Congressman Andrew Clyde is a combat veteran, small business owner, and a proud Georgian. After earning his commission from the University of Notre Dame, he served as an U.S. Navy officer for 28 years, which included three combat deployments to Kuwait and Iraq. After receiving an honorable discharge, Congressman Clyde made his home in Athens, Georgia and earned a master’s degree in Corporate Finance and Entrepreneurship from the University of Georgia. He established Clyde Armory in 1991 and grew the company into a nationwide firearms business which currently operates two brick-and-mortar locations in Georgia. Congressman Clyde was elected to the 117th Congress in November 2020 as the representative for Georgia’s Ninth Congressional District. He currently serves on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and the Homeland Security Committee. The Congressman and his wife, Jennifer, are residents of Jackson County.
As a former Navy Supply Officer and Aviation Logistics officer, I understand the multitude of challenges our men and women in uniform face each day on and off the battlefield.
Our great nation is undeniably indebted to the men and women who work and fight each day to ensure our country remains a beacon of democracy and freedom. However, we must acknowledge that our liberties and freedoms are constantly under attack and that we must always remain vigilant and prepared. China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea remain the greatest foreign threats to our national security on several fronts. Additionally, we must be prepared to face the threats closer to home and at our borders.
I am committed to ensuring our armed forces have the tools and resources they need to protect our nation from all the threats we face. I am also committed to ensuring the families of our uniformed men and women have access to proper support and resources required to endure the sacrifices their loved ones make each day.
In the last two decades, the growth and widespread use of the internet has fundamentally transformed the way in which we interact, work, and engage in education and hobbies. Like generations before us that saw widespread adoption of electricity and telephones, the Internet is now inextricably linked to our lives and has developed into essential infrastructure. The pandemic has made evident the breadth and width of the digital divide in our unserved and underserved rural communities. We desperately need to bridge this gap in order to help commerce thrive, help families communicate, and increase access to education.
I will work with my colleagues to remove regulatory barriers of entry for emerging wired and wireless broadband technologies and seek to improve the process for delivering broadband grant funding to our communities in the Ninth District and across Georgia. Additionally, I believe the Internet is infrastructure and we must ensure there is robust investment in rural broadband in any bipartisan infrastructure package developed by this Congress.
Small businesses are the primary drivers of economic activity in communities across the country, and as a small businessman by trade, I know that to be true in Georgia's 9th Congressional District. When it comes to business operations and the government, I believe that government should work to support all businesses and entrepreneurs by guaranteeing level playing fields on which to operate and compete freely on. Unfortunately, the government tends to make doing business harder than it should be, which I can personally attest to when the federal government attempted to seize nearly $1 million from my company a few years back. While I successfully fought the government's egregious overreach, there are unfortunately too many businesses that succumb to the bureaucratic red tape and threats from federal agents ultimately driving them out of business. That's wrong and the government should never thwart and close businesses, it should instead enable and support them.
That's why I plan to look for opportunities in Congress to right-size the federal government and re-align its operations within the bounds of the U.S. Constitution, as was intended by our nation's Founding Fathers. As a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, I will have a front row seat to examine the federal government's footprint to root out fraud, waste, and abuse. I wholeheartedly believe the government should work for the people, not against the people, and I am committed to ensuring just that while serving in Congress.
At a time when so many leaders are pushing anti-life policies, it is more important than ever that we take a stand for our nation’s innocent unborn. As I build out my pro-life agenda, I have developed two leading principles on which I will never waiver when it comes to protecting life.
First and foremost, I believe that not one taxpayer dollar should be allowed to fund abortion programs and services. The Hyde Amendment – a provision that blocks federal funds from being used for abortions – and other similar provisions are under attack as Democrats push their radical agenda. I am committed to opposing all legislation that weakens these long-standing bipartisan provisions.
Secondly, I believe that life begins at the moment of conception, and thus, abortions should be abolished entirely, except in the rare instances when the life of the mother is at risk. I recognize that our progress towards this goal will be slow and difficult, but I am committed to doing everything in my capacity as a member of Congress to protect the sanctity of life. Remember, our Declaration of Independence boldly proclaims, "We hold these truths to be self-evident... life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The first unalienable right stated was life.
Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to lay and collect taxes. Nowhere though does the Constitution say that the federal government can nickel and dime you, in fact, it states that " all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States." But unfortunately, the tax code as we know it today is far from being "uniform," as it is riddled with loopholes, carve outs, and credits that cater to wealthy special interest groups at the expense of all taxpayers. The American people deserve an equitable system of taxation that provides the means to "pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States," and no more. To achieve that, we must overhaul the current tax code and abolish the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) altogether.
That’s why I support the FairTax, a system of taxation that abolishes the IRS and replaces it with a one-time, inclusive, federal sales tax on new goods and services. The FairTax creates a level playing field by taxing Americans at the cash register the same and it ensures fairness through the prebate. The prebate essentially untaxes each household monthly, up to the poverty level, to ensure households can purchase necessities. In turn, the prebate ensures that those closest to the poverty level pay a lower overall rate while those earning more pay a higher rate. Bottom line, the FairTax is a bold solution and would make Tax Day each year another Spring day. Most importantly, the FairTax would allow American workers to keep more of their hard-earned paychecks and only pay taxes on what they spend.
As a combat veteran myself, I understand the sacrifices our nation’s warfighters have made in defense of our nation. We owe it to these brave men and women and their families to uphold the promises our country has made to them when they took their oath to serve. We must ensure that our veterans receive the quality care that they earned and deserve. In addition, we must work to eliminate barriers that impede veterans from accessing their education and employment benefits and promote opportunities for success outside of the military. I am committed to being a fierce advocate for those who have served our country in uniform.
The Founding Fathers enshrined the right to keep and bear arms in the Constitution because they understood the first step toward tyranny is disarming the citizenry. A brief glance through history will show that nearly every totalitarian and dictator rescinded their citizens’ ability to defend themselves before ultimately stripping them of their freedoms.
America is unique in that the Constitution empowers our citizens to defend themselves. Sadly, our Second Amendment rights have been slowly chipped away over the years through unconstitutional laws and undemocratic regulations.
I will always be a stalwart defender of the Second Amendment while serving in Congress. Accordingly, I will oppose all bills and efforts that seek to limit or restrict this right in any way, no matter the circumstances. Instead, I will work tirelessly to restore our Second Amendment rights, which includes eliminating excise taxes on firearms and ammunition, prohibiting “Sporting Use” tests to determine legality of a firearm, and ensuring no federal funds are used to establish a national firearm database, just to name a few efforts, all so that Americans can enjoy the right to bear arms now and in the future.
Andrew's career in the Navy began after he earned his commission as an officer from the University of Notre Dame. He then spent the next 28 years of his life in service to our country including three combat deployments to Kuwait and Iraq. During his service, he earned a Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, four Navy Commendation Medals, a Navy Achievement Medal, Global War On Terrorism Expeditionary Medal w/Marine Corps Combat Operations Insignia, Iraq Campaign Medal, Expert Rifleman Medal, Expert Pistol Shot Medal, and multiple other medals.
After completing his active military service, Andrew homesteaded in Athens and decided to pursue a master’s degree from UGA in Corporate Finance and Entrepreneurship. In 1991 he started a small firearms business called Clyde Armory. What started as a hobby business in his garage has grown into a nationwide company with two brick-and-mortar locations here in Georgia. As a veteran turned small business owner, Andrew was truly living the American dream.
The Second Amendment of our Constitution is the teeth in “We the People”, and it must never be compromised by the government. As a veteran and the proud owner of Clyde Armory, Andrew is a staunch supporter of our Second Amendment.
Andrew is proudly pro-life and believes life begins at conception and ends at natural death. If we cannot defend the lives of the unborn, then we have lost our way as a nation. As your Congressman, Andrew will always work to protect the lives of our nation's innocent unborn.
As a nation, we are overtaxed. If Americans are to truly be free, we must drastically decrease taxes and the size of the government those taxes fund. Andrew's tax plan would be simple:
1. Eliminate graduated taxes and implement a FairTax system [H.R.25]
2. Stop taxation on the production of goods [pass H.R. 25]
3. Dismantle the IRS [pass H.R. 25]
As a former Naval Officer with three combat tours in Iraq and Kuwait, Andrew has seen the sacrifices of the men and women who serve in our nation’s military firsthand. He will make it a top priority to ensure veterans receive the care the government promised them when they took their oath to protect this country.
Congress has the authority to govern within the 18 articles outlined in the U.S. Constitution. Federal departments or funding for projects that fall outside of those 18 articles, should be eliminated. The Department of Education must go. The Environmental Protection Agency must go. These functions should be left to the States, and you should keep more of your tax dollars.
Liberals and the "go-along-to-get-along" Republicans in Washington have kicked this can down the road for far too long. Border security is national security, and we need the wall along the southern border as an intigral part of national security. We must stop illegal immigration and illegal border crossings. A wall will also greatly reduce drug trafficking and fentanyl which is the number one killer of adults ages 18-45 in our country.
The Democrats have proven with their dangerous expansion of the IRS and weaponization of the FBI just how far they are willing to go in order to push their Big Government Socialist Agenda. We MUST take back the House this November to put an end to their radical government overreach and implement the Republican Commitment to America to put our nation back on the right track. This plan is based on four pillars:
1. An economy that is strong
2. A nation that is secure
3. A future based on freedom
4. A government that is accountable