Socks help Kelley make connections during legislative session
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Big changes in politics don’t always require big actions. Sometimes, something as simple as a pair of socks can help bring about big changes in our state.
At least that’s what State Rep. Trey Kelley hopes his socks did to make Georgia a better place, following an important 40 days of work under the gold dome in Atlanta.
Kelley, who worked this year on the deputy whip team at the state house, wore a pair of colorful, and sometimes mismatched, socks, last session while going about his stately duties. He said the little joke helped him break the ice with house members on both sides of the aisle.
“I started doing it a bit before the legislative session started this year, and just about every day I had a new pair on at the capitol,” he said.
The idea behind the socks was not just to be a conversation starter among members hanging out in the house anteroom. It also served as a daily reminder to members of both parties to not take themselves too seriously on a personal level.
“Several people do wear socks like I do, but I do it because I think it’s important to remember we have a serious job to do up there, but that we shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously,” he said.
“That’s something I hope we never lose in Georgia. It’s something I feel that they’ve forgotten in Washington, that while the work we do is serious, we have to not take it so seriously we can’t be friendly with one another across the aisle. That’s something I don’t want us to lose in Georgia.”
He said the socks have worked in making connections with members in the house who are in the “minority,” as Kelley put it, and in his own party. In an anecdote, Kelley said an unnamed committee chair also keeps up the practice of wearing colorful socks, and during a break in the debate sat next to him on the couch and noticed Kelley’s socks.
“We got a big laugh out of it, and our relationship was closer the entire session,” he said.
His colorful socks turned out to be a great way of putting the right foot foward as part of the deputy whip team as state lawmak- ers dealt with important ranging from transportation spending and motor fuel tax to working toward criminal justice reform. Out of all the bills passed this session, the one Kelley feels will be a big step forward for Georgia in the coming years, even decades, was the passage of House Bill 1.
Kelley said working with State Rep. Allen Peake on the bill allowing for low-THC (tetrahyrdocannabinol) medical marijuana in the form of what is called CBD oil (cannabinol oil) to be used by certain patients in the state for medical purposes was the right thing to do.
He said allowing patients, including children with epileptic seizure disorders and people with degenerative disease like multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease, to have access to medical marijuana means Georgians will be able to get the medical care they need without having to travel to other states.
“We’re sent here to make the lives of Georgians better, and that’s something we can definitely point to and say this will change the lives of Georgians,” Kelley said.