By Andrian Putra
Johns Creek, October 9, 2026 — Two Chinese American women, both mothers and both in medicine, faced off Thursday night in a debate for Georgia House District 50 that turned testy over taxes, public safety, immigration and transgender athletes.
Democratic state Rep. Michelle Au, seeking a third term in the House, debated Republican challenger Azure Duan before a mostly Chinese American audience in Johns Creek. It was the third debate between the two.
The moderator opened by noting the significance of the matchup. He said the community’s biggest political weakness has been that many Chinese Americans either don’t care about politics or care but stay on the sidelines.
Two paths to the race
Au, a board-certified anesthesiologist at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta, grew up in the New York area and trained at Columbia University, where she earned her medical degree and a master’s in public health. She was elected to the state Senate in 2020, becoming the first Chinese American to serve in that chamber. After redistricting she won House District 50 in 2022 and again in 2024. She remains the only Chinese American in the General Assembly and was the inaugural chair of the legislature’s Asian American Pacific Islander caucus.
Duan was born in China and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Minnesota. She worked as a software engineer before turning to medicine and opening a clinic. She and her family moved to Johns Creek in 2009 for its schools. She has served on city community boards and helped lead the city’s Lunar New Year celebration for four years.
“Now I’m an empty nester,” Duan said, explaining that with her children graduated from Northview High School, she wants to devote more time to the community.
Au pushed back on Duan’s framing that Asian Americans are only now “waking up” to politics. “We have been involved,” she said. “We have been active.”
Taxes and affordability
Duan made cutting taxes her top priority, promising to “keep more money in your pocket.” She accused Au of voting against property tax relief, including House Bill 1116, which would have capped assessment increases and raised the homestead exemption.
Au called HB 1116 an election-year bill that was unconstitutional because a statewide homestead exemption can’t be passed as a general bill. She said the income tax cut Duan accused her of opposing actually passed 171-0.
Au argued that property taxes fund the schools and police that draw families to Johns Creek. She said eliminating them is “actually a very good way to defund the police.”
Duan said she never proposed eliminating property taxes. She said she would study cuts carefully and would not rule out eventually ending the state income tax.
On affordability, Au called for more housing supply, targeted subsidies such as extended Affordable Care Act premium credits, and less red tape. Duan credited Republican leadership for Georgia’s business climate and said job growth is the path to affordability.
Schools and health care
Au said she wants to contain rising health insurance costs for teachers, modernize the state’s decades-old school funding formula and raise teacher pay. She opposes vouchers, saying they “drain money” from public schools.
Duan supports vouchers. “That money need to go with the child,” she said. She also proposed cutting administrative positions to fund teacher raises and criticized Au’s vote against a statewide classroom cellphone ban.
Au said she agrees phones shouldn’t be out in class but that local schools, including her children’s, already ban them. She called a state mandate “a little bit too much of a big government for me.”
On health care, Au pressed for Medicaid expansion, noting that 40 states and the District of Columbia have adopted it. Duan focused on mental health, saying parents, schools and health workers must work together and that prevention is key.
On vaccines, Duan said parents who decline them for religious or other reasons should be respected. Au said state health recommendations aren’t mandates and that the larger task is explaining why the measles vaccine is safe and effective.
Crime and guns
Duan pledged to back police, get tough on violent crime and oppose legalizing marijuana and casino gambling. She accused Au of voting against measures to bar local governments from defunding police.
Au rejected the claim, citing her work with Johns Creek police. She said any serious talk about crime must include gun violence. She pointed to her safe-storage tax credit bill, which twice passed the House nearly unanimously, and her support for universal background checks and a three-day waiting period.
She cited the 2021 Atlanta-area spa shootings, in which a gunman bought a gun the same day he killed eight people, six of them Asian women.
Duan agreed that guns should be stored safely away from children but said stolen guns point to the need for tougher crime enforcement and protecting law-abiding gun owners.
Immigration and voting
The sharpest exchanges came over immigration. Au said immigration enforcement belongs to the federal government. She warned that local cooperation with ICE spreads fear even among legal residents and citizens.
“Imagine you being afraid to go interface with the Johns Creek Police Department,” she said.
Duan said she supports tracking and detaining only immigrants with criminal records and drew a clear line between legal and illegal immigration. She faulted Au’s vote against House Resolution 780, which stated that only citizens can vote in Georgia.
Au said that is already in the state constitution and called the resolution “a ludicrous waste of our time.”
Transgender athletes
The crowd grew loud during a question on transgender students in sports. Au said the issue was largely settled in 2022 when lawmakers gave the Georgia High School Association authority to decide. She accused Republicans of “punching down on children” to win votes.
Duan defended a law passed last year barring athletes from competing in sports that don’t match their sex at birth. She suggested a mixed category for students who don’t fit either one.
Common ground
Asked by high school students how young people can get involved, both candidates offered help. Au promoted her office’s student fellowship program. Duan offered to connect students with lawmakers. “I agree with my opponent this time,” she said. “It’s very rare.”
Asked to say something kind about each other, Au praised Duan for running but said it was “perplexing” to challenge the legislature’s only Chinese American. Duan thanked Au for her six years of service.
In closing, Au described the race as a job interview and pointed to her medical expertise and bipartisan record. Duan repeated her priorities: tax cuts, public safety, quality schools with parental choice, and support for small businesses.
