Ted Hutto hopes to take business prowess and desire to expand CTE in schools to House

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Long-time businessman in Pampa, Ted Hutto, is campaigning against Republican Ken King (Canadian) in the upcoming March primary for District 88.

“When we started looking into this we saw some needs that needed to be addressed,” Hutto said. “The radical left has taken control over this (State) coming into our schools and the border wall. I just wanted to come in and see if I could make a difference on this (State) deal. I’m a businessman, I make deals and I feel like deals and negotiations could be done a whole lot better in Austin than what’s going down.”

A 1981 graduate of Pampa High School, Hutto has been an entrepreneur in Pampa since 1989 and has been on the Pampa Economic Development Corporation Board of Directors the last couple of years.

“Wearing a lot of different hats and being in a lot of different businesses, the Pampa EDC really opened my eyes to a lot of deals,” Hutto said. “We’ve been blessed with a very good Board before who was very conservative. Through this whole Covid deal with the whole new board coming on, we have a lot of opportunities and tools to work with the EDC.”

Having been involved with the EDC, Hutto sees an opportunity not just for Pampa, but the rural-heavy District 88.

“I realized there’s a lot of money out there for these EDCs to help rural America grow,” Hutto said. “That’s what rural America has to have. But getting to that money is a lot harder than what’s advertised. That’s one thing I’d like to pursue the most. As we got into this and started seeing not only Pampa’s declining population [but the whole area].

“This new district is 19 counties, and 13 counties have declining population. Not only over the last 10 years, but the last several decades.”

Besides economic growth, Hutto would like to see growth in the career-technical education and vocational programs.

“Our last superintendent (Dr. Tanya Larkin, Pampa ISD) put together a steering committee that I was on,” Hutto said. “We brought in 20 companies for representation to move harder on vocational trainings.

“At the end of the day, if we can get kids coming out of high school in something like welding, and there are so many areas we can go into, but they can go right into the work place with great jobs, great pay and be close to home. We can have a workforce with none of this crippling debt we are used to seeing.”

Hutto stressed he wasn’t taking anything away from academic, post-secondary education.

As for what separates Hutto from incumbent Ken King, it’s the ability to network.

“What we bring to the table is contacts, negotiations and the ability to reach out to others with Christian and moral values/ethics brings a lot to the table,” Hutto said. “That’s what we are going to drive on this deal: to do the right thing. I don’t want to throw stones at anybody, I just want to do the right thing.”

Hutto has served the Pampa community in several capacities including the Grandview-Hopkins School Board, Pampa High School Advisory Board, First Baptist Church Committee, the Pampa EDC Board, Pampa Energy Center Board and Pampa CTE Committee.

Hutto has been married to his wife, Becci, for almost 35 years and the couple has three children, two Daughters, Alex (husband Colton), Andi (husband Jace) and Ty (wife Madison) and five grandchildren with one on the way. Both Hutto’s and Becci’s moms also live close to home.

For more information visit huttofortexas.com and click the e-mail link. He can also be reached on the Facebook page “Hutto for Texas.” Hutto’s grassroots campaign appreciates any contributions but the most important thing for Hutto was to be accessible to potential constituents.

“A republic is the power of the people to elect an official to go do what they (the people) wish and what’s right,” Hutto said. “I take that very highly.”