District 12 legislative candidate Clay Hoffman: ‘I’m running to help create a better future for you and me’
As I head out to go door to door today, I thought about a question I had recently asking why I believe what I do.
A couple months back, I had lunch with a friend originally from Philadelphia. He told me his life story. He grew up in a low-income neighborhood where the folks doing the best financially were engaged in criminal activities. He didn’t have many mentors to look up to, so he started doing that.
Thankfully, his mother (Moms are the best!) set him straight and spent what little money she had and sent him to a military boarding school in the Midwest, and it changed his life for the better. He said the way he was making money wasn’t right, but that was what was happening in his neighborhood.
When I was born, I hit the lottery in a family that loves me unconditionally and I didn’t have to worry about my next meal and we were able to live a middle-class lifestyle. But I understand everyone doesn’t have that privilege.
I believe in giving people a hand up, not a handout. Empowering them, not enabling them. However, I’m also aware enough to realize the world isn’t fair and while there are many stories of people working their way out of bad situations, most don’t, and those that don’t, typically have the deck of cards stacked against them before they’re even born.
As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.”
That’s why I’m running. I want to help out the hungry child who can’t afford school lunch through no fault of their own. I want to help out the family struggling to make ends meet, wondering whether it’s better to keep working or to leave the workforce because of how expensive childcare is.
I want to help the teacher stay in Sioux Falls and South Dakota who is trying to decide whether to leave the state for more money. I want to help the business owner by supporting pro-growth policies so they can continue to grow and expand their business. I’m running to help create a better future for you and me.
Time to head out — and I hope to see you along the trail!
Clay Hoffman is a Democrat running for state Senate in District 12 in central to south-central Sioux Falls. Hoffman, originally from Winner, now lives and works in Sioux Falls. He attended USD but later worked to raise critical funding for students at SDSU. Hoffman now works at a nonprofit agency, helping raise money to provide critical services to youth and their families.
