Carnes officially announces for S.C. Senate Senate

Calling for job creation, tax reform and education reform, Indian Land resident Brian Carnes officially announced today his candidacy for South Carolina Senate District 16 seat.

Mr. Carnes already joins a crowded field in the 16Th district, which includes parts of York County, Indian Land, and Lancaster County. As of today there are four Republican candidates with the winner facing a Democrat and Libertarian in the general election.

"Brian believes if we work hard together we can create jobs, improve our education system and finally restructure South Carolina's broken tax code."

As he spoke, he was surrounded by friends and family who supported his candidacy and where truly excited about what Brian can bring to the table for the citizens of District 16. If elected, Brian knows that South Carolina needs some type of tax-reform and he would support the Fair Tax bill if it gets through the Statehouse this year. Something has to be done immediately to save taxpayers money in South Carolina.

During his six minute speech Brian spoke about issues that echo the feelings of many voters in District 16. In addition to jobs, taxes and education, Brian calls for transparency in our government, stop wasteful spending and find ways to reform health-care for seniors in South Carolina so they do not have to decide whether to eat or take medication. We are facing difficult times and we need to get the government working for the people again.

The question has been asked over and over again to Brian how do we do this? Public service is about representing the people and their needs, He is not a career politician, he is a businessman who cares about his state and the people who live here and all he can do is go to Columbia and do as the people ask and that is fight for reform, less government and do what we were sent here to do and that is to serve the people of South Carolina.

Below you will see text from his Speech, please read over it and see some of the ideas Brian has as your next Senator.

Good Morning! I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to be here. I would like to thank my family for their support and encouragement to me as I have prayed and thought about running for the State Senate seat. To my advisers and to my many friends that counseled me and encouraged me to run, I say thank you.

Today starts a new phase, I move from the decision phase to the action phase, as I fill to run today I am putting my faith and trust in the good people of Senate District 16 that we can agree on the issues that face us locally, as a state and as a nation. This past November a message rang loud and clear, we are tired of politics as usual and the empty promises of the past.

Today we start that journey together to continue that change. We need new ideas and new leadership in Columbia. We need someone that is willing to take a stand on the issues that are important to the people of District 16. I want to be that person. As I stand before you, I promise that I will represent you with honesty and integrity and that I will work my hardest to represent all of the people of this district.

As a resident of Indian Land and a small business owner in Rock Hill, I believe that I am uniquely qualified to represent all parts of this district. We face many challenges in our district - high levels of unemployment, under employment, businesses struggling to survive and people losing their homes.

Our situation while similar to other areas in our state; is also different because of our border location. We need to make sure that as we recruit new businesses to our area that the jobs created are not just transfers across the border. The jobs created need to be for our residents. We need to insure that those who are seeking jobs are getting the training, support and guidance needed to be able to be eligible for these jobs. Those responsible for this training need to help all the way through the process, from identifying the needed training by working with businesses to find out their needs, to providing that training and finally working to insure that people actually get the available jobs.

Many of you have heard the old saying “That we have reached a cross roads”, I would say to you today that we have not reached a cross roads, but we have reached a dead end. What I mean by that is that we have taken so many wrong turns and made so many detours that we need to turn around and change course. We need reform in our state in the form of government transparency and accountability on all levels. We need to control spending, to make our government more reliable and accountable to our citizens. We need to streamline agencies and combine departments to reduce duplications of services and administration.

We need true tax reform, not just changes to our existing structure. We need to be bold and to start over with new ideas that will provide tax relief to our citizens and will encourage a business friendly tax structure and environment in our state in order to attract new companies, to support our existing businesses and to encourage our small business owners to expand and grow their businesses and to continue to be the economic growth machine for our state. Economic development is not only about growing our business community; it is about providing a better quality of life for our citizens. I want to make sure that our area is getting the help and attention that it deserves and needs from Columbia to attract new businesses and to grow our existing businesses.

We also need to be utilizing the talents and gifts of our senior community. We are blessed in this area to have a vibrant, active and growing senior community. I want to make sure that we provide opportunities for them to connect in our community, to engage them in sharing their wisdom and knowledge in order to support our schools, our community and our state. We also need to make sure that we are caring for those seniors who are less active and vulnerable to make sure that they are not taken advantage of by scam artists and con men who prey on their trusting nature. As your next state senator I will work to stiffen the laws that protect our senior citizens and to provide opportunities for them to connect and serve.

As a former school board member, I cannot forget about our schools. We need to make sure that we put our focus on our children and that the monies we spend on education get to the classroom and to our students. We need to re-evaluate our education system and put an emphasis on providing a quality education for every child. We need to remove regulations and paperwork that keep our teachers form teaching. We need to develop a system of fair and honest evaluations that reward great teachers and that help’s us to identify those that need to be replaced.

I look forward to running a clean, honest and issued based campaign. I want to be your Senator and to serve this district proudly. Thank you for your support and I look forward to the opportunities for service that being your next State Senator provides. May God bless and guide me through this campaign and may I be deemed worthy of the voters support. And in closing, again let me say thank you to my family for their support in allowing me to seek privilege of serving this district!