Jerome Rice for Mayor

Jerome Rice is an educator and football coach at Spartanburg High School who is serving his third term on the Spartanburg City Council. Jerome and his wife of 24 years, Shay Rice, have four children and four grandchildren together. 

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Growing up here in Spartanburg, Jerome learned the value of hard work, dedication, and leadership on the football field at Whitlock Jr. High and Spartanburg High School as a student athlete. Success in football and academics took Jerome from Spartanburg to Wake Forest University, and then USC Upstate, where he graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies. After being inspired, Jerome chose to stay in Spartanburg and make a positive impact on his local community as an educator, coach, and through civic organizations. 

Jerome is running for Mayor of Spartanburg to continue the progress that Spartanburg's City government has been able to achieve over the past decade. By building coalitions with his colleagues on Council for the past 12 years, Jerome has been able to help Spartanburg City bunce back from Covid-19, re-invest in public safety, re-vitalize the Highland Neighborhood, and re-develop Downtown. He looks forward to building on that progress while also moving forward on issues that are important to the future of Spartanburg - such as increasing early childhood education opportunities, fulfilling the Rice Initiative Toward Justice, and creating good-paying job opportunities in the city.