Geoff Duncan didn’t mention Donald Trump nor the splintering Republican Party as he spoke to some University of Georgia graduates a week ago. But the former president and the party of Lincoln’s far-right lurch seemed an unspoken presence as the former Georgia lieutenant governor addressed graduates of UGA’s School of Public and International Affairs May 10, less than a week after he appealed to fellow Republicans to vote for Democrat Joe Biden in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution op-ed.
UGA’s schools and colleges conduct separate graduation ceremonies called convocations, where graduate’s names can be individually called out, in advance of the official university-wide commencement exercises. Duncan was the speaker at this year’s SPIA convocations, now divided into two sessions. As the school has grown to become one of the most prestigious of its type in the nation, its enrollment has grown to nearly 2,000 undergraduate and graduate students.
“This November, I am voting for a decent person I disagree with on policy over a criminal defendant without a moral compass,” Duncan wrote in his op-ed, though he also said Republicans should work to elect majorities in the U.S. House and Senate to block Biden’s second-term legislative agenda.
Duncan looked beyond this year’s presidential election in his remarks to the SPIA graduates, many of whom are destined to be part of government in one way or another. “SPIA graduates run the state of Georgia,” he said, and “Georgia is going to be in the spotlight for decades.
“First, take the opportunity to make a genuine difference every day instead of pursuing power,” he said. “In other words, put the policy over the politics.”
Duncan returned repeatedly to that theme—putting good policy over politics—and told them how to do it. “I had to learn the hard way,” he said, recalling his first days in elected office. Duncan was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 2013, then stepped down in 2017 to run for lieutenant governor in the 2018 statewide election. He chose not to seek a second four-year term in 2022.
In the legislature, he found himself voting for bills along party lines, not because they were good law. “I even supported people for elected office I knew were not decent people,” he said. “The people I respected most were putting policy over politics.”
He told graduates, “Take the time to understand the facts,” which means getting information from multiple, diverse sources. “Do your homework. Don’t rely on social media.”
It also means listening to opposing points of view, he said. “Find somebody across the aisle you can talk to,” and try to understand their positions, he said. “I guarantee it will make you a better decision-maker.”
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