Church hosts election forum featuring all races involving Sumter
Trinity Missionary Baptist Church held a candidate forum Tuesday, Oct. 29, which featured every race prevalent to Sumter, ranging from the U.S. House of Representatives to Sumter City Council.
All candidates in Sumter's elections were invited, including candidates who are running unopposed.
The following is a summary of each candidate's response in alphabetical order and divided by the position they are running for.
U.S. House of Representatives, District 6
Duke Buckner
Buckner is the Republican nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives, District 6 seat. He is a graduate of South Carolina State University, a former public school teacher and creator of a weekly newspaper. Buckner is also an attorney, and he has been practicing law in South Carolina for the past 12 years. He has served on Walterboro City Council.
"We deserve better representation than we've gotten over the last 30, going on 32 years," Buckner said. "We are the poorest congressional district in South Carolina, and in 2022, we were the sixth-poorest congressional district in the country out of 435 districts, so only five were more poor than us."
James Clyburn, Democratic nominee, was not present at the forum.
Gregg Dixon, United Citizens nominee, was not present at the forum.
Joseph Oddo
Oddo is the Alliance Party nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives, District 6 position. According to a survey Oddo filled out on Ballotpedia this year, he is a mergers and acquisition advisor and a political advisor who has spent more than 20 years in sales/lead management and business development.
"We have to pay attention to the fact that we're leaving this dark cloud over our future generations. The deficit is so out of hand, but neither party will pay attention to it, and then here we're talking about poverty, we're talking about better outcomes in health care - the gerrymandering is causing that, and if we allow that to happen in our own back yard, it ain't gonna get fixed in the rest of the country either," Oddo said.
Michael Simpson
Simpson is the Libertarian Party nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives, District 6 position. He is a retired U.S. Navy veteran and was in the Navy for more than 24 years. He defines himself as a "husband, father and friend."
"My legacy that I want to leave, elected or not elected, is I want to be a good husband, a good father and a good friend," Simpson said. "That comes down to why [he wants to hold office], it's to be the best version of ourselves possible, dealing with the situations as best as we can as human beings - which we all are here."
S.C. Senate District 36
Kevin Johnson
Democratic nominee Johnson is running for reelection. He has served 12 years on Manning's school board, six years on Manning's city council and served 11 years as mayor of Manning. Johnson also served one term in the S.C. House and has spent 12 years in the S.C. Senate.
"We're already gonna have one brand-new senator representing Sumter, and I couldn't walk away from that and have two brand-new senators, so I'm one of the senior members of South Carolina Senate - everything in the Senate is pretty much based on seniority, and I don't want to walk away from that," Johnson said about why he wants to hold office.
Jeff Zell, Republican nominee, was not present at the forum.
Sumter County Council District 5
Vivian Fleming McGhaney
McGhaney is the current Sumter County Council District 5 representative, and she is seeking reelection. The Democratic nominee was first elected in 2002 and has continued to serve since. She has served as vice chair of county council and has served several terms as the chair.
"That's the least that we can do is ask the church to help us pray: one mind, one voice, one purpose to try to save our children, to try to reduce the crime," McGhaney said about ending gun violence in Sumter. "One at a time, one community at a time - we have to do it, we cannot not do it, we have to do it."
Shery White, Republican nominee, was not present at the forum.
Sumter County Council District 7
Tasha Gardner-Greene
Gardner-Greene is the Democratic nominee vying for the current seat of County Councilman Eugene Baten, who is not running for reelection. She described herself as "a servant" who has been serving the community since she was 12 years old.
"I want to serve in a bigger capacity. I serve now," Gardner-Greene said. "When I need stuff done, I call the pastor, I call the council person, or I call to whatever agency I need to call to get things done, and I do that on a regular basis, but I'm tired of calling people. I want to be the person that makes that call and makes it happen."
Michael Leviner, Republican nominee, was not present at the forum.
City Council Ward 4
Scott Burkett was not present at the forum.
Jimmy Davis was not present at the forum.
Rebecca Lynn Kennedy
Kennedy has been a Sumter resident her whole life. She was employed by the City of Sumter in an administrative position for 17 years. Kennedy is the owner of Carnivore Butcher and Bottle and said she has been involved in local government since she was 15.
"What we need to do is start from the bottom, know our neighbors, know who we can count on, and let me tell you, if something happens in your neighborhood, somebody knows: They know who did it, why they did it and why it happened," Kennedy said about implementing neighborhood watch programs to decrease crime.
Lucy Mahon
Mahon is a home health worker who has been serving Sumter since 2019. She was born in Columbia but visited her grandparents who were Sumter residents often as a child. She ran for state Senate earlier in 2024.
"At my core, why I'm running is because of who I am, and I'm a protector, and y'all need protecting," Mahon said. "You need to elect people who are going to protect your interests, your community and the reason why you put them in office: to protect you, the citizens, because what is yours will never be more important than what is mine."
Gene Weston
Weston was born and raised in Sumter and has been back in the city for 30 years. He is the business owner of Burgess-Brogdon Building Supply. He said he has worked with Mayor Pro Tempore the Rev. James Blassingame, Mayor David Merchant and Chairwoman of Sumter School District Board of Trustees Bonnie Disney.
"We need more police officers," Weston said about crime in Sumter. "We've got - I understand from the former Ward 4 councilman - we have a budget for 122 uniformed police officers in the city of Sumter - not the county, the city [...] we have 95; that's a big difference between 122 and 95."
Sumter mayor
Travon Adams
Adams is a combat veteran whose family has been in Sumter County for generations. He has a political science degree from the University of South Carolina in Columbia and previously worked for Bernie Sanders.
"I really like supporting people in their social safety that we consider are important and that we want to support, so my plan is to support teachers, firefighters, police officers, and I want to create a robust housing program that has rent caps in order to give people a break in rent, which is astronomical these days," Adams said.
Reginald Evans
Evans was born and raised in Sumter and is a Marine Corps veteran. He worked for the National Guard for about 12 years. He ran for the Sumter City Council Ward 1 race and Sumter School District Board of Trustees District 9 race in 2022.
"Crime is created through poverty; you've got to solve poverty before you solve crime [ ] come Jan. 1, I'll have a town hall meeting and a four-point plan we will implement that will reduce crime by December or I will not seek reelection," Evans said about decreasing crime in Sumter.
Foxy Rae Campbell
Campbell is a real estate agent in Sumter who ran for mayor once before in 2020 and got the third-highest number of votes. She has lived in Sumter for more than 40 years and is the broker in charge of BrownstoneHunt Real Estate.
"The reason why I'm running to be mayor is because the people's voice has not been heard, and my agenda is the people's agenda, and as mayor over the entire city, all six wards, I feel like I have what it takes to make sure that whatever your agenda is, we can put it on the dock, and if it benefits all of Sumter, it can possibly get done," Campbell said.
David Merchant
Merchant was elected Sumter's mayor in 2020. He has four children who have gone through Sumter School District, and before becoming mayor, Merchant served two terms on city council.
"I have a senior in college, a 10th-grader at Sumter High, a seventh-grader and a freshman at The Citadel, and so that's my why. I want them to move back to Sumter," Merchant said. "We need to continue to grow this community [ ] we've got things to do all the way from the North Main Corridor, the overhead bridge to Manning Avenue."
Sumter School District Board of Trustees, Area 1
Brian Alston
Alston was a member of the school board 2018-22 and was the board's Policy Committee chairman for two years at a time when it supported the development of the district's strategic plan with administration, according to former Item reporting.
"It's [running for Area 1 is] about putting students, staff and communities first, and I say that genuinely because I was once one of those students. I come from the big city of Rembert, South Carolina, and there's not a lot of people that we see as our elected officials, but in 2018, that community made me the youngest elected member of the Sumter school board because they believed in me. That was the village that poured into me, that raised me."
Daniel Palumbo, Sumter School Board Area 1 incumbent, was not present at the forum.
Sumter School Board Area 2
Neither candidate, incumbent Brittany English nor challenger Chris Patten, attended the forum.
Sumter School District Board of Trustees, Area 7
Gloria Lee
Lee is running unopposed for the seat on the school board currently occupied by Shery White. Lee won the seat on the school board representing the former Area 6 after being unopposed in 2020. When running for Area 7 in 2022, the reentry and rehabilitative services program coordinator at Lee Correctional Institution lost to White.
"We say we want to build new schools; we've got to get the schools that we have right now taken care of: fill them with teachers with the pay and making sure our students are getting the best help and best assistance," Lee said. "Teachers need to be in the schools, and we don't have the teachers in the schools we're supposed to have."
Sumter School Board Area 9
Bonnie Disney
Disney worked as a schoolteacher for 22 years and taught English in Sumter for 13 years. She is the current chairperson of the board of trustees, holds the Area 9 seat and is also the chair of the board's Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Committee.
"Keep this school board strong, guys," Disney said about the school system already being "great" but needing a "push over the edge." "We can make Sumter School District a place where the military want to come with their children. We can do that, but we need your help."
Desaray Ross
Ross is a Realtor with EXP Realty and has three children within the district. In 2022, Ross ran for Sumter School Board Area 1 but dropped out. She is running against Area 9 incumbent and Chair Bonnie Disney.
"There's not a lot of programs out there for our kids. Our kids are bored, and if there are programs, they're not in the schools or they're not being made known to the parents and the students that need to know about them, and I feel as though we need that for our children. If we want to see our kids succeed in life, we need to do more in order to help them succeed."