{"id":7498,"date":"2019-04-24T10:27:57","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T16:27:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/petit-jean\/?p=7498"},"modified":"2019-04-24T10:47:58","modified_gmt":"2019-04-24T16:47:58","slug":"running-with-a-vision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/petit-jean\/2019\/04\/24\/running-with-a-vision\/","title":{"rendered":"Running with a vision"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senior Bobby Boyd ran for mayor in Austin, Arkansas, with the goal of helping the community grow.\u00a0<\/i><\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Senior management major Bobby Boyd made the decision to run for mayor of his hometown, Austin, Arkansas, after realizing there were problems that needed to be fixed within the city. Boyd used his knowledge of business management to help his campaign. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI looked at the process about six years ago and decided not to run in the last election,\u201d Boyd said. \u201cI didn\u2019t feel like I was ready.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Prior to his campaign, Boyd, a 44-year-old non-traditional student, worked for the city in different capacities, which prepared him for a potential political career.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThree years ago, I began working on the planning commission, and then two years ago, I was appointed as chairman of parks and [recreation],\u201d Boyd said. \u201cDuring that time, I started to understand the inner workings of our government.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Mark Davis, professor of business administration, said that this was the first time that a Harding student had run for mayor.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cStudents have shown interest in politics but never ran for mayor,\u201d Davis said. \u201cBoyd is the first that I am aware of running.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Davis believed that majoring in business helped Boyd understand some of the mayoral duties and the policies that were put into place.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe city is still a business,\u201d Boyd said. \u201cI will still have the department heads run their respective departments. If I win, I will be there to help make sure that everything flows smoothly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For many students, it would have been daunting to take on a civil office, but Boyd was not concerned about finding the balance.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe position will be a part-time job,\u201d Boyd said. \u201cWith graduating in the fall, my kids being older and graduate school being online, balancing everything will not be difficult.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Boyd planned to incentivize bringing business into the town of Austin if he won the election.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that we will have to grow business and grow our tax base to be able to afford the things that we want,\u201d Boyd said.<\/span><\/p>\n

After learning that Boyd was running, sophomore management major Rachael MacRae thought it was a good opportunity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe city could benefit from having someone [from] the Harding community and with them being around all types of people,\u201d MacRae said.<\/span><\/p>\n

During his campaign, Boyd ran on Christian values and positivity, remaining friends with the other candidate.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHaving been at Harding has been a blessing in itself,\u201d Boyd said. \u201cMy mission statement is that I am going to run a good Christian campaign. I am not [going] to go low, get ugly or bring in any negativity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The election results were announced on Nov. 6, 2019, and Boyd did not win against the incumbent mayor.<\/span><\/p>\n

Photo Caption: <\/strong><\/p>\n

Senior Bobby Boyd decides to run against the incumbent Mayor Bernie Chamberlain, who has been the mayor of Austin, Arkansas since 1999 \u2014 six consecutive four-year terms. The election results were announced on Nov. 6, 2018. | \u00a0photo by <\/span><\/i>Sterling McMichael<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senior Bobby Boyd ran for mayor in Austin, Arkansas, with the goal of helping the community grow.\u00a0 Senior management major Bobby Boyd made the decision to run for mayor of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15097,"featured_media":7499,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/petit-jean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/petit-jean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/petit-jean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/petit-jean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15097"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/petit-jean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7498"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/petit-jean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7513,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/petit-jean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7498\/revisions\/7513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/petit-jean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/petit-jean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/petit-jean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/petit-jean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}