The details are murky, but they both agree that they met when she was a model at a Mother’s Day church event. Commissioner Bobby Powell outright denies that it was her beauty and infectious smile that blew him away. He points to something a bit more unconventional.
“They talked about her acumen and how smart she was and as she walked down the model stage I could see her brains.” claims the commissioner. “And I just thought, wow, she does look really smart!” (He did, however, admit that she also has some nice legs.)
He introduced himself but she admits that she was taken aback. “I just thought he was rather bold to come up to me with his girlfriend,” said Whitney Baldwin Powell, a partner at Cole Scott & Kissane. It ended up being his sister and though she thought he was cute, when he introduced himself as her state representative she said he came off a bit cocky. “I did what anyone would do. I gave him my business card.”
“They met but she thought it was a business meeting.
“I think she even brought her briefcase.”
“He was really slick and said let’s take a picture,” Whitney recalls. He then offered to text her, but when he didn’t contact her, she grew suspicious. What exactly did he plan to do with her image anyway? She decided to do what any decent lawyer would do. She threatened him with legal action.
“I better not see this on any campaign material,” she hissed. He ended up calling after her threats of a cease and desist.and asked her out to dinner.
But she still remained clueless. She thought he wanted to talk about one of his community initiatives.
There was nothing that was farther than the truth. Married since 2017, they now share a six-year old daughter, who remains the apple of her daddy’s eye.
And as for Whitney, she cannot imagine her life without him. He is her biggest love and her constant champion. “He is always pushing me to be the best that I can be,” she said.
“And even when I try to fall in the background he is always like, ‘No. you need to stand beside me and not behind me.”
He is a testament of support for his wife and family every single day.
