Linda Ketner
US Congress, District 1 (D)
Linda Ketner has been a successful businesswoman and community leader in South Carolina for twenty-five years. In her early career, most of Ms. Ketner's clients were Fortune 500 companies, but for the past fifteen years she has taught management skills to nonprofit groups for little-to-no payment. She works to help nonprofit organizations apply business solutions to state problems.
Ketner formed South Carolina Citizens for Housing in 1992 after learning that thousands of South Carolinians got their water from a creek and one in seven of us lived in dangerous housing. She led the bipartisan passage of the Housing Trust Fund Bill, resulting in thousands of safe, livable homes for families and thousands of new jobs.
Linda has built a career on providing leadership and sound economic solutions for South Carolina. She makes independent decisions based on what works, instead of following a party line. She will bring that same practicality and leadership to represent the people of South Carolina in Congress.
Linda has served as: President, Coastal Community Foundation and Charleston Interfaith Crisis Ministries; Chair of Mayor's Council On Homelessness, S.C. Equality Coalition and S.C. Housing Trust Fund; Founder of S.C. Citizens For Housing and Alliance for Full Acceptance. She served on the boards of Health Sciences Foundation, YWCA of the USA, Riley Public Policy Institute, and College of Charleston Women Studies.
She earned her B.A. in English from UNC-Chapel Hill, M.A. in Sociology from UNC-Greensboro and was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Sociology from Columbia College.
Here are Ms. Ketner's answers to some questions posed by the Institute.
Why you – why now for US Congress?
Our state and our country are at a fork in the road. We can take the same old path, with the same old people; but if we do, we can expect only the same old unsatisfactory results. Our system is broken...a few hundred lobbyists in Washington have more power in our government than the three hundred million of us in the rest of America. 'We the People' – not liberals or conservatives – must reclaim the political process and take a practical, principled new path forward that works for all of us.
What is your leadership style?
I believe a leader touches something in someone which makes them want to take action. I'm best when I'm leading by inspiring others to make a difference. It's also important to me as a leader to listen to all sides and to find synergistic (1+1=3) solutions. For example, if there is a Republican "right way," and a Democrat "right way," and both sides are immovable, let's find a third way that meets both objectives that we haven't thought of before. This approach takes longer - and should be saved for important decisions - but many of the solutions we will face in the coming months will require this creative, nonpartisan approach.
With so few women in elected office here in SC what do you foresee to be your greatest challenge once elected to public office?
Like women who have gone before me, it will be my privilege and responsibility to forge a path for those coming after me. I wouldn’t be running today were it not for Liz Patterson (the only woman ever to have served in Congress from S.C.); or, my many heroines in state government: Lucille Whipper, Harriet Keyserling, Gilda Cobb Hunter, Candy Waites, Inez Tannenbaum, Rita McKinney; and finally, for the men who support more excellent women in government.
How much money will you need to raise? If you were not running for office and had that amount of money where would you spend it?
I'll need to raise a couple of million and at the end of the second quarter, we were on schedule as we topped the $1 million mark.
If I spent that money elsewhere, I'd make another investment in the One Laptop Per Child program here in South Carolina, which is a project of private donors through the Palmetto Project and the Department of Education. This program's goal is to provide a laptop - using private, not taxpayer, money - to each child in South Carolina elementary schools. Better education is the energy for a new economy, less crime, and restoration of the American Dream.
What keeps you awake at night?
The unsettling knowledge that although as individuals and society, we have the potential to create our lives by our choices, and so are capable of great things - instead of thoughtfully planning ahead to secure the hopes and dreams of our children and grandchildren, we seem to be on a destructive path of short term and special interest choices that truly endanger America's future. A perfect example is the predictable yet crippling energy crisis that our government has ignored for more than thirty years. We need change in Washington.
To learn more, visit Linda Ketner's Website - http://lindaketner.com/