Meet Seth

A Neighbor, Not a Politician

I didn't come up through politics. I came up on a horse farm.

That's not a line — it's where a lot of who I am got formed. Growing up on a farm in Madison County, I learned early that the results people notice come from the work they don't: the feeding, the mucking, the mending fence at six in the morning whether you feel like it or not. Consistency isn't glamorous. But it's how you earn trust, and it's how I intend to serve this county.

Putting Down Roots

My wife Elizabeth grew up right here in Clark County. I grew up one county over. When we started our life together, we could have settled anywhere — and we chose Springfield. In April 2016, we made this our home on purpose, and we've never looked back.

Elizabeth teaches high school art at Northwestern, where she spends her days convincing teenagers they're more creative than they think. We have twin 13-year-old daughters, Charlotte and Olivia, who are heading into 8th grade at Northwestern this fall — which means our house is loud, our calendar is full, and I am regularly outvoted. We've got three dogs, a shelf full of board games we take far too seriously, and a habit of collecting passport stamps whenever life allows.

This is home. My kids are growing up here. Whatever I fight for as commissioner, I'm fighting for the same county my own family lives in.

From Ministry to Main Street

Before I was ever a business owner, I worked in youth ministry. In 2014 — still in ministry, working out of a spare bedroom — I started a marketing company to provide for my family. I called it Big Fish Local.

It wasn't a straight line up. We survived losing a major client, the kind of gut-punch that ends a lot of small businesses. We rebuilt, and we came out of it stronger and a lot clearer about who we are and what we stand for. Today Big Fish Local serves businesses across the country — and I still run it right here from Springfield.

Building something from nothing teaches you things a résumé can't: how to stretch a dollar, how to keep your word when it's expensive, and how to tell the difference between a real solution and a nice-sounding promise. I'll bring all of that to the county budget.

Serving This Community

Building a business never stopped me from serving, and it won't stop now.

I serve as a pastor at Lawrenceville Community Church. I chair the public relations committee for Leadership Clark County. And I lead a community youth group of about 15 kids from churches all across our area — because I've always been drawn to young people. Kids are our future in the most literal sense, and they're often the most open to new ideas, the most willing to think outside the box. Spend time with them and it's hard to be cynical about where we're headed.

This is Personal

Here's the thing about the issues I'm running on: I'm not reading them off a poll. I've lived most of them.

My dad, Danny, came home from Vietnam and has spent his life carrying the cost of it — he's 100% disabled from Agent Orange exposure during the war. It was our county's Veterans Service Commission that helped him finally get the benefits he'd earned. I've seen up close what that office can do for a family, and I've seen how many veterans still don't know it's there.

Addiction isn't an abstraction in my family either. We lost a young relative to an overdose while he was still a teenager. Others we love have spent years fighting to get free — cycling in and out of jail cells that were never going to heal what was actually broken. That's why I believe so strongly that we have to treat this as the health crisis it is, and reach kids early, before the crisis reaches them.

When I talk about seniors, veterans, kids, and recovery, I'm talking about people I love. That's not a strategy. It's just the truth.

Why Now

People ask what made me decide to run. The honest answer is that, at first, other people decided for me — folks in this community sought me out and told me they thought I should.

The more I listened, the more I heard the same thing: people are worn out. Tired of the negativity. Tired of the division. Tired of the same tired answers from local government. I've watched political tribalism turn neighbors into opponents and end friendships that had lasted decades. And I've watched our community make national news for all the wrong reasons.

I couldn't stay quiet while hateful rhetoric was aimed at our Haitian neighbors — people who came here wanting the same thing the rest of us want: a safe place to work and raise a family. That's not the Clark County I know, and it's not the one I want my daughters to grow up in.

I'm running because I believe we can do better than this. Bringing people together is the thing I've spent my whole life doing — in a church, in a business, with a room full of teenagers. I'd like the chance to do it for Clark County.

Why Independent

People ask why I'm not running with a party. Here's the honest answer: the decisions in front of a county commissioner — roads, budgets, development, public safety — aren't Republican or Democrat problems. They're Clark County problems. Running as an Independent means I'm free to do what's right for the people who live here, without checking a party line first.

Given everything I just said about division, that's not a technicality. It's the whole point.

I Need Your Help

If any of this sounds like the kind of leadership you've been hoping for, I'd be honored to earn your vote.