Chris Roland is seeking the Democratic nomination for the House District 93 seat. He says he wants to bring a fresh perspective to the position.
The St. Matthews resident has worked over the past 34 years as a consulting telecommunications engineer.
He and a group of partners started an engineering company, Palmetto Engineering & Consulting, in 2007. With offices in St. Matthews, Greenville, Texas and Arkansas, the company has grown to approximately 200 employees, and Roland said he is now preparing to embark on a new journey.
“I had no ambition of being a politician at all, but a lot of people reached out to me and said, ‘We need somebody like you that’s willing to give to their community, somebody who doesn’t need to gain anything from being in politics and would be willing to serve,’” Roland said.
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He continued, “I said, ‘Well, I’m going to have to think and pray over this.’ So after talking it over with my wife and thinking about it,’ I said, ‘Well, you know, I’ll give it a try.’”
House District 93 covers parts of Calhoun, Lexington and Orangeburg counties, and Roland said he has lived in all three.
“I graduated Swansea High School in 1985. I got an engineering degree from the University in South Carolina and then found a job at McCall-Thomas Engineering in Orangeburg. I moved to Orangeburg in 1993 and lived there for almost seven years. Then I left there in 2000 and moved to St. Matthews, where I resided for the past 24 years,” Roland said.
He said he has supported his community his entire life and that serving in the General Assembly would be an extension of his service.
Roland has served on the St. Matthews Youth Sports board and has coached basketball, softball, baseball and soccer over the past 22 years. He is an active member of Four Holes Baptist Church in Orangeburg, where he is a Sunday school teacher and deacon.
He is also a member of the St. Matthews Rotary Club and volunteers his time building handicapped ramps for residents of Orangeburg and Calhoun counties, as well as serving as a disc jockey at civic events.
He has also been on several mission trips with local churches, including his work over the past two summers to help build a school in the Dominican Republic.
“I’ve made a lot of friends. I’ve always been involved in my community and in my church. I don’t know much about politics, but I said I’d be willing to give it a try. I just thought it would be a great idea to serve,” Roland said.
Tort reform, particularly as it relates to the increase in liability insurance rates for certain restaurants, would be a top priority for him. In South Carolina, for example, every establishment serving alcohol after 5 p.m. must carry a liquor liability insurance policy of at least $1 million.
“I think it’s gotten out of control. A lot of restaurants now are having to shut down because they can’t even get insurance because they serve alcohol,” he said.
He’ll also focus on judicial reform and the promotion of fiscally conservative policies.
He continued, “Those are the things that I would love to try to accomplish. I don’t know if we’ll get it done, but those are the things that I’d like to try to come in and say, ‘Hey guys, look. This seems like this is not best for the citizens of South Carolina. How do we reform this? How do we make it better?’”
Roland says the House has enough “self-serving” attorneys.
“I have a lot of friends that are attorneys, but I think we have way too many attorneys in the House of Representatives and in the whole Legislature,” he said.
Roland said he would work to reduce political divisions and foster bipartisanship.
“I’m running as a Democrat … but there’s a lot of Republicans that you have to go and talk to and say, ‘Look, I need you to vote for me because I think that I can speak to both parties,’ or at least I think I can,” Roland said.
“I would like to bring a fresh perspective to the South Carolina Legislature. … I’ve lived here. I know the people, and the people know me. I really think I would be the best candidate to represent the folks of District 93,” Roland said.
He and his wife, a retired elementary school teacher, have two daughters and are expecting their first grandchild.
Contact the writer: dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or 803-533-5534. Follow “Good News with Gleaton” on Twitter at @DionneTandD
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