John Washington III Calls Georgia's Child Support System 'a Racket,' Says Fatherhood Should Not Turn on a Marriage License
Presidential candidate John Washington III said Georgia's child support system is 'a racket' and a case of government overreach, arguing that a father who can be legally required to pay support should not have to complete a separate legitimation process before he can seek enforceable custody or visitation rights to his own child.
John Washington III, the San Antonio-based candidate for president in 2028, took aim at Georgia's child support system on Sunday, calling it "a racket" and "government overreach, plain and simple." Writing about research he said he had done into Georgia's child support laws, Washington said what he found was "absolutely ridiculous": under Georgia law, a man who has a child with a woman he is not married to can be legally required to pay child support, but that obligation does not automatically give him the legal right to custody or visitation with his own child.
Even signing the birth certificate does not close that gap, Washington wrote, and neither does DNA proof or paying support: a father in that position generally must go through another legal process, called legitimation, before he can seek enforceable custody or visitation rights. "The government can recognize you as a father when it's time to collect child support, but when it comes to having legal rights to raise your own child, suddenly you're required to go through another government process," he wrote. "I call that a racket."
Washington was explicit that his argument is not against supporting children financially. "I'm not saying fathers shouldn't financially support their children," he wrote. "I'm saying that if the government can legally establish that a man is the father for financial obligations, then why should that same father have to jump through additional legal hoops just to establish his standing to seek parenting rights?" His summary of the principle came in capital letters: "Fatherhood should not be determined by a marriage license."
He framed the position as one about both parents, not against mothers: the point, he wrote, is recognizing the importance of both parents in a child's life and protecting responsible fathers from unnecessary legal barriers. Courts, he added, keep their responsibility to protect children from abuse and dangerous situations — but simply being unmarried should not automatically put a father at a legal disadvantage. Georgia, Washington said, is one example of why the laws state governments have created across the country need examining, arguing that government has become so involved in personal and family life that people are forced to navigate expensive legal processes to secure their own rights.
