Lexington County, SC 03/15/2022 (Paul Kirby) – Saluda County resident Katie Hall filed today to run against fellow Republican incumbent Cally “Cal” Forest of Monetta for SC House District #39 in the June Republican Primary. She registered shortly after noon today which is when the filing period opened. House District #39 encompasses a large slice of western Lexington County and includes Batesburg-Leesville, some of Gilbert, Samaria, and out toward Fairview Crossroads. SEE HOUSE DISTRICT 39 MAP
Hall considers herself a constitutional conservative that is pro-life, pro-second amendment, pro-law enforcement, and pro-God among other things. She was raised an Army brat; her dad was in the Army, but her family has a long and distinguished line of military service. Both of her grandfathers were military men that served in World Ward II. She was a founding member of Dreher High School’s NJROTC program. After graduating from high school, getting married and becoming a mom, raising her two sons, getting divorced and remarried, and becoming an “empty nester”, she has decided the time is right to throw her hat into the ring for public office.
Hall has two sons from her first marriage. She was very devoted to her sons and stayed involved in their school and civic activities like Boy Scouts while they were younger. After a divorce, in 2007, she married Edward Allen "Pete" Hall, also of the US Army (ret), who adopted Hall’s two sons. Their oldest son is now a certified farrier and blacksmith and the youngest is a pilot in the US Army.
During the period that her sons were growing up, Hall says she worked as a teacher’s assistance in the school system and aligned herself closely with special needs students. She even took courses in American Sign Language in order to be able to communicate with the nonverbal students who were in the classes she worked with.
Hall says that she plans to lead if elected to the house. In pointing to Cal Forest’s voting record, she made it a point to note that he rarely presents legislation for consideration, instead he shows up to vote and most often goes with the overwhelming majority. “He was first elected in 2017,” Hall said during a recent interview. “Since that time, he has introduced just a few pieces of legislation and the most significant concerned Junk Mail!” she stated. “If I’m elected, I plan to work hard on the important issues that face our state from my first day in office,” she stated.
One issue of great concern for Hall is the way the SC State Police Officer’s Retirement System is currently structured. She says by structure it is defunding the police and other first responders enrolled in that program. She explained that many of these employees work 25 years and obtain the time necessary to retire, they do leave. A short time later, they come back into the law enforcement or some the first responder profession in some capacity. The problem is, they are then limited in how much they can make before the retirement system begins to take 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 several college degrees for some. Then, there’s the experience. 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 all the time. 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 Open Firearm Carry bill. 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 take the next step. She believes that Constitutional Carry, the right to openly carry a firearm without any government permit or fee 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, “Shall not be infringed upon,” when addressing the right to bear arms and I take that in the most literal sense,” she stated. “If a lot more good, honest, law abiding folks carried openly I really do believe that crimes rates would go down.”
Katie has much more to say about her candidacy and her platform. She is super energetic and ready to talk with anyone about her campaign. You can find more information on her website at https://katiehallscdis39.wixsite.com/vote-katie-hall. You can also reach out to her by phone at 864-321-2385 or by email at handhranch13@gmail.com.
She also sat for a video interview with Paul Kirby, the editor of the Lexington Ledger that will be played live over The Ledger in the next week. It will be advertised prior to its running.
PHOTO CAPTION: (L to R) Pete & Katie Hall
