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Dustin Strickland
Dustin Strickland ran for election to the Hickory City Council to represent Ward 1 in North Carolina. He lost in the primary on October 8, 2019.
Strickland completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2019. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Dustin Strickland earned a bachelor's degree in pharmacy from the University of Georgia. His career experience includes working in the pharmaceutical industry in allergy immunotherapy.[1]
Elections
2019
See also: City elections in Hickory, North Carolina (2019)
General election
General election for Hickory City Council Ward 1
Tony Wood defeated Carmen Eckard in the general election for Hickory City Council Ward 1 on November 5, 2019.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Tony Wood (Nonpartisan) | 66.1 | 2,104 | |
 | Carmen Eckard (Nonpartisan)  | 33.7 | 1,071 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.2 | 6 | ||
| Total votes: 3,181 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Hickory City Council Ward 1
Tony Wood and Carmen Eckard defeated Dustin Strickland in the primary for Hickory City Council Ward 1 on October 8, 2019.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Tony Wood (Nonpartisan) | 57.7 | 142 | |
| ✔ | | Carmen Eckard (Nonpartisan) | 31.3 | 77 |
 | Dustin Strickland (Nonpartisan) | 11.0 | 27 | |
| Total votes: 246 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Campaign themes
2019
Ballotpedia biographical submission form
The candidate completed Ballotpedia's biographical information submission form:
| “ | What is your political philosophy?
I want to retain our youth population, bring jobs and associated training that support livelihood, and to prevent bond implementation city improvement projects from fostering displacement from homes or causing a lack of affordable housing. Is there anything you would like to add? Member of ACLU, SPLC, NAACP.[2] |
” |
| —Dustin Strickland[1] | ||
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Dustin Strickland completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2019. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Strickland's responses.
What would be your top three priorities, if elected?
My top priority is to minimize the displacement of residents who may be impacted by the bond implementation projects (City Walk, Riverwalk, Book Walk), and have some sort of housing assistance/affordable housing available to those who are. Future enhancements to the city designed to attract new residents should also appeal to our current young population to retain that youth. These enhancements could include anything from leisure/recreation to setting up their future, with education and training programs for the careers we need them to make here, which leads me to the third priority. General improvement of livelihood. Rather than just seeking new jobs for our city, we should include in negotiations over new businesses coming to Hickory accommodations that benefit local employment, such as minimum thresholds of apprenticeship offerings or establishing training programs with CVCC. This would help to retain our younger population or keep current residents in the city.
What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?
Communication and transparency with the public are important for adequate legislation. There are times when the use of funds appears in the consent agenda, which is not up for public discussion (routine business), that I think did warrant further discussion. I also believe the Mayor should have an office with at least some publicly accessible hours.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2019 Elections
External links
Footnotes
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