Meet the candidates running in the Pickens County Council Republican primary (2024)

In the District 3 race, incumbent Alex Saitta faces challenger Justin Durham in the county's largest geographical representative area. With a separate forum held in Pickens, the two answered questions from the public largely pointed at Saitta's voting record and the candidates' stance on property rights.

Answers from each candidate who attended or responded to calls from The Post and Courier are listed below, sorted alphabetically for each district.

The race for District 5, the Easley area, has three candidates on the ballot. Current County Council Chairman Chris Bowers, a health care professional, has middle school science teacher Mason Sims and private investigator Brandon Thomas offering challenges.

Where do you stand on supporting Parks and Rec and tourism in Pickens County?

Chris Bowers: This is a kind of a complicated question or answer for your question. I think that an efficient, limited government is important. And I don't necessarily think that the top three things in county government is the Parks and Rec and tourism piece — well, the Parks and Rec piece. However, saying that, I feel like it has a strong place in government and local government especially. It is part of our economy. It is, to your point, the folks that go in and spend money. It is the small business, which I know all about.

It is those things. That's why it's important. And the really cool thing here is we have certain taxes that can only be used for those things. You know, we've used ATAX funding for these festivals that you talked about. We've used ATAX funding for trails, for events and other things with the goal of putting more heads in bed, with a goal of more mouths being fed or more stores being shopped in. The recreation funding that Dr. Wilson talked about is a big piece.

When I look at the Doodle Trail and the money that's been spent there— the first county dime spent on the Doodle Trail actually was in the Liberty district because that's where the Doodle Park is.

It's right across the yellow line on there, but it's still benefited our district 100 percent. There was the two train cars, one of which is a bathroom that was paid for with recreation funding, bringing that money back here. It is a vital part of the quality of life in our communities. So to answer your question, it not only is it important, but the evidence that we buy into the importance is definitely there.

Mason Sims: I’m a distance runner, so I participate in a lot of these 5K races on the Doodle Trail. So I would support it because I feel like a lot of these trails that are being built, that's from former railway systems and how they like to say, ‘No, those railway systems are not being used. They're just sitting there.’ And you know, make some changes to it. So absolutely, I'd be for that. I will say one reason I don't feel like Central has really added trails, similar to like Easley and Pickens, is a lot of those railway systems are still in use.

I feel like current incumbents, they feel like they know what's best and constituents don't. I feel like, not naming any names, but I feel like I've been talked down to and also a lot of these doors that I've knocked, I can honestly say about nine out of 10 doors that I've knocked, they didn't even know who their county councilman was.

And that troubles me because in sales and politics, no matter what you do, if you don't have that rapport and that relationship, then I feel like that's a sign that you are not doing your job. So I did want to address that, though I do feel like some of these incumbents do need to be replaced— not saying all, but definitely some.

Brandon Thomas: I think Easley is a great place, and Pickens County in general. My dad and Greg Powell actually brought the Big League World Series over here to Easley back, I guess it was 1999 or 2000, and it really helped put Easley on the map and basically in front of 300 different countries around the world.

So I definitely support it, because when people come in and stay in hotels, they're shopping at local businesses, and I'm a huge supporter of small business. I think there could be more things looked at as far as what we can do to attract people here.

I like the small-town feel, obviously, since I live in the city of Easley. I want it to be something like in North Carolina where the old Andy Griffith Show was— it's a small town, but you know, it's a place that people want to go visit. And then they appreciate the small-town atmosphere. A lot of people come from all over the place, whether it's a big city or big suburbs, they appreciate the small-town friendly atmosphere.

What do you want Pickens County to look like 40 years from now?

Chris Bowers: The reality of that, though, is I think that the most important things are still the most important things. So years from now, our natural beauty— that is one of the biggest that has to still be here 43 years from now.

Whether it be Table Rock, whether it be our lakes, our streams. You know, what brings people, makes people love Pickens County, has to still be here.

Our culture still has to be here, things like the Hagood Mill, things like the Performing Arts Center, no matter what they look like, the culture of Pickens County still has to be here. In my picture. We do have a diverse economy that is very strong and doesn't fall to the whims of what's going on in the world at the moment because it is a strong economy. It is a diverse group of people here. The picture that I want, the reason that I ran, what's so important to me, is it's a place that we're proud of, a place that that our children— or my child— is proud of to call home.

Mason Sims: I definitely agree with Mr. Costner when it comes to religious values. I feel like that's something I want Pickens County to keep and go on forever. Religious values are something that’s really important to me. I also hope that people will still love their country here 40 years from now. There's people my age that are complaining about this country and say this is a problem. That upsets me because I definitely feel like a social outcast of my generation.

It's just amazing to some people in my generation they just complain about how bad our country is. So definitely want to make sure that we do have patriotism and have love for our country.

I also believe natural beauty is something that we need to continue to have. That’s the reason why people come here on weekends— to get on the nature trails and do all that and potentially to live here. That's why I prefer to live here than other places in the Upstate.

I'd like to see us be more unified in 40 years. I feel like just even in our county and nationwide we’re divided. We felt like in our county we’re divided, and I feel like it’s over small stuff and it doesn’t need to be fought upon. That's really what I hope in the next 40 years, honestly, probably in the next year that we do have some kind of unification come about.

Brandon Thomas: When me and my wife moved here 14 years ago, because I grew up in Powdersville five minutes down the road from where I live now. And Powdersville when I was a kid had one red light, and everything was two-lane roads. So you see the difference between a place that that doesn't, or isn't zoned appropriately, what can happen. Highway 153 has now become the new Woodruff Road (in Greenville) because it allows anything and everything to come and build whatever and whenever they want to, and there's no stopping it.

We moved here because you’ve got the quiet nightlife. Obviously you’ve got the small-town feel, but I want it to be a safe but also a thriving place that if it's my kids or my kids’ kids want to stay here and raise their families or open up a business, they can.

I don't want it to become an overpopulated big city or big county that takes away the farmland. One thing you’ve got to remember is once you take away or forfeit your green space, it's gone forever. There’s no going back. I think a lot of people appreciate the green space, the natural landscape that Pickens County offers, you know, the lakes, the rivers, the creeks. When you take all that away or you're cutting down historic trees to build townhomes, that's a problem.

What makes you the most qualified candidate for your district?

Chris Bowers: My background is in health care. I've grown up in health care. With that, I ran the small family business, managed people, balanced budgets, sleepless nights over paychecks. You know how to make it all come to an end, all to really help other people, and that's what it was all about.

Currently, I manage a department, manage people, balance budgets and still have those sleepless nights. I don't worry about the payroll as much, but I still have those sleepless nights of troubles and problems. I know what it's like. I know what it takes to run a bigger organization.

Today, I met with 14 different organizations to discuss behavioral health in our county, and being able to do that and sit around the table with those individuals—that's just a common thing.

That collaboration piece, having those relationships, knowing who to reach out to, knowing that I don't have all the answers, but I'll find the person that does. That's what makes me feel like I'm the most qualified candidate is the experience and the evidence that's there from the work that has been done and the work that continues to be done. That's what makes me feel like I'm the most qualified candidate. My daughter being involved in the community, it's just a larger network of people than even before.

Mason Sims: Potential most certainly outweighs experience. We saw with Donald Trump— I mean Hillary Clinton had all these high-level degrees and was in politics for a while. And Trump's a businessman, and he won. And he probably did more things in one term of one president than anyone has done in two. So, I don't think you need to look at how long someone's been on board or how long they've been in office or what their degree is. The potential outweighs experience.

I will say that I do have experience. I've been involved in local politics about four years. I’ve been a state delegate to the past two conventions and also a delegate to the district convention. But when you go out here to vote, please do not look at experience. Look at, one, what the person is going to do for you. See if they’re going to look after your best interest at heart and if they’re going to do this right.

Brandon Thomas: I have a very diverse background. My experience doesn't just follow one profession It's a multitude of things. It's being involved, whether it's law enforcement, EMS or at the rec coaching kids. I’m out communicating with the people of all walks of life. I truly believe there's a huge disconnect between elected officials and the people. I've knocked on so many doors where people have no idea who their representative is, and that's a problem to me.

Me and my family, we've knocked on over 4,000 in the last three months because it's my first time in politics. I don't consider myself a politician. I believe politicians have literally screwed this country up from the ground up, and I'm not a fan of career politicians.

The people need to know who represents them. They need to be able to reach out and get in touch with them or, if they call and leave a voicemail, somebody needs to call you back. I don't expect everybody to have the answers right on hand at any given moment, but you should be able to call your constituents back and let them know what you found out and how you're going to, you know, tackle that whatever their complaint is.

I feel like when you bring in a new vision, a new energy at any level, it’s a good thing. When you run it like a business and not look at outside specific groups or groups not even affiliated with our county— and we're making decisions based off of that.

I’m involved on many different levels in the community, not just one. The county has a lot of different avenues that need to be looked at, whether it's the roads and infrastructure, you know, the EMS, the law enforcement, fire, the growth is a big issue.

If the incumbent wins, he will be going into his third term. But he waited seven years before they started looking at the county UDSO, which would have prevented a lot of this growth, or at least slowed it down, to give time for our infrastructure to catch up. I’d be more proactive as far as attacking the issues at the county level instead of being reactive.

Incumbent Henry Wilson faces challenger Dale Holloway for the District 6 seat. Holloway did not return calls from The Post and Courier.

Where do you stand on supporting Parks and Rec and tourism in Pickens County?

Henry Wilson: I've been on the board for three years. And I've supported lots of initiatives and helped to build the parks in my district. We're remote as it was 30 minutes to town, and we operate a rec center out of the old middle school and our elementary school, and we have $50,000 budgets to support rec. It's supposed to go towards capital expenses in your district, and I use it for the operational expenses of our rec and our community center. And so predominantly to support that one area of, you know, it's basically for 25 percent of my district, but it affects hundreds and hundreds of kids.

So you know, I'm supporting that from just because of proximity and access for a predominately poor community, for people who ride all the way to Easley to come here. It's just not an option.

So I’m not only gonna support it but, you know, having to help operate a rec and fund it and invest in it over the long term— and the community center, which is a key asset for that community— to have this place in Dacusville, which is a poor rural area, it’s incredibly cohesive. I mean, it’s a tied-together community.

The other piece of it is we were fortunate— and we just had a discussion this month at our board meeting about sustaining that type of activities about maybe giving us some more money for rec.

We also had a recent discussion, because when we settled with MRR, we ended up with Boggs Mountain over near Liberty. Which some of you that grew up here know that's the place you went to go raise cane and camp out or whatnot, right? But at the end of the day, Boggs Mountain is a big rock near the rock quarry. Nobody’s gonna develop that.

But we all decided there's an opportunity, potentially, so we're gonna put a committee together of folks to study and reach out to Clemson. Why couldn't we do it? It might not be tomorrow, it might be 10 or 15 years, but today's the day you start that discussion about the park because it's centrally located and can be anything.

It could be natural activities, could be mountain biking, could be horse riding. It could be a bingo parlor for all I know. But, at the end of the day, you know, the ideas are there, so we're starting that dialogue. So not only do we support it, we're doing it— look at Grant overlook.

What do you want Pickens County to look like 40 years from now?

Henry Wilson:My wife's entire family, including me, we all live on the same farm. There’s been four generations on that farm, and when I look ahead 50 years, everything that I do personally is to keep that type of traditional lifestyle for my own personal family.

And what I want is for those folks to be able to live there and, in 50 years, be looking back to my service here as a pivotal point in the community. I'm the chairman of our Infrastructure Committee, and where we made our biggest change towards preparing for their future are things like we did with the landfill— investing so we could keep the landfill open for 50, 60 more years. The landfill was going to be closed, and we were going to be spending an extra $1 to $2 million a year in our government somewhere else. We made the small but important decision to keep that landfill open and invest in new equipment.

We made the small but important decision to take care of our roads. We're already having the dialogue about our water treatment facility so that we have clean water in the future. Now we're setting those goals, but we're also doing those things which are critically important. We're drilling a well, and we're doing those extremely important things, but also we're focused on parks and natural resources.

We protected the view shed on Highway 11 because I want those folks to not only have the things we require for life, which is infrastructure there, but also the things that are critical for a good wholesome way of life, which is the natural resources and the connections we have in our own shared history.

I want agriculture to continue to be an important part of our community. You know, my daughter has an ag business. I want that to thrive. I want you to come out to our farm and see how people live and where their food comes from and for your kids to get their hands dirty.

I want to position my family to be able to do that. So the economic conditions in our region needs to support that. So when you talk about living traditional values, you know, look out the window and everybody's a family. That's traditional values, and I want to continue that because there are other folks who look just like our family does.

What makes you the most qualified candidate for your district?

Henry Wilson:In about 2002, I had the opportunity to speak to the Mechanical Engineering Society at Georgia Tech. There were six kids in the room that worked for me, his college students at the place I worked at at the time. I had a chance to speak on anything, but a guy named Sununu had been a mechanical engineer that had been in political office. And I've just read a bio for him. So I got up in front of these hundreds of kids and I said, you know, getting your engineering education is important, your career paths will be important.

One of the most important things is you learn technical skills that will be unique in your area. You're going to have expertise in things that are critical to society. You need to get in there and act as a leader in the community as a volunteer. You need to stand up and run for office.

And the wonderful part about it is they came afterwards and got me and said, "Look, you're taking us out to dinner now. We want to hear when you're gonna run for office."

And then over time, they'd invite me into their weddings, and they'd call me about the kids, you know, when they were born and whatnot, and they'd all ask me.

So 2010, I was like, "Well, it's time for me to live by example because they're starting to be around 30 years old and these guys were asking me 'You know, if you're talking about it, when are you going to do it?'"

And so when I looked around my community at the time, I see the rural community with no standard technology programs in schools. I went in to talk to the guy at the time who ran that for the school district, and I said, "We don't have anything in middle school. We need a robotics program so you guys can compete and teach the skills etc., etc."

And so I came back— I talked to him on Friday, came back on Monday— with 3,000 bucks to fund the team. I coached teams like that in schools around the county for 10 years. I mean, I saw a need, I rolled up my sleeves, and I did that work. And I'm not unique in my community. There's wonderfully gifted folks out there.

I’ve stood up to do this for quite some time. I've built a basis of leadership, you know, as a professional, and in the community. I've built networks and prove that I can help people to solve problems. And I may not be the best person, but in this particular race, I'm certainly the most qualified candidate to continue on in service.