NGU Alum Kimbrell Visits Campus During Campaign for Congress
Posted on: February 2, 2021
Josh Kimbrell (’07), North Greenville University alum and Republican candidate for the 4th Congressional District of South Carolina, held a Town Hall at his alma mater on Tuesday, April 17.
The Q&A format of the Town Hall provided NGU faculty, staff, and current students the opportunity to ask Kimbrell about his position on key political issues, ranging from the federal budget to education to foreign affairs.
Kimbrell began the event on a more personal note, however, sharing that even though he’d had an interest in history and politics as early as the age of 12, he “didn’t know why” he held his specific beliefs.
“Coming here changed it all for me,” Kimbrell said, of his time at NGU. “It was really, truly one of the most amazing experiences of my life.”
Kimbrell went on to explain that his faith “deepened substantially” at NGU. He credited the university with helping him learn that, as a Christian, “you can’t have [the] sacred-secular split,” keeping your religious values away from your public life — in his case, both business and politics.
“I do not believe . . . the freedom of this country can be maintained if we cease to be a Judeo-Christian society, because the entire Constitution was conceived in that framework,” Kimbrell said. “You can’t separate the fact that this is a country based on [the belief that] our rights come from God. The only way they’re ‘inalienable’ is that they come from a power greater than the state, greater than the people.”
Kimbrell added that some of the most significant experiences at NGU that prepared him for politics included hosting his own show on the student radio station WNGR-LP 95.5 FM; serving as vice president of the Student Government Association (SGA); and taking classes in economics, writing, and Christian worldview.
Kimbrell studied English and economics at NGU and graduated in 2007. He went on to study finance at Gardner-Webb University and then continued working in the banking sector. He is currently the vice president at CresCom Bank in Greenville, SC.
Since graduating from NGU, Kimbrell has also been involved in politics at the local, state, and national levels. He has served as chairman of the Spartanburg County Republican Party, founder and chairman of the Palmetto Conservative Alliance Foundation, a conservative analyst to Fox News, and a contributor to conservative news source RedState.com. He also hosted a daily conservative talk radio program titled “Common Cents” on Christian Talk 92.9FM/660AM from 2011 until earlier this year, when he announced his candidacy for U.S. Congress.
Kimbrell is in the running to represent the 4th Congressional District of South Carolina, which includes portions of Greenville and Spartanburg Counties. He announced his candidacy on March 12, 2018, and has since raised more than $258,000 toward his campaign, according to his official campaign Facebook page.
Lisa Van Riper, director of public affairs at NGU, announced at Kimbrell’s Town Hall that the university is making greater efforts “to respond to candidates” who request to visit the campus along their campaign trail.
While introducing Kimbrell — one of her former students in NGU’s Honors Scholar Program — Van Riper said that she was especially proud to welcome NGU alumni running for office and to see them become “the ‘living stones’ that go on” and impact the world for Christ.
Learn more about NGU’s Honors Scholar Program and Christian worldview training at Honors at NGU program webpage.
