TIFTON — The next President of the United States could be from Tift County.

The Reverend Samuel Lee Pridgon of Ty Ty is running for the office of President in the 2020 election.

Pridgon, 50, officially filed with the Federal Election Committee on Oct. 24, 2017 and is getting his campaign underway.

Pridgon is local, having grown up in Tifton and graduated from Tift County High School in 1987.

He served a year and a half in the Unites States Navy, was ordained as a minister when he was 21 and served as a pastor in Ben Hill County, Oconee County and Atlanta before returning to Tift County. He is currently the pastor at Bethany Missionary Baptist Church in Ty Ty, where he has been for the past 10 years.

He has been married to Kassandra Scott Pridgon for 25 years. They have two daughters and four grandchildren.

While he has been involved in local issues and the NAACP, he has never run for any political office previously. But he isn’t letting that stop him from running.

“When you say you’re running for president and you’re coming from a place like Ty Ty, Georgia, people don’t take you seriously,” he said. “It’s a joke. I get laughed at a lot.”

Pridgon is serious about building his campaign, having filed with the FEC and beginning fundraising efforts.

“When we think about all of the issues that are presently going on in the world and in our country, there’s so many problems, chaos, crises that have been created,” he said, when asked why he was running. “I feel with what I am able to offer the political arena it might give us a perspective as to where we ought to go in this world and in this country.”

He said that when choosing a president, voters should look at what solutions the candidate is offering, not name recognition or who the candidate’s family is.

“We are trying to elect the “who’s who,” based on a resume,” he said. “When you’re talking about the leader of the free world, we must not consider just the resume. We must be concerned with the what, and the what is the solution. The President of the United States must be the solution to the problems that we are facing in this country.”

Pridgon cited several issues that he particularly feels should be addressed.

He felt that the federal government has overlooked the needs of the citizens in Puerto Rico after the devastating storms of 2017.

“The federal government has a responsibility to the citizens of the country after a natural disaster,” he said. “I feel the citizens of Puerto Rico have been completely overlooked.”

He also cited recent upswings in both gun violence and race-related incidents as key issues that compelled him to run for office.

“Some of the things that are coming out of the present administration bothers me,” he said, discussing race. “I think the leader of the free world should be very careful as to what is being conveyed.”

He said that the slogan “Make America Great Again” gives him pause.

“To some of us, America has never been great,” he said. “So to which ethnic group of people are you speaking?”

He feels that racism has “reared its ugly head again,” and that the country is at the point of another civil war — one that will be fought with the ballot rather than with weapons.

“These are the things that have catapulted me into the arena,” he said. “Maybe I can offer some solace. Maybe I can offer some answers to help calm and focus the nation.”

“We must have competent answers,” he said. “That is the concern. We must seek competent solutions to the problems that are facing us.”

While Pridgon would be running on the Democratic ticket, he says he considers himself what he terms a “libcon.”

“I believe there are some issues we ought to be liberal with and I believe there are some issues we ought to be conservative with,” he explained. “We ought to allow people to live their lives as freely as possible, but we have to be very careful.

“I don’t think there is one right way. We have to be bi-partisan in this country, and no one party has the solution to the problems we’re facing.”

His campaign slogan is “We For By.” He said it stands for “We the people. For the people. By the people.”

“We so often leave the common man out,” he said. “Our campaign is focused on the common man, the everyday person that has needs. We hope that, from that perspective, we are able to generate a campaign that will catapult up on to Washington.”

Pridgon highlights raising the minimum wage, education and child care and health care as concerns he wants to address.

He believes that the minimum wage should be at least $15-$20 an hour so that a person can raise a family by working one job, and that schools, federal buildings and corporations should have free on-site daycare facilities. He also believes that we should encourage legal immigration into the country and keep the promise of DACA, but that the immigration process should be reformed and that the borders should be secured.

He wants the United States military to get more funding, and that it should be larger to match the size of the population.

“America is sitting on a powder keg,” he said. “The next two or three years will determine what will happen. We don’t need to consider a president because of who he is or what what family he originates. That is a recipe for disaster.”

He believes that providing solutions should be the litmus test for choosing the next president.

“I believe that people ought to be competent,” he said. “I believe in integrity, I believe in character, I believe in honesty. I think these are the qualities that I have to offer the nation, and so on that record, I run.”  

Follow Eve Guevara on Twitter @EveGuevaraTTG.