Local businessman Bill Hixon has announced he will run for the S.C. House District 83 seat, which will be vacated in the fall by current Rep. Don Smith.

Smith has announced he will not run again for the seat he has held for the last 10 years.

Hixon, who with his mother, Elizabeth, owns a real estate and insurance business in North Augusta, said he has lived in North Augusta all his life and has worked in the district in question all his adult life.

“This is where I was born and raised,” said Hixon, a Republican. “It couldn’t be a better place for me to run.”

Hixon ran unsuccessfully for the S.C. Senate in 2007 and admitted that part of the problem was he was not well-known in McCormick County – a large portion of Senate District 25.

“I know a lot of people here,” he said of the House District 83, which includes Merriwether – where Hixon lives – North Augusta and Belvedere.

Hixon’s parents started Hixon Realty and Insurance Company in 1952, and Hixon went to work there in 1977 after graduating from high school in 1976.

“I had to wait until I turned 18 to get my real estate and insurance license,” he said, noting he was one of Dr. Curly Watson’s deliveries at University Hospital and had been in North Augusta ever since then, for 52 years and counting.

A member of the board of the Economic Development Partnership, Hixon said he sees jobs and the economy as the major issues facing the state legislature and District 83 in particular.

“Getting businesses in to help offset the tax issues is important,” he said, adding that putting people back to work is a major part of that.

“We can have all the real estate in the world, but we need people to market vacant buildings successfully,” he said, acknowledging the area is lucky to have EDP Executive Director Fred Humes, who he said is good at putting together the right pieces to bring in new businesses.

In addition to bringing in new companies, Hixon said the legislature needs to do its part to keep things going in the businesses already in place – “including SRS,” he said.

Hixon pointed out that the seat for which he’s going to run is essentially the same seat held by his father in the mid-’50s.

He said he had discussed his candidacy with his “board of directors” and has received their blessing – “my mama, my brother, my nephews and my girlfriend,” he explained.

Filing for House District 83 begins at noon on March 16 and concludes on noon March 30, along with most other seats up for grabs in November. The primary election day is June 8 with a potential run-off date of June 22. The general election is set for Nov. 2.

Hixon is the first to announce his intentions to run for the seat.