Sumter Item's election forum features Ward 4 and mayoral candidates

The Sumter Item held two election forums on the evening of Wednesday, Oct. 23, one for those vying for a spot on Sumter City Council's Ward 4 seat and one for candidates running to be Sumter's next mayor.

The forums had full attendance by candidates, and all nine candidates were given 90 seconds to answer questions and two minutes to make their closing remarks.

The full videos of the forums are available for free via The Item's Facebook page. Search for The Sumter Item on Facebook.

Below is a brief summary of each candidate's responses.

Ward 4

Scott Burkett

Burkett is a Sumter native and a graduate of the College of Charleston. He has been a local Realtor for 15 years.

"That's a big thing for me is that we've got to fix the crime. Especially as a Realtor, I mean, you don't want people leaving your town because they don't feel safe, and that's a huge concern of people right now is that they don't feel safe," Burkett said. "Big believer in work smarter, not harder, use your common sense on how we're using tax money and everything else that could be done."

Jimmy Davis

Davis is the owner of Air Solutions Heating and Cooling in downtown Sumter. He has lived in Sumter his whole life. He has two young children.

"What drives me to Sumter is my family. Family's my No. 1 thing, my No. 1 priority," Davis said. "Both parents are here, so my goal is to make sure that my children want to stay in Sumter, and it's hard to do that when you don't take initiative to make Sumter a place where your children want to stay, so it's important to me to make sure that I have my hand in Sumter."

Lynn Kennedy

Kennedy was born and raised in Sumter. She was employed by the City of Sumter in an administrative position for 17 years. Kennedy is the owner of Carnivore Butcher and Bottle.

"People are reluctant to come out into groups and express something that's on their mind. I think the best way to serve our Sumter community is to be out in the public, make yourselves accessible," Kennedy said. "If somebody wants to talk to me and I can't talk at the time, I'll take your name and number, and I promise you I'll call you. It doesn't matter if it's good or bad, I wanna know what's going on."

Lucy Mahon

Mahon is a home health worker who has been serving Sumter since 2019. She ran for state Senate for the District 35 seat earlier this year.

"We need more to entertain our young people here; we need a place where young families can take children on a Saturday. There's not a water park here like there is on James Island in Charleston," Mahon said about addressing Sumter's next generation's quality of life. "These are things and projects that I feel like would be within reach of a Sumter City Council to really work on if we committed to these projects."

Gene Weston

Weston has been back in Sumter for 30 years and is from Sumter. He raised his two daughters in the city and is the owner of Burgess-Brogdon Building Supply.

"The crime, if the first thing a kid hears is 'I don't want to go to that town because the crime's out of hand,' we've got to fix it, we've got to address it. It's the elephant in the room, and it's got to be talked about on a regular basis. Crime, jobs, affordable real estate and something to do that's fun," Weston said about priorities for Sumter's next generation. "I think we're making progress in all those areas. If we continue to make progress, I think we'll see more of the younger generation locating here as I'm seeing now."

Mayoral race

Travon Frank Adams

This is Adams' first time running for a city council position, but he has worked for Bernie Sanders and the mayor of Columbia. He is a combat veteran whose family has been in Sumter County for generations. He has a political science and philosophy degree from the University of South Carolina in Columbia.

"One thing I wanna do is partner with public, private [grant opportunities] and use grant opportunities to lower the threshold for how much we're paying for rent - we wanna give people the opportunity to become homeowners. Rent's gotten out of control, and so has childcare in general."

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.

"I would like to expand transportation outward from 6 in the morning to 4 a.m., and in order to do that, we have to see if we have enough budget to actually expand those hours or if we do not, then we have to find a way to increase the ride share," Campbell said. "I think transportation in the city is a must to get people back and forth to work."

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.

"There is a distinction between the west side of Sumter and the east side of Sumter," Evans said. "As mayor, I want to unite those two and give everybody an equal opportunity to succeed."

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've learned that people don't have money problems, they have lack of money problems, and so economic development and getting people good, high-paying jobs will continue to be my No. 1 priority," Merchant said. "In the last four years, median income has gone from $38,000 to $46,000, so we're moving the needle in the right direction."