Robert Foster in 2019 MS Governor's race

On Families & Children: I made a vow to my wife to not be alone with another woman

"I'm a married man and I made a vow to my wife, and part of the agreement that we've also made throughout our marriage is that we would not be alone with someone of the opposite sex throughout our marriage, and that is a vow that I have with my wife," he said, adding that he puts it above "anyone else's feelings, including yours."

On Families & Children: Refused ride-along with lone female reporter

The issue in question began when Mississippi Today reporter Larrison Campbell, who had broken the story of state Rep. Robert Foster's entry into the gubernatorial race, requested to shadow Foster on a 15-hour campaign trip. Foster's campaign director, Colton Robison, declined the request because Campbell is a woman. "Perception is everything. We are so close to the primary. If (trackers) were to get a picture and they put a mailer out, we wouldn't have time to dispute it. And that's why we have to be careful," Robinson said.

Robinson suggested that Campbell bring a male colleague with her, an unreasonable request that would strain a local paper such as Mississippi Today. Needless to say, the ride-along didn't happen. After Campbell wrote a story about the incident, it blew up into a national affair

On Crime: Help nonviolent offenders; often a better solution

On Environment: Stand with farmers; fight EPA over-regulation

On Immigration: Liberal governors ignore federal immigration law

On Technology: Resist flashy projects, but must do critical infrastructure

As a result, a special session was needed this summer to address these deferments in maintenance, a painful mistake that has put our economy and safety at risk. We cannot do that again.

While investing in our future infrastructure is a must, we need to resist adding flashy projects, and turn our focus to our most critical needs. It's a hard decision at times, but, as with any business, you must be able to manage your vital assets so you are prepared when the times inevitably get tough.

That's why infrastructure funding must be a focal point of our future budget talks. If we do not look into restructuring how we fund infrastructure, we're destined to find ourselves in the same predicament again.

On Education: Make pay raise for teachers a priority in Jackson

Foster and Waller said the Legislature's recent $1,500 pay raise for teachers was insufficient. Teachers should get a raise every year until their salaries match the southeast average, they concurred. "It has not been a priority of our leadership down (in Jackson) at all," Foster said of teacher pay.

On Government Reform: Power corrupts all men; long-time candidates owe many favors

Missing from the debate stage was the Republican race's best-known candidate, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves. Foster did criticize Reeves. "If our third opponent was here tonight, instead of being back home on the porch," Foster said, "I would like to ask (him): How many favors does he have? How many promises has he made, in order to build up a $7 million campaign fund?"

On Principles & Values: Conservative outsider; aligned with Trump on social media

Waller, meanwhile, has long avoided partisan politics because of his time on the Mississippi Supreme Court. He left the court in January. After announcing his candidacy last month, he's sought to portray himself as a steady, more traditional Republican candidate. He's said he's not interested in courting Trump and has a better chance of beating Democrat Jim Hood, the current attorney general, in the November election. Waller's late father served as governor from 1972 to 1976.

On Health Care: Work with federal government to expand Medicaid in MS

Both said Mississippi should consider some sort of Medicaid expansion, possibly seeking permission from the federal government to let people buy coverage. Medicaid provides health insurance coverage for the needy, aged, blind and disabled, and expenses are paid by the federal and state governments. Nearly 721,000 people are enrolled in Medicaid in Mississippi.

Under the federal health law that then- Pres. Barack Obama signed in 2010, states have the option of expanding Medicaid to the working poor. Mississippi Republican leaders have declined to do so, citing concerns that the federal government might not honor its promise to pay for the expansion.

On Tax Reform: Eliminate Mississippi's personal income tax

Foster said Mississippi should eliminate its personal income tax and increase the gasoline tax to help pay for infrastructure. "Everybody needs to pay as they go," he said.

On Education: Too much emphasis on trying to send every kid to college

In discussing education, both Waller and Foster said they would commit to a yearly teacher pay raise to reach the southeastern average. At the same time, Foster said while Colleges and Universities do need to be funded appropriately, there needs to be a greater focus on vo-tech training. "I think the biggest issue is that we have put way too much emphasis on trying to send every kid to college," said Foster. "The vast majority of jobs and good paying jobs always have been and always will be career skilled tech positions. We need to be focused on putting the money into vo-tech and career tech training."

On Health Care: Everyone has access to healthcare; issue is affordability

Waller mentioned the Medicaid plans in Arkansas, Utah, and Indiana specifically using something similar to Vice President Mike Pence's Indiana Medicaid reform. "We have 31 rural hospitals on the danger list right now and most of it can be attributed to the uncompensated care that they are forced to give," said Waller. "So yes, we have to look at it. It is a right to life question and it has to be accessible."

On Technology: Gas tax instead of income tax, for infrastructure

"We have got to get away from a personal income tax," said Foster. We are a state with a lot of people living in poverty that are not paying a personal income tax. If we ever want to catch up on our infrastructure needs we are going to have to move to a flat tax system that everybody that uses it helps to pitch in. The people that are driving through as tourists, the people that are getting paid cash for their business on the side, the people that are selling drugs on the street corner are even going to have to help pitch in to maintain the infrastructure that they are using."

On Health Care: Consider some form of Medicaid expansion

The Affordable Care Act, often called "ObamaCare," offers significant federal funding for such an expansion of Medicaid eligibility standards. Some states, however, have won permission to expand while imposing certain requirements, including work requirements.

On Civil Rights: Being discriminated against is part of our free society

A: I actually feel discriminated against a lot as a conservative. I feel discriminated against a lot as a Christian in our society today, and attacked a lot for my beliefs. But I think people have the right to free speech. I don't want to quell somebody's free speech because I don't believe in what I believe. We have groups of people out there trying to not even allow the other side to have a say.

[Race-based discrimination is] not what I was talking about in that tweet. If you discriminate against somebody because of their skin color or something of that nature, that is wrong, and everybody would agree that that is wrong.

On Civil Rights: Denying services to gays different than denying to blacks

A: They could have simply called and just been upfront with them about (being a gay couple). Just call when you know it's something out of the ordinary and be upfront with the person, and then go do business with the people you want to do business with.

Q: Would you say that to an interracial couple?

A: I think that's completely different situation. I just do, to me. It is not an issue, I think. I think race is completely different than getting somebody involved in a religious ceremony that goes against their core beliefs.

Q: Historically, Christians in the South believed God "made the races separate."

A: Honestly, I just don't see that in my views as a Christian. I haven't gotten that from the Bible.

On Corporations: Cut the franchise tax; it's a regressive tax on businesses

A: I'm 100 percent favor of cutting the franchise tax. I helped push that through the House. The franchise tax is a very regressive tax on companies. Similarly, you can see we had a warehousing inventory tax on the books some years ago, and right before I came into the Legislature, they cut that tax. My plan is to completely reform all of our tax policies in our state. We've got to get away from regressive taxes that attack businesses and personal income before people decide how they want to spend their money. It's bad economics to take somebody's money before they decide how they're going to spend it. We've got to look at getting to more excise-sales taxes. Then they get to decide how they want to spend their money.

On Corporations: Let businesses deny service to gays for religious reasons

[I brought up this issue] during the whole House Bill 1523 time period. There is an attack upon Christians and people in this nation that have a belief that they should not be a part of celebrating something that they think is a sinful act, and there's a difference between selling somebody a wedding cake from your bakery, and then asking you to make a wedding cake personalized for a ceremony that you believe you don't want to be a part of for religious reasons.

On Crime: Police officers don't shoot at people unless they need to

On Crime: People have to respect police officers and answer questions

A: I'm not familiar with there being an issue with officer-involved shootings.

Q: You are not aware of any circumstance where a police officer has unjustly killed someone?

A: I'm not aware of any now. I'm not saying this never happened. If it has, then I would want our district attorney and people to investigate that case, and hold anyone accountable that's abused their power or done something. People have got to learn that they've got to respect these officers and give them the attention that they deserve when they're asking them questions and not be so combative towards them. If you're breaking the law, you're going to have to answer for it. And if you're not, then you have nothing to hide, and you shouldn't have a problem with just answering the questions.

On Education: No free community college; focus on vo-tech

A: I don't agree with that. What we need to be doing is putting vo-tech and career tech in high schools where we're already spending a tremendous amount of money. Kids need to have options while they're in high school--while they're fully mature enough to learn skills. They may not know what they want to do for a living, yet, but that's when they need to be exploring options. I mean going to computer classes and learning to program, going to mechanic classes and welding, plumbing, electrical--whatever it is. They need to be learning different trades and skills so that when they figure out what they want to do, hopefully by the time they graduate, they will have had enough course credits that they can go get a job when they graduate.

On Free Trade: Support tariffs on China; assist farmers when hurt by them

A: I have to support our president and what's he trying to accomplish. The Chinese have been taking advantage of us and other countries for a long time on trade deals, and it has been bleeding our country of all of our manufacturing, of a lot of our industry. He is attempting to force them to the table to renegotiate those deals. It has to be done, because if not, our entire country continues to decline economically otherwise, and it's a tough situation to be in. It's not easy.

Q: Do you support the administration's bailouts for farmers caught in the trade war?

A: We're going to have to take care of our farmers. We have to have agriculture. We're going to have to make sure that they're taken care of until we're able to get past this.

On Health Care: Reform Medicaid to cover 300,000 more Mississippians

A: You can use the word expansion, or you can use the word reform. I use the word reform because there's a big difference to me between reforming Medicaid and expanding it and just bringing more people onto the government payroll for health care. I think that's bad policy. I think it encourages dependency. It discourages people from wanting to take the step of working and helping pitch in for what they get back. I want to incentivize people to continue to work, to have skin in the game, to help pay in something to help cover, so the State doesn't have to drain our budget to help cover their insurance.

On Health Care: ObamaCare is bad policy, but let's get Mississippi our share

We're sticking our head in the sand because we don't like the policy of ObamaCare. I think it's bad policy. The ACA is bad policy that had a lot of flaws, but it is the law of the land, and Mississippi is going to have to do what's in our best interest until that law is changed in Washington. We would be a lot better off if Washington block-granted money back to the states in education and health care so we can do what we think is best for our state because every state is not the same. What works for us doesn't necessarily work for New York or Texas or Tennessee.

On Tax Reform: Sales taxes are best; poor pay more but are taken care of

A: Well, you could make that argument. However, when the economy starts to do better--which I know it will because economically it will unleash our economy on a different level--then the poor will be taken care of. You can argue that it will affect them more because they'll have to pay a little bit higher sales tax, but they're also getting their money to buy their groceries from the government anyway, so it's kind of a moot argument to me to say that it's going to hurt them when we're taking care of them anymore. We have to have a strong economy in order to afford to take care of them. And so, if we want to make everybody's lives better, we have to get a tax system that makes the economy grow, because when you do that then everybody benefits.

On Health Care: Expand Medicaid with contribution of monthly fee

Foster said he would support a version of expansion similar to Indiana's, where participants would be required to pay into savings accounts to help cover the bill and lower the state's costs for the program. That could appease central Republican concerns about expansion, which usually revolve around how the state will pay its share of the cost. Some states have also pushed for work requirements for those on Medicaid, a tweak Foster said he would consider.

On Abortion: Protect all innocent life, including unborn children

On Corporations: A tax on business means a tax on job creation

On Crime: Reduce recidivism by differentiating non-violent offenders

A joint effort between the legislature, law enforcement, and our courts could spell a promising future for the countless communities and individuals who have become entrapped in the endless cycle of imprisonment and poverty. Common sense criminal justice reform that differentiates between non-violent offenders who society is inconvenienced by compared to violent criminals, who society is scared of, must be implemented. In many cases helping a non-violent offender try and turn their life around is a better long-term economic solution than years of costly incarceration.

On Drugs: We can't punish someone out of addiction

We can't punish someone out of addiction. We must lead the effort of penalizing drug traffickers and placing non-violent addicts on the road to wellness. These non-violent offenders need a path back into society where they can once again be economically self-sufficient citizens by investing in mental health programs rather than more jail cells.

We must look at all scientifically proven and medically beneficial options for pain management. Opioids are not always the best solution, and we must bring law enforcement, the medical community, and all other stakeholders to the table to have a serious conversation about this issue and how we can implement common-sense policies to allow for safer alternatives.

On Education: School choice has its place, but we must be very careful

As a public school graduate and parent, I believe we need to better support the education profession with competitive salaries, opportunities for growth, and reduce the testing burden so our teachers can do what they do best--teach.

Every child and school district is unique, and this must be taken into consideration when developing policies--one size does not fit all. The quality of education a child receives is far more important than which building they receive it in. Charter schools and school choice have their place in certain districts and in certain situations, but we must be very careful that our policies do not unintentionally hurt the communities that have invested so much into their already successful public schools.

On Government Reform: Enact sunset legislation; roll back rules and regulations

On Gun Control: Second amendment is final check & balance in Constitution

On Health Care: Reform our monopolistic Certificate of Need laws

A Healthier Mississippi
• Allow Mississippians and providers to be more in-control of healthcare decisions, rather than government bureaucrats.
• Free the healthcare market by repealing and reforming our out-of-date, monopolistic Certificate of Need laws (C.O.N.).
• Reform and restructure our Medicaid system to prevent hard-working Mississippians from being forced to go to the emergency room as their only alternative to care.

On Immigration: No sanctuary: report illegal criminals

On Tax Reform: Excise and sales tax, rather than income and property tax

On Education: Allow autonomy for school districts to experiment

On Civil Rights: 2015: Never heard anyone being offended by our state flag

Blaming Dylann Roof's massacre of worshipers for disdain for the Confederate battle emblem in the state flag is a common talking point today among the flag's supporters. But many Mississippians expressed discomfort with the state flag's canton well before 2015. In 2001, flag critics led an effort to change the flag with a referendum, with a focus on improving the state's business climate and reputation to outsiders rather than what it represents, that ultimately failed among race lines.

Today, many white Mississippians who previously supported the state flag are changing their minds based on the racist legacies of slavery & the Civil War.

On Drugs: Full-on prohibition of drugs does not work

On Education: Why build duplicate private schools and public schools?

"On one hand, it is a free market principle for parents to have the choice," Foster wrote in a comment. "On the other, it is a duplication of infrastructure costs to build more buildings and the government always follows the money so it is not a question of if but when they will follow with rules and regs into private schools. I'm torn over this issue and still listening to this very active debate to try and find some balance."