberty loving, constitutional conservatives who believe in this country. -Matt Gurtler

If you would like to know more about him, go to MattGurtlerForCongress.com or call his cellphone: 706-490-2285.