Kesha Gibson-Carter says voters have a clear choice to make on Tuesday, Nov. 7, at the polls. The primary challenger to incumbent Van Johnson for Mayor of Savannah, Gibson-Carter recently spoke with Connect Savannah about her campaign, her priorities for the city, and yes, about her opponent.
During her relatively short time on City Council, Gibson-Carter says she saw enough to know a change at mayor was needed. Accountability, transparency and urgency were themes of her message to voters just over a week out from Election Day.
“On the campaign trail, people are always asking me, ‘what are you going to do as mayor?’ Or ‘what will you do differently?’ My response might surprise them because, as I say, I’m not going to do anything [by] myself. That’s the disconnect right now,” she said. “For forty years, people have been led by politicians who have led them astray by making them believe that they are actually working for them.”
“You know, [politicians] have their pom-poms and they’re cheering for you, but when they get behind those closed doors and when they get under that gold dome [at Savannah City Hall], they’re doing something totally different. It’s totally different when it comes down to how they vote.”
After spending nearly four years on city council, the idea of putting the mayor’s office on a pedestal is backwards in her mind. Instead, says Gibson-Carter, issues arise when the mayor isn’t held accountable simply because they are the mayor.
“That’s the problem with Van Johnson. People have made him a celebrity and stopped looking at him as a servant,” she said. “And that’s why I work to tell people, don’t make me your hero, don’t make me your celebrity. I don’t need to sit in the front. I don’t need the special plate. I don’t need to go through the line first.”
It isn’t her first time trying to unseat an incumbent. Gibson-Carter, 50, has been through this before.
In 2019, she defeated incumbent Carol Bell for the Post 1 at-large seat on City Council. She was one of seven new members on a Savannah City Council which took office in January 2020 before being immediately dealt the hand of dealing with COVID-19 starting the very next month. Gibson-Carter’s time on the council was eventful, thanks mostly to her willingness to speak out against what she perceived to be flaws in policy or practice. More than what decisions are made, her complaints are more focused on the way decisions are made.
“There’s a culture in local Savannah government,” she said during a June 2023 City Council workshop.“There’s a notion of ‘you can’t get something for nothing.’ That’s the table we sit at now.”
Her displeasure sparked her campaign for mayor in the summer of 2022.
“We must find a way to return to a place where we don’t have these politicians winning only because they are just willing to keep telling people whatever it is they want to hear,” she said. “As the leader of this city, I will not be liked by everybody. I’m not going to make decisions that will be well received by everyone. I know that. I think that I have – and most people who know me know this too – I’ve had enough experience and plenty of practice to accept it as a responsibility that comes with a position of leadership.”
A mother of three and grandmother of one, Gibson-Carter has focused on homelessness and crime as issues where she believes Johnson’s administration has fallen short. If citizens aren’t concerned with those issues, Gibson-Carter says they should be.
“People feel like they are far removed from crime, from poverty, from homelessness, and think they should not care. I’ll go back to the message of ‘we are our brother’s keeper.’ There are not that many degrees of separation,” she said. “Violence – downtown violence or anywhere in the city – it affects communities all over Savannah. Bullets don’t have names. They don’t have zip codes.”
Visit Gibson-Carter’s official campaign website at www.kgc68mayor.com. Follow her on social media, @kgc4sav.
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This article appears in Connect Savannah | November, 2023.
