I’m running because I’m tired of watching people leave this county.

I’ve served in the military, taught in classrooms, and worked in the Department of Corrections — and everywhere I’ve been, I’ve watched the same thing happen. Good people, hardworking people who love this community — they pack up and they leave. Because there are no jobs. Because the schools can’t do it all. Because they can’t find a doctor. Because they don’t see a future here.

St. Andrews closed and took 473 jobs and $60 million a year with it. Our poverty rate is 25.8%. Our jail is holding 194 people in a building made for 109. We’re the 4th most distressed county in North Carolina. And I keep hearing ‘we’re working on it’ — I’ve heard that my whole career. I’m done hearing it.

I’m running because a commissioner’s job is not to manage the decline — it’s to turn it around. A real plan for the St. Andrews campus. Fix the jail. Bring healthcare into neighborhoods that haven’t had it. Connect kids to jobs before they graduate.

I ran in 2017, I lost, and I kept working. I’m running now because the county commission is where these decisions get made — and I’d rather be in the room fighting for this community than standing outside hoping someone else does the right thing.