Items added as Rich thinks of them:

• Rich grew up in small towns in IL and VT.
• Rich is the son of a school teacher (special education) & a school administrator (principal/superintendent)
• Rich attended 3 different grade schools & 2 different high schools, one in IL & one in VT.
• Rich has been married to his wife, Kristie, for 30 years & they have a 25 yo son & 2 daughters aged 21 & 19.
• Rich is a photographer & has been selling nature photography to interior designers & architects for 25 years. His work can be found in medical facilities, hotels, & other businesses across the US.
• Working hard has always been a part of Rich’s life. His 1st job was a paper route when he was around 10. Other jobs Rich has had through the years: Dishwasher; busboy, waiter, video store clerk, pizza delivery guy, fraternity& sorority party photographer, photojournalist, film lab manager, & camera store manager.
• Rich’s favorite, toughest & most rewarding job, though, was stay-at-home Dad.
• Rich was featured on NBC news channels across the US in 2007 as a stay-at-home dad with his 3 kids since it was pretty rare at that time.
• Kristie & Rich met in college in the middle of a snowball fight during a snowstorm.
• This isn’t Rich’s first run for elected office. He ran as a Republican for city council in DeKalb, IL in 1996.
• Rich was the President of the DeKalb County (IL) Young Republicans for a few years in the 90’s.
• Rich worked as a volunteer for Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert’s campaigns in the 90’s. (He’s the one who ended up being a pedophile & spending time in jail, like SC House Freedom Caucus member, RJ May.)
• Rich worked on campaigns in IL for Citizens for a Sound Economy which was a Koch brothers’ group in the mid 90’s. Citizens for a Sound Economy eventually split into 2 different organizations later on, Freedom Works & Americans for Prosperity.
• Even as a Republican, Rich would sometimes vote for a local Democratic candidate.
• The 1st Democratic President Rich voted for was Barack Obama.
• Rich voted for neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump.
• Rich loved owning Jeep Wranglers for about 20 years, but is extremely happy he doesn’t have to pay to fill their gas tanks now.
• Rich served on the boards of 2 different arts organizations after moving to the area, Trillium Arts & Upstate Visual Arts.
• Rich had a studio & gallery downtown Travelers Rest from ~2012-2014
• Rich was the vice president of the Fine Arts Center Partners from 2018-2020
• Rich is currently the Vice Chair of the North Greenville County Democrats
• Rich is the Tigerville Democratic Precinct President.
• Rich is a Scorpio.
• Rich an Extroverted Introvert.
• Rich had brain surgery to remove a large tumor in 2016.
• After 5 years the tumor had not regrown, however, an MRI this past July showed regrowth the size of a sunflower seed. For the past 5 weeks Rich has been campaigning while undergoing daily radiation treatments. (Treatments concluded October 14th)
• Rich likes both his coffee & his beer black.
• Rich has been attending the Travelers Rest Farmers Market since it was a small gathering of farmers/gardeners behind Sunrift.
• Rich left college without finishing his degree, but completed his Bachelor’s Degree last December. (30 years later.)
• Rich didn’t leave the Republican Party, it left him by turning it’s back on the working class & leaving behind the legacy of the Abraham Lincoln to embrace instead far-right christian nationalism & it’s culture wars.
• Rich joined the Democratic Party because it has become a big tent that has shed it’s Dixiecrat past (they joined the Republican Party) & is fighting to keep our Constitutional freedoms & democracy alive.