A second Bryan County Democrat has announced he will seek the Democratic nomination for the First Congressional District of Georgia.
Steve Jarvis, a veteran and small business owner, is making his first run at political office, although he said he has been active as a volunteer on several local campaigns in the past.
“I’m a Democrat because I believe elected officials should listen to the people and be their voice,” he said. “I’m for working men and women and the foundation of the American family.”
According to Jarvis's campaign, friends tried to draft him to run for the seat in 2014 as a Republican and even created a campaign committee to that end. The committee received no donations and did not file any reports with the Federal Election Commission. Jarvis did not appear on the primary ballot that year.
The Bryan County News subsequently received an email from Jarvis’s campaign manager stating that he and his firm “are no longer representing or affiliated with the Congressional campaign of Steve Jarvis for philosophical and professional reasons.”
Republican Buddy Carter, a two-term incumbent, said during a visit to Bryan County recently that he is running for re-election.
Lisa Ring, chairwoman of the Bryan County Democratic Committee and a Bernie Sanders delegate to the 2016 Democratic National Convention, announced in June that she would seek her party’s nomination for the seat.
Jarvis, who was born in Savannah, moved to Bryan County with his family about a year ago. Aside from his time in the service, he taught government at both Calvary Day School and Memorial Day School and worked as a parole officer. He now owns a home inspection business.
Jarvis’s campaign website — www.electstevejarvis.com — identifies him as a “conservative” Democrat. He said he disagrees with Ring on several policy issues, but sees Carter as his true opponent.
“He’s not doing the job,” Jarvis said. “And the people of this district are not interested in liberal progressives.”
Health care, for example, is one issue where he departs from most Democrats.
“Single-payer is unaffordable,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense mathematically.”
His website indicates that Jarvis does not think health care is a right, but that Congress must work to make it more affordable.
With his military background, Jarvis said veterans’ issues are important to him and he is unhappy with the treatment of veterans by the VA.
“I’m the only candidate who has served, who has been shot at,” he said. “While I was on the battle fields of Iraq, the current office holder was filling pill bottles in an air conditioned building.”
Carter, the former mayor of Pooler, is a pharmacist by trade.
“We have to protect our borders from terrorism,” Jarvis added. “I’ve seen the end reality of it and their torture.”
The primary is scheduled for May 22, 2018, with the general election to be held Nov. 7, 2018. Any primary involving two or more candidates in which no one receives 50.1 percent of the votes would result in a July run-off.
