VOTE KATIE HALL

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 18, 2022

 

Saluda, SC - Saluda County resident Katie Hall has announced that she has filed to run against incumbent Republican Cally “Cal” Forest of Monetta for SC House District #39 in the June Republican Primary. She registered to run the day that the filing period opened in March. House District #39 encompasses a large slice of Saluda County and portions of western Lexington County that includes Batesburg-Leesville, some of Gilbert, Samaria, toward Fairview Crossroads. SEE HOUSE DISTRICT 39 MAP

Hall calls herself a constitutional conservative that is pro-life, pro-second amendment, pro-law enforcement, and pro-God among other things. She is the product of a family that’s been dedicated to serving the nation for the better part of the last century. The daughter of a career United States’ Army soldier, her family has a long and distinguished line of military service. Both of her grandfathers served in World Ward II. Following in their footsteps, Hall was a founding member of Dreher High School’s NJROTC program. After graduating from high school, she married and became a mom. She raised two sons, was divorced, and later married Edward Allen "Pete" Hall, also of the US Army (ret). Pete adopted Hall’s two sons who have since grown up leaving the Halls as “empty nesters”. Their oldest son is now a certified farrier and blacksmith and their youngest is a pilot in the US Army.   

Hall says that it’s time for a change in House District 39. “I plan to be much more active than the incumbent in fighting for the people of this district if elected,” she stated. “If you look at his voting and legislative record, you’ll see that he is rarely out front on any legislation. Instead, he shows up to vote and most often goes with the overwhelming majority. He has introduced little legislative initiatives, the most significant of which concerned junk mail,” she said. “While few South Carolinians want to see their mailbox filled with junk mail, there are certainly far more important problems facing our state that needs to be addressed. “If I’m elected, I plan to work hard on the important issues that face South Carolina as soon as I am sworn into office,” she concluded.  

One issue of great concern for Hall is the way the SC State Police Officer’s Retirement System is currently structured. She says it currently is defunding the retired law enforcement officers and other first responders enrolled in that program. She explained that many of these police officers, firefighters, and medics work 25 years to obtain the time necessary to retire. At that milestone. many do decide to leave. A short time later, some desire or are asked to come back into those career fields in some capacity. “The problem is”, Hall said, “they are limited in how much they can make before the retirement system begins to subtract money from their retirement benefits. If they’ve given 25 years of service, decide to retire, and later return to public service, why should they be penalized for whatever amount they make? They’ve earned their retirement and we have invested so much in their training; in many cases the public has paid for college degrees for some. Then, there’s the experience issue. There’s no way you could put a price tag on their experience. It’s really a no brainer for us. We are in desperate need of people in these fields. Let these experts with decades of experience come back and work full-time if they’d like without touching their retirement income, they’ve earned it.”

Hall says another key issue for her is last year’s passing of the Open Carry of Firearms with Training bill. That took effect in August of 2021. She says it was a step in the right direction for South Carolina, but the House still needs to keep the pressure on the Senate to reach the goal line. She believes that Constitutional Carry, the right to openly carry a firearm without any government permit, fee, or specific training requirements if you are of age and can legally own a firearm, is a fundamental right of every American citizen. “The Constitution’s 2nd Amendment says that the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed upon. I take that in the most literal sense, the way the founding fathers meant for it to be,” she stated. “If a lot of good, honest, law-abiding folks carried openly, I really do believe that crimes rates would go down.”

In closing Hall said, “There’s so much to be done to continue to make South Carolina the greatest state in the nation. We need to figure out how to make the SCDOT more efficient so that all of us see some progress on repaving. We see some resurfacing of the larger feeder roads and proposals to build new or bigger interstates and major highways, but those projects simply aren’t enough. People want to see the roads leading to their homes resurfaced. It may be nice to have an interstate leading to Myrtle Beach in the future but that doesn’t interest the common person who’s dodging potholes every 10 feet going home every day. Those potholes are cold patched over and over and a week after a patch is put in, the pothole is back again. Somehow, we can and must do better and I expect to vigorously seek answers to these types of problems,” she concluded. 

Katie says she is running a grassroots campaign without the help of any large, special interest donors. Her platform is simple. She believes in smaller government while making the core functions of government more streamlined and efficient. You can find more information on Katie Hall on her website at https://katiehallscdis39.wixsite.com/vote-katie-hall. You can also reach out to her to ask her questions of to schedule her to speak to a group by phone at 864-321-2385 or email at handhranch13@gmail.com.