Galloway announces intent for Darlington’s mayor race
By Jana E. Pye, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
Travis Galloway stopped by the News & Press office to announce his intentions to run for office of Mayor for the City of Darlington race this November, and credits the legacy of his grandfather, Dr. Ned Hobbs, as his inspiration.
“He instilled in me the importance of giving back to the community,” said Galloway. “And I want to see Darlington thrive.”
Travis Galloway
Galloway and his wife, Elizabeth, have three daughters aged 6, 4, and 2. Elizabeth is a native of Georgia, and the couple met at USC. She has been teaching at All Saint’s, and just accepted a position to teach at Cain Elementary School this fall. The family returned to Darlington in 2011 after living in Germany and Taiwan. “We had a daughter born in each country, and our last baby was our “made in the USA’ daughter.”
He has four degrees from University of South Carolina, including Psychology, Political Science, Juris Doctorate of Law and an International MBA.
Galloway worked for eight years in Germany doing international contract negotiations, and procurement in business development- four and a half years with Siemens, and then NAVIGON, a German company later bought by Garmin.
The company then moved him moved to Taiwan for two years as general manager for the Asian entity. “In addition to being vice president for procurement, I was also the general manager for the Asian entity of NAVIGON.
Upon moving back, he opened a real estate company here in Darlington where he buys distressed houses in neighborhoods, renovates them to like new and rents them out.
“After being away for ten years, we knew we wanted to come back to Darlington,” said Galloway. “We came back for a couple of weeks every year, and saw that Darlington was not progressing. I feel like I can bring a lot of business development, and also cost saving activities that can really help us help us turn our economic woes around.”
Galloway credits his 15 years experience in business development and managing large budgets as assets in his bid for mayor. “I was managing budgets of in excess of $100 million, and as general manager in Taiwan I was responsible for the entire company there as well as the budget. I think I bring a lot of real world experience to – what the end of the day, a city is a business. And it needs to be run a little bit more like a business. So, this is my focus- economic improvement, job creation, as well as improving our infrastructure, problems with storm drainage, quality of our roads, etc. I think a lot of people know those problems exist, and raise enough complaints about it, but you can’;t do it without money. To increase our revenues, we have to do more with what we have. That is expertise I can bring to the table.”
Filing date for candidates running for office is August 16, and the next election will be held Tuesday, November 4.
