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In the final days before Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 7, the LaGrange Daily News reached out to the LaGrange City Council candidates to give them an opportunity for a final message to voters.

Throughout all the races, the candidates were asked the same five questions to give a quick overview of their candidacy.

For the District 2B race in LaGrange, incumbent councilman Leon Childs will face off against Travis Hart. Childs was first elected to the council in December after defeating Quay Boddie in a special election for the late LeGree McCamey’s council seat. Hart is not new to local politics. In 2021, he previously sought the seat of the late Commissioner Richard English in an unsuccessful bid.

LEON CHILDS

1. Give your last-second pitch on why someone should vote for you.

“I would like to tell everyone just to vote for Leon Childs. We have gotten a lot of work done, but there’s still a lot more work to be done. Vote for Leon Childs to continue to work and continue to implement change.”

2. List your top three priorities.

“Housing, jobs, and education.”

3. Of those three, which one can you immediately make a difference in? How and why?

“Housing. We can make an immediate difference in housing because if we can pass the new vinyl siding ordinance, then we could bring down the prices of homes and start to deal with affordable housing here in LaGrange.”

4. How would you handle a situation where the majority of the council felt differently than you, and you needed to sway their opinion?

“On something that I strongly believe in, I cannot negotiate on that. I’m sorry. If it’s something that I know that’s right —for all the people— I would not negotiate on doing what’s right.”

5. What’s an interesting fact about you that voters may not know?

“An interesting fact that the voters might not know about me is that I love growth and development. I know it’s been said about me that I don’t like development and growth. But that’s not it. I just don’t want to see anybody displaced.”

TRAVIS HART

1. Give your last-second pitch on why someone should vote for you.

“I think people should vote for me because I bring a diverse atmosphere of being able to work with different businesses and different people across the board and being able to bring a broad thinking of certain situations that will make LaGrange a better place.”

2. List your top three priorities.

“The first one is public safety. The second one is housing, affordable housing. And the third one is to make sure that we have our city is equipped to face the growth that we’re about to have.”

3. Of those three, which one can you immediately make a difference in? How and why?

“I think that we can all work together to make LaGrange a better place, to make LaGrange a safer place, if we work together to get the guns off the streets and to help some of these groups that are already in place, such as these mentoring groups to work with the kids to let them know that gang violence is not the way.”

4. How would you handle a situation where the majority of the council felt differently than you, and you needed to sway their opinion?

“I would basically give my reasoning, why I’m voting the way that I vote or why I am deciding the way I’m deciding to hopefully swing their opinion based on that we’re voting on factual things and not personal things. Everything that we’re doing is for the betterment of LaGrange.”

5. What’s an interesting fact about you that voters may not know?

“I am a preacher in LaGrange, Georgia, I’m a Baptist preacher.”