South Carolina Senate Candidate Spotlight: Chad Williams

As part of our continuing effort to bring local news that’s impactful to our readers, we’ve proactively reached out to the candidates running for the South Carolina Senate

We will not manipulate their answers in any way, we’ll simply provide to you, our readers. This will allow you to make an informed choice.

This week, we’ll introduce Chad Williams

My name is Chad Williams. I’m running for State Senate because I want to be part of the solution to the division in politics. I want to use my experience to make sure our local issues are heard across the state. York County is the greatest place in the world to live, and I want to keep it that way. I will listen to you and will always be on your side to bring your voice to Columbia. I have the experience and the motivation to be a dedicated leader in the South Carolina Senate.

Let’s start at the beginning. I was born here, in Rock Hill, South Carolina. That’s where I have been for 60 years, besides four years in Clemson, and a few months in El Paso, Texas for Officer Basic Course for the Army National Guard. In the many years I have enjoyed here in York County, I started a landscaping business, which I sold in 2022. I also worked for 10 years on the Rock Hill City Planning Commission and was elected to the York County Council, where I served for 10 more years.

After that, I thought my time in elected office would be finished, but I didn’t stop serving this community. I continue to serve on 8 different boards and commissions like Keystone, the Zoning Board of Appeals, and the Bethel United Methodist Church council.

There are hundreds of bills pending in the South Carolina Senate, and hundreds more will be introduced in each new session. My goal as a senator will be to read and understand each bill, to seek opinions from my constituents, and then to cast a vote based on the best interest of the citizen. It is important to address all issues as if they are your most important one, and that is what I plan to do in Columbia.

However, I do have thoughts on some issues in particular.

I believe that education is the key to making our state a better place for future generations. North Carolina and Georgia are ranked tenth and twenty-sixth in education, respectively, while South Carolina is forty-second. We need to do better for our young people. This can only happen by attracting and keeping good teachers. We have so many excellent teachers that end up leaving the profession. Many of us know people who started their careers as educators in public schools and loved their jobs, but could not support a family on a teacher’s income. They left teaching for other careers. In Columbia, I will work to increase teacher pay and improve their working conditions.

South Carolina maintains one of the nation’s largest road networks; yet, we fund and run SCDOT in such a way that no one is ever held accountable. I saw this first hand on the County Council where we used Pennies for Progress to try to solve the state’s problems through a sales tax paid by our local citizens. This has helped some of our roads in York County, but we cannot solve a statewide problem county by county. As a result, we all pay more taxes, car insurance, and repairs due to the wear and tear on our cars. One way we can address this is by automating our roadway inspections so that we can monitor
roadways before they crumble. This can be a bipartisan issue that I can bring an experienced, local perspective to.

Former Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill got it right when he said, “All politics are local.” As someone who has served on the York County Council and on the City of Rock Hill Planning Commission for a total of 20 years, I am fully aware of the local issues that brought us to where we are and how they affect you going forward.

First and foremost, I am a fellow citizen. I know what it’s like to struggle to make ends meet and to build a future. I have seen first-hand in both the public and private-sectors how the decisions made by the South Carolina State Senate affect our lives here at home. I am uniquely qualified to serve as your voice in Columbia to ensure future decisions are made in the most positive way possible for York County.