District 25 - Meet your Candidates for South Carolina House of Representatives

Meet Democrat Wendell Jones and Republican Tim Kennedy, South Carolina House of Representatives District 25 candidates in the November general election. District 25 generally represents the area along Augusta Road of Pleasant Valley, Belle Meade, Mount Pleasant, and Donaldson. In this episode, each candidate has 10 minutes to introduce themselves to the voters. Your vote is so important! Please take a listen and share with your neighbors.

Links:

Wendell Jones

Tim Kennedy

Sample Ballot

Transcript

Katy Smith:
Hey, Simple Civics listeners, thanks so much for listening week after week. We are so glad to be a resource for you civically engaged citizens. If you would like to be a resource for us, I have three invitations for you. First, share this podcast with a friend who you know cares about our community. Second, rate and review us on Apple or Spotify, which helps more people find us. And third, feel free to make a donation to help us share this content. We are a nonprofit and your support really makes a difference. You can click donate in the descriptions or show notes for today's episode, or you can go to simplecivicsgreenvillecounty.org and click on the big green donate button. But just being a listener is the greatest gift you can give. So thank you, and here's today's show.

Katy Smith:
When you go to the polls on November 5th or in early voting, you have the chance to vote not just for the president. South Carolina voters will also choose their state, house, and senate members. These members of our legislature make important decisions about things such as the state budget, policies on education, health care, public safety, the judicial system, and much more. I'm Katie Smith with Greater Good Greenville, and on this episode of Simple Civics Greenville County, we feature interviews with your candidates for House of Representatives District 25, Democrat Wendell Jones and Republican Tim Kennedy. District 25 generally represents the area along Augusta Road of Pleasant Valley, Belle Meade, Mount Pleasant, and Donaldson. Here's how the interviews worked. All candidates received the same question at the time of their invitation to join us, and they were given 10 minutes for their interview. Candidates were allowed to bring along a companion, such as a campaign manager, family member, or friend, and to record our session themselves. There were no edits made to the interview. View. We've put links to the participating candidates' preferred internet presence on the episode page. First up is incumbent Wendell Jones. I'm so pleased to be here with Wendell Jones, who's running for re-election for House District 25. Thanks so much for being here, Wendell.

Wendell Jones:
Thank you so much for having me, Katie.

Katy Smith:
Tell us about yourself and why you are running.

Wendell Jones:
I am Wendell Jones, and I'm running for my second term as state representative for District 25. Why am I running? My classic answer, Katie, is that I can't unsee what I've seen.

Wendell Jones:
I see the struggle, but I also see the potential. And the possibilities of things. There's quite a few things that we can address with District 25. I think we have good leadership. I think we have getting greater engagement amongst the people right now.

Wendell Jones:
My campaign is still focused on education, jobs, housing. Those are my three pillars that I believe can bring the greatest amount of uplift. And so I'm working real hard to partner with existing businesses that are in the district, SCTAC, great relationship with Jody, pulling in SCWorks. We're going to do some job fairs pretty soon. My ultimate goal for the residents of District 25 is to raise our average household income. If we raise our average household income on a grassroots level, that's going to begin to solve a lot of our problems. So that's the grassroots agenda while at the same time working on policy that can make sure that we have greater access. I'm saying that word like a broken record these days, access, access, access. It's not just a word, it's the gateway to improving our lives and strengthening our communities. And so I want to make sure that I'm focusing on policy that gives our people and really people throughout the state greater access to our state's resources so that we can keep our heads above above water, first of all, but then also excel in life. And so I have a plan for that. And so that's why I'm running. I want to execute that plan.

Katy Smith:
Thank you. What do you believe are the biggest issues facing your constituents and what would you do about them if reelected?

Wendell Jones:
The overarching issue is affordability. And that's the cry throughout the state. And as I've traveled, it's really the cry throughout the nation. And as I alluded to earlier, I think I think I've simplified it to the point where those three pillars, education, jobs, and housing, begin to solve a lot of that. We have great institutions, great organizations here, great businesses, rather, here in the state, and we're recruiting even more.

Wendell Jones:
But many of our residents are not equipped, skilled for those jobs. Now, we have a great technical school system that's ready to prepare them. So I'm working to bridge that gap and make sure that our folks have access to those that education so they can be certified to get to those jobs that are paying a livable wage and above. And we have those. And so we begin to earn those dollars, have those better paying jobs. Then that could matriculate over into home ownership when those things work out we begin to stabilize communities and our people able to contribute more to our local economy right now many of our folks are underemployed and they're spending quite a bit of their earnings quite a bit of their monthly income on housing 50 60 in some cases 70 percent leaving very little for other things, but also it makes my district unattractive to investments, grocery stores, things of that sort. People need to see that we have discretionary income to support the retail businesses and things of that sort. And so that's my fundamental approach. In fact, raise the average household income. And we do have the means to do it. We're just connecting the dots, Katie, just connecting the dots. And then I think we're going to see a tremendous improvement in District 25.

Katy Smith:
Great. Thank you. What would you do in the first 30 days after are being sworn in.

Wendell Jones:
I'm chomping at the bits to refile some of my bills, but also have some new ones. And I've had a wonderful conversation with a group of teachers the other day, and they educated me on some things that our teachers really need. So I have a bill planned for them. We have some legislation that I think my buddies across the aisle may be a little bit more amenable to. I think the housing crisis is hard to turn away from right now. And if we're we don't address that, this wonderful South Carolina economy that we like to tout is making it more and more vulnerable, Katie. And so I'm talking to them in those terms. Like, if you want to maintain the momentum, we have to address housing. And there are ways to do that. And so I'm going to focus on that quite a bit. And that's what I was doing last year. And we've got some partnerships. We got some organizations that have aligned themselves with me to help me with some advocacy. And I think we're going to make a dent. So I am, as I said, I'm chomping at the bits to refile those bills and start advocating for districts and districts like mine. And ultimately, it's going to improve the state overall.

Katy Smith:
Thank you. We have a little bit more time. Is there anything else you'd like to share with listeners?

Wendell Jones:
Well, again, I'm running around championing this thing called access. Access is on the ballot, access to education, access to health care, access to economic mobility, access to housing and access is key because access.

Wendell Jones:
Allows us to fulfill our nation's promise to us, Katie. Our nation has promised us the opportunity, the unhindered opportunity for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. You can summarize that to say, you're not going to stand between me and access to those things. And we've got some things I think that hinder access to several different groups of people. That needs to be discussed. us. That needs to be made clear.

Wendell Jones:
Policies that reduce or restrict your ability to pursue your life's dream, your version, your personal version, Katie, yours is different from mine, but your version of the American dream, policy shouldn't stand in the way of that. And if everybody's afforded that opportunity, I may be a little Pollyanna with this, but can you imagine what we'd have? Can you imagine the kind of state we'd have if we thought of us as team South Carolina and move away from all of the tribalism, move away from all of the division and realize that if the entire team is afforded the opportunity, we're not talking about entitlement. It's just giving people things. No, I'm saying don't hinder opportunities. If the entire team is afforded opportunities, then the state wins. Not little groups and pockets of people. We have the ability through leadership, through visionary leadership, to improve our chances as a collective. We are Team South Carolina. And I'm going to keep saying that until hopefully one day we believe it, that everybody, that's, these are my brothers and sisters. We're trying to make the Palmetto State the best state it could possibly be. And we got to make sure that we don't put of policies in place that restrict any group from being able to pursue their best selves. And hopefully people will start listening.

Katy Smith:
Well, thank you so much for joining us today. And thank you so much for your willingness to continue to serve the people of your district and our state.

Wendell Jones:
Thank you so much for having me.

Katy Smith:
Next up is Tim Kennedy. I'm pleased to be joined today by Tim Kennedy, who is running as a Republican for House District 25. Thanks so much for joining us, Tim.

Tim Kennedy:
Thank you for having me today. day.

Katy Smith:
Tell us about yourself and why you're running for office.

Tim Kennedy:
So my name is Tim Kennedy and I'm running for state house for District 25. I'm married and I've been married for like 21 years. We have seven children and we lived in District 25 for about 11 years. I'm running for office because first of all, I don't feel like my values are being represented in my district. um and secondly i believe that as americans we have rights and privileges and we have, a lot of great freedoms that God has given to us. And it is our responsibility to defend those freedoms and to pass them on to the next generation. And I want to see those freedoms passed to my children. And that's why I'm running so that I can protect those freedoms to pass them on to the next group that they can defend them as well.

Katy Smith:
Thank you. What do you believe are the biggest issues facing your constituents? And what would you do about them if elected?

Tim Kennedy:
So I have three issues that I came up with. And the first issue is not necessarily something that's unique to District 25 alone. It's really something that the entire state has been dealing with. And that's simply unprecedented growth. And it's not that that's a bad problem. It's simply something that needs to be addressed. And we have, like in our district, we've got lots of neighborhoods going in. And there's lots of roads that are broken and the roads don't get paved again. And then we have expansion of utilities and water and gas and electric. And And those also have great burdens on them, and the burdens are only increasing. And it's just not fair that the people that already live in these subdivisions, the people that live in this district, the people that have lived in South Carolina for years, have to bear the burden of that being repaired and those expansions. And it's not fair.

Tim Kennedy:
It's just something that the state needs to address and encourage working with utilities and working with the Department of Transportation in order to get the roads paved and that kind of stuff. And I know road paving has been on everybody's radar because it's sometimes like a minefield. So, I mean, that is definitely something that the state needs to be working on. The second thing I have is revitalization. So we live in a district that we have some corridors right off of 85. In fact, they would be some of the first quarter corridors you would enter coming from Atlanta. And there's a lot of those places that really need some work and some revitalization. They just need new life breathed back into those areas. So those are not districts. That's not a place that the people that government needs to just legislate, hey, this is what we need to be doing. We're just going to do this. It's really a place where it's an opportunity, really, for legislators to get together with the people that live in those districts and the businesses of those districts and say, hey, as people of this district, what do you need? What would you support? I mean, do you need a grocery store here? Well, let's encourage the growth of a grocery store here. It's not that the government can put a grocery store, but encourage a grocery store to come in or whatever the situation may be, but definitely work with the residents and the businesses that are already there in order to get their feedback in order to improve the adoption of those things.

Tim Kennedy:
The third thing that I have is really poverty and education, and that is definitely something that our district struggles with. If you look at the census statistics, we have 22% of people of our district that live below the federal poverty line. That's nearly that's almost one out of four people. So when you go to the grocery store and you see four people, well, one of those people is probably living below poverty, if not more. That's significantly higher than the state average. And that's higher than the federal average as well. In fact, I look back, just like, what do other states experience? And it's higher than any other state that is on the top 10 list. And that's just, you know, that's our district. And approximately 35% of children in our district live under the poverty line. And, you know, that just shouldn't be.

Tim Kennedy:
It's simply one of those things like when you live under the poverty line, It encourages alcohol abuse and drug abuse and sex trafficking and gang violence and those kind of things, and we don't want those things in our district, and we need to just encourage people and help pull them out of that. Right there with poverty is education. And in some ways, maybe it's a partial driver.

Tim Kennedy:
But one of the groups with the highest level of poverty in general is teens that have dropped out of high school and they've never completed high school and they have no high school education.

Tim Kennedy:
And that just brings us to high school graduation rate of District 25. It's like 78%, which is also, that's lower than the state, that's lower than federal averages. So barely 17% of the district has a bachelor's degree or anything like that, or college education, which is almost half of what the federal rate is. So I know that these are not necessarily things that the government can come in and say, hey, here's the solution and we're just going to throw money at it or we're going to do these things and that's going to solve the problem. I know it's not one of those kind of problems. I mean.

Tim Kennedy:
Throwing money at it. And we're not talking about throwing money and and just handing out money and handing out college degrees. And that's going to make the problem going to go away. That's not what I'm saying. But it is something that we need to be aware of. It is something that our state representatives need to take a look at and say, hey, look, I mean, there's districts. I'm sure there's other districts that are like this across South Carolina. And we need to be looking at this and we need to address that and build solutions with the people because you can't just go in and say, if you do this, it's magically fixed and we're going to make you do this. People have to choose to come out of these things and they have to be given options. And that's what the government can give them. They can give them options and opportunities to come out of their, the cycle that we so often find ourselves in. And they can just simply promote economic growth through lower taxes and encourage business startups and that kind of stuff in order to provide opportunities for people to have gainful employment.

Katy Smith:
Thank you. What would you do in the first 30 days after being sworn in if elected?

Tim Kennedy:
So I kind of think that was a funny question. And the reason I think it's funny is because I'm like, well, the first thing I would do is probably start working on those things that we just talked about. out. So, um, that was, that was really what I was thinking. I mean, some of those problems, those are not things that will be solved overnight and they're not really going to be solved. Um, just by one person, it's going to take a lot of people to be involved in order to overcome some of these, especially if you have to work with local governments, like a county government or things like that. Um, but really that's what I would do. And I also want to get busy doing the things that I've listed things on my website that I want to be involved in and, and things that I hold as valuable. And I want to be involved in specifically defending those kind of things.

Katy Smith:
Thank you. We have a little bit more time. Is there anything else you'd like to share with listeners?

Tim Kennedy:
I really just want to encourage people that they would take a look at our website, which is votekennedy.us, and that they would get out and vote when it comes November, and they would do their civic duty and be involved in their government. Thank you.

Katy Smith:
Well, thank you so much for being willing to serve, and thank you so much for joining us today.

Tim Kennedy:
Thank you.

Catherine Puckett:
Simple Civics: Greenville County is a project of Greater Good Greenville. Greater Good Greenville was catalyzed by the merger of the Nonprofit Alliance and the Greenville Partnership for Philanthropy. You can learn more on our website at greatergoodgreenville.org.