Durant Wright is challenging incumbent Mike Eason to be the mayor of Dawsonville. Wright threw his name into the proverbial hat last week during qualifying, and is the only challenger in the race.
Wright comes from a small rural town in Tennessee and recently moved to Dawsonville. He works managing family businesses with his wife and her family in Dahlonega, including an event space, a hotel and villas, a storage rental business and several convenience stores.
“That’s one thing I’m passionate about and one thing that’s going to be heavily involved in my platform too,” said Wright. “Emphasizing businesses and getting businesses into Dawsonville. As the residential population is increasing tremendously, we’re not having that commercial growth and the infrastructure growth to sustain this residential increase.”
“One of my main platforms is to try to get local businesses to come into Dawsonville. We have some great businesses already in the city — Atlanta Motorsports Park being one of them as the city’s biggest employer,” Wright continued. “We need to get more businesses that won’t necessarily have the detrimental impact on the small town feel of Dawsonville.”
Wright did acknowledge that he doesn’t have any public service experience, but also noted that “you don’t necessarily have to have political experience to have a positive impact on a city.”
Furthermore, he emphasized that the experience he has gained in the private sector translates very well to public office. “Interpersonal relationships are always very important in business, and that’s another very important issue in politics — brokering deals, that kind of thing. There are many similarities in those aspects.”
Another important priority Wright intends to pursue will be increasing jobs that pay a higher wage within the city.
“A lot of people living in the city and county go elsewhere for work, so it’s very important to bring in more businesses and more high-skill businesses so we can bring more higher-paying jobs to the city,” Wright explained. “That also brings in a lot more tax revenue to the city.”
When asked why someone should vote for him, Wright explained that his passion, work ethic, and fresh ideas are what he considers his strongest assets.
“I’ve always had a passion for public service and I do believe that fresh voices can sometimes be the best voices to turn to in certain situations,” he said. “No one will work harder in making the City of Dawsonville a great place to live and really accentuate what already makes the city great and trying to better things that the city lacks at the moment.”
“I don’t necessarily think that the current administration has done a bad job,” Wright continued. “I will applaud them on many of the things they’ve done. I love the local involvement with getting the farmer’s market going and Food Truck Friday trying to get patrons to the square. But I always think you can get better.”