First-year finance, economics, supply chain and risk management student Landon Lyle announced his plans to run for county council in Oconee County, South Carolina. A native of Seneca, South Carolina, Lyle aims to represent District III as a Republican on Oconee’s five-person council.
According to Lyle, his campaign is focused on local priorities, resident feedback and achieving results.
"My biggest priority working at the County Council is to put long-term interests over short-term politics," Lyle said. "This means keeping the government accessible, accountable and most importantly, showing up."
The election is June 9, and the filing period opens March 16. The current District III representative, Don Mize, has not yet announced if he will run again after his term expires in December 2026.
After filing for candidacy, Lyle will launch a website to help with fundraising for the campaign. Consistent with his belief in fiscal transparency, Lyle says the website will display where every dollar of the funds will be applied .He intends to reinvest any leftover campaign funds back into the community.
“I want to use all the remaining funds, and I want to help run a back-to-school drive for all the kids that live in downtown Seneca,” Lyle said. “I think they could really use that.”
Lyle has been interested in politics since childhood. At age 7, he informed his parents he would be a senator one day. As he got older, he turned his attention to the county council as an avenue to benefit his community.
“It’s not like this is a lucrative role — something you have to be involved in politics for all your life to understand,” Lyle said. “This is just something where you can put your integrity and your character before career politics.”
Plans
While studying topics like finance and economics at USC, Lyle is putting this knowledge into action with his campaign goals. He said he believes Oconee residents deserve proactive development, responsible budgeting and fiscal transparency.
“I want to make a comprehensive sheet where any citizen of Oconee County can look at where every single dollar of their tax money is going,” Lyle said.
Beyond transparency, county spending needs to be more efficient, Lyle said. The Oconee population is growing at roughly 1% per year — the county's infrastructure is not able to support its growth, he said .
“They had to play catch-up on the sewage system in Oconee County,” Lyle said. “I want to do proactive development.”
The county recently received a $2 million grant for its local airport, but 92% of the people using the Oconee County Regional Airport are private aircraft owners as opposed to everyday Oconee residents, Lyle said.
Lyle was able to estimate the potential impact of the $2 million on Oconee's roads, stating that one million dollars could go toward five or six miles of roadway.
"If you got $2 million and you put it towards that, you could repave an entire street in downtown Seneca," Lyle said.
Shivam Patel, a friend of Lyle and computer engineering student at Clemson University, said Lyle is meticulous with his ideas and excels at balancing responsibilities. Patel was in DECA, an organization that develops career skills in students, at Seneca High School alongside Lyle and said the experience helped them learn how to create thorough and extensive plans.
“He understands what he's talking about, and he won't talk about it unless he is fully confident in his own answer,” Patel said.
Campaigning
Though Seneca is a two-and-a-half-hour drive from USC, Lyle will make frequent trips to his hometown throughout the semester for the campaign.
“If I have to go home on a Wednesday, Thursday afternoon just to go knock on a couple doors, that's something that I'm extremely excited to do,” Lyle said.
Lyle said that his grassroots campaign strategy focuses on connecting with people. Alongside friends who will serve as campaign interns, Lyle plans on going door-to-door during the campaign period.
“There’s going to be people that don’t want to hear what you have to say, but there’s going to be people that do,” Lyle said. “Those people are more than willing to hear what you have to say and what policies that you want to propose to them.”
Patel and Seneca High School senior Nathan Ura plan to help with campaign efforts such as door-knocking and flyer distribution.
Ura, who met Lyle in his sophomore year, described him as a strong communicator who can unite different kinds of people. Lyle’s policies are appealing because they address noticeable issues in the community, Ura said.
"He's a good leader," Ura said. "I just think he'd be in a great spot to lead a community."