Dorchester County Councilman Jay Byars doesn’t sound like most of the folks running for Congress these days.
He announced his candidacy for the 1st District Republican nomination on Wednesday, and nowhere in his brief remarks did he attack his opponents, insult broad swaths of people or demagogue on culture wars.
He blessedly did not mention social media.
Instead, he talked about concrete Lowcountry issues — conservation, rampant overdevelopment and untenable traffic.
Byars said he wants to go to Washington to fix a broken system, and get federal funding to improve local infrastructure that is 40 years out of date. He’d like to cut the federal red tape that can delay road projects by two decades, which is how long it took to get all the permits for the newly opened Berlin G. Myers extension.
He also wants to protect federal land, which some lawmakers and the current administration have proposed selling, so developers can’t buy the Francis Marion National Forest … and extend Mount Pleasant all the way to Georgetown.
By the low standards of today’s political discourse, Byars’ announcement was almost wonky.
It was so refreshing.
Modern politics has unfortunately devolved into constant campaigns of fear-mongering, grievance-filled tirades and conjured boogeymen. Every candidate fights for attention on a national stage … at the expense of local communities and their very real needs.
As one prominent political consultant notes, these days you could hand the same campaign script to a candidate in North Dakota, Oregon or Kansas. All these folks say the same thing, and it’s usually a bunch of nothing.
But it works — which is why they do it.
In fairness, unlike several previous candidates for the 1st District seat being vacated by Congresswoman Nancy Mace, none of the four other Republicans (so far) running have said anything too outlandish or incendiary. It’s been fairly quiet; it’s also early.
But Byars’ announcement was notable for its focus on old-school, meat-and-potato issues and a decided lack of hyperbolic hysteria.
Now, Byars is a Republican, so he did tout his support for President Donald Trump and his “America First” agenda. He lamented the killing of political activist Charlie Kirk, as he should have, and pointedly disavowed political violence from people trying to tear down the country.
But he didn’t mention Trump in every other sentence — like every single candidate running for governor, or pretty much any office, these days. Instead, he was focused on the people of the 1st District.
Which made him stand out.
“I want to protect the country — and the Lowcountry,” Byars said. “This is a job that requires results.”
Byars made his announcement at Dorchester County’s stunning Ashley River Park, which is a pretty good example of a “result.”
The three-year-old park, squarely in Byars’ council district, runs along the river and includes walking trails, a massive playground, kayak launch, amphitheater and picnic shelters. It’s an oasis in a rapidly developing part of the metro area, so popular the county’s already expanding it.
Byars was one of the primary forces behind building the park, along with his colleagues on Dorchester County Council — many of whom were on hand Wednesday to support him. It was a subtle, but powerful, showing because this County Council has been one of the most productive, and least dysfunctional, government bodies around these parts in recent years.
A group of people who can build roads, parks and libraries while not always agreeing on everything is a pretty rare thing in this day and age. We’d all be better off if Congress took a lesson from that.
Byars begins this race as an underdog. Although he’s been on council for 15 years, Dorchester is only the 4th-largest county in the 1st Congressional District. Mount Pleasant candidates have the inside track these days, because they benefit from higher name recognition in the district’s two largest counties, Charleston and Berkeley.
But who knows what the mood of the electorate might be come spring? Any sane person has to wonder how long we can sustain this poisonous atmosphere of chaos, melodrama and sustained outrage. At what point do voters opt for a firefighter over arsonists?
You know, a little bit of normal.
This isn’t some campaign calculation. Anyone who knows Byars will tell you that’s just who he is. And whether or not his style wins him the nomination, let’s hope he at least elevates the level of debate in the 1st District race.
We’ve got enough folks out there stoking division, but not nearly enough tackling traffic.