What to know about Swain Primary candidates for county commissioner
On March 3, six candidates — three Democrats and three Republicans — will compete for Swain County commissioner. The winner of each primary race will move to the General Election Nov. 3, where they’ll face the opposing party in a bid for the seat held by current commissioner Philip Carson.
Bradley Hall, Chris Reed and Erika Smith will be on the Democratic ticket, while Lisa Barker, incumbent Carson and current chairman Jay Kirkland have filed as Republicans.
Democratic candidates
Hall has worked in finance for the past 12 years, a background that he said would inform and better his work as county commissioner.
Bradley Hall. Photo from Facebook
“The county is basically a business,” he said. “I think it needs someone who can look at financial records. And whether we’re earning money, if we’re losing money, how we’re using our resources effectively.”
Reed is an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. As a board member, he would plan to use his unique perspective to bridge the gap between tribal and Swain County governments.
Chris Reed. Donated photo
“I see issues that affect both the tribe and the county,” he said.
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“I want to definitely show the residents of Swain County that I care about them and their issues … even though I’m enrolled, I’m here to help the greater county residents,” Reed added.
Smith cited her 12 years of real estate experience as the reason behind her detailed knowledge of county affordable housing and infrastructure, key to the responsibilities of a commissioner.
“My work has had me get involved in a lot of issues into the town, and then that opened up what’s going on with the issues with the county,” she said.
Those issues include infrastructure so outdated that it’s prevented small town revitalization investors from financing affordable housing projects in the area.
“They cannot put up apartment complexes because we don’t have the infrastructure there. Our sewer lines are four inches,” Smith said.
Erika Smith. Donated photo
“We have clay lines,” she added. “I live on Hospital Hill. These lines are all clay.”
Hall pointed out another underground service that’s come up short time and time again.
“There was a grant for wired internet where Swain County and a bunch of other counties are supposed to have wired internet service … and if we were able to expedite that … we would be able to bring in people who work remote,” he said, adding that these newcomers would pay property taxes and spend money locally, thus boosting the area’s economy.
Hall also pointed to one particular Bryson City road routinely plaguing residents with problems.
“Every week, it seems like, on the various rants and raves pages for Swain County, someone complains about a good chunk of Main Street,” he said, noting the “uneven potholes” commonly referenced.
Reed, too, mentioned a specific corridor, though his affected not motorists but pedestrians.
“There’s a little S-bend where you can see the train trestle run across the river and right there on U.S.-19 … [I] have seen people walking in the middle of the road because there’s no sidewalk there,” he said.
Reed thought that the county generally could use more sidewalks. He also “would like to see more night lighting” and “more transit areas for our transit buses” — anything that might “help increase the quality of life.”
“That’s what I’m really looking for,” Reed said. “Because even here in Cherokee, there’s areas that the tribe doesn’t touch because they consider a county issue, yet it’s on tribal land.”
Collaboration between EBCI and the county, which could look like tribal-county coalitions, would be a key component of his service.
Meanwhile, Smith emphasized collaboration within the county and larger region.
“We don’t need to ignore other agencies. We don’t need to ignore the [Tourism Development Authority]. We don’t need to ignore the town alderman, and we don’t need to ignore other counties. We need to get along with everybody, work with them, learn from them, and grow with them,” she said.
According to Reed, inter-group communication might be especially helpful when mitigating a lack of affordable housing, a shared issue. To that tune, he noted that Swain County is “trying to attract workers, but there’s no housing available.”
“We need to be able to start being proactive, to look at opportunities and ways to attract those people,” he added.
Hall further emphasized the scarce housing opportunities for anyone both working and living in the county.
“There’s so many houses here that are good houses, but they’re Airbnbs and such and other vacation rentals,” he said.
As a result, “the homes and the jobs part [are] what I’m really wanting to build here,” Hall told The Smoky Mountain News. It’s not just any type of career, though, that Hall is looking to encourage.
“If we can get more jobs that are not dependent on tourism, then that will bring more people here,” he said.
To Smith that might look like centering an entirely different industry.
“There were manufacturing jobs here, and if we can get something along those lines, either manufacturing or even distributing … let’s focus on something like that,” she said, adding that quality must be considered alongside quantity.
“We need to make sure these companies coming in … are going to be treating our workers correctly, they’re going to be paying living wages,” she said.
Reed, in turn, spoke about job creation through the lens of local small businesses.
“I would love to see more independent shops and things open,” he said, noting that this expansion benefits locals by providing more proximate resources while appealing the town to tourists.
Though visitor spending benefits residents, the candidates agreed that the interests of the two parties don’t always align. Hall and his wife rented their Baines Mountain home through Airbnb while she was enrolled in a doctoral program in Raleigh, so he knows all about the loopholes available to this group of Schedule E-filing property owners.
“If you have to hire someone to mow your yard, you can deduct the cost of that. If you have to switch out the propane tank on your gas grill, you can deduct the cost of that … You can deduct the interest. You can deduct insurance — everything but the actual amount that’s for mortgage,” he said.
Consequently, Hall would “definitely” support slightly increasing the taxes of Airbnb owners. Smith concurred.
“If we are looking to raise taxes somewhere, [Airbnbs] should be the first place that we are starting,” she said.
Unfortunately, the county cannot impose a higher property tax on Airbnbs specifically —any raise would affect both business owners and residents.
As for tax cuts, Smith would potentially support a lower — or nonexistent — tax on the elderly.
“I believe in removing [a tax on the elderly] completely. I don’t think it’s sustainable, but it’s a cool idea,” she said.
Reed thought similarly.
“People over the age of probably 50 are some of the higher demographics of residents here in Swain County … being able to help reduce tax costs to that particular demographic, I think would be beneficial,” he said.
Smith figured that regardless of the political climate, “taxes are going to have to increase over time.”
“It’s inevitable, but … we have got to pay our teachers better,” she added.
Education isn’t the only department for which she’d advocate increased funding.
“I think we need more funding everywhere,” Smith told SMN. “I think we need more paid police officers. I’m pro-police. I’m pro-sheriff’s office.”
On the other hand, it’s also important to confront root causes.
“We need funding for rehabilitation programs, not just drug rehabilitation, but offender rehabilitation … not the in-and-out, in-and-out, in-and-out, same people in and out,” she said.
Hall also addressed the interplay of prevention and enforcement, promoting addiction treatment while emphasizing what he believed the need to arrest drug suppliers.
“We really need to work to clean up the communities,” he said.
Still, noted Hall, Swain County could use “a check-in program, more case workers, more people who are working on that.”
Reed, meanwhile, discussed ways to combat an upcoming policy that’s also likely to affect rehabilitation and treatment — the rollout of the federal budget.
“I would look at [increased funding to] our hospital … because when the Trump administration signed the One Big, Beautiful Bill, it put a lot of rural healthcare systems at risk. In our district, NC-11 alone, there were, I believe, six hospitals that are on the chopping block.”
Data from the University of North Carolina has identified five hospitals at imminent risk of closure across the state as the OBBB takes effect, two of which — Franklin’s Angel Medical Center and Spruce Pine’s Blue Ridge Regional — are in the 11th congressional district. Though many other hospitals are harmed by the bill’s sweeping cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, especially those in rural areas.
Either way, it is difficult to estimate exactly how much money to direct to each sector without a transparent and comprehensive local budget. And all three candidates agreed that was something Swain County lacked.
“I think that if we basically can keep better track of people who work for the county and what they’re doing … we would be able to … keep better track of how much buildings and such are costing to run,” said Hall.
According to Smith, “Everyone’s asking the same question, ‘Where’s our money going?’”
Reed mentioned a tool readily available to those in office.
He’d really like to “have someone ... come in and do an independent audit … and see these areas that are of need or being overfunded,” he said.
State law does require an annual independent audit, publicly available in Swain County as recently as 2024. The 2025 document will probably be published within the next few months. However, the fact that one candidate — and likely many other constituents — aren’t aware of the audit’s existence suggests a potential communication breakdown between residents and the board.
Thoughts on party
To understand that running as a Democrat is unpopular in Swain County, one needs look no further than the current, entirely Republican board of commissioners.
Knowing that it might cost them, candidates discussed their decision to wholeheartedly embrace the Democratic ticket — both what being a Democrat means personally and how they’ll interact with county Republicans.
To Reed, the party label beside his name aligns with his values; it’s as simple as that. But his affiliation doesn’t negate to his willingness to extend a hand across the aisle.
“Yes, I am running on the Democratic ticket, but I do want to ensure folks that even if they don’t agree with me or my politics, I’ll still work for them, and I’ll still want to be there to help them,” he said.
Smith, too, believes in liberal principles but was adamant that her ability to listen, respect and learn from others is not influenced by any measure of political alignment.
“A lot of people did not know [I’m a] Democrat … I think that’s great that they didn’t know, because that means that I’m not pushing politics ahead of community … you don’t have to agree with someone’s personal politics to be able to work with them,” she said.
Hall is running as a Democrat for an entirely practical reason: he’s seen that, in Swain County, there are nearly the same number of registered Democrats as there are Republicans.
“To have some [Democratic] representation on the county commission board would be definitely beneficial for us … but also, I believe, for Swain County as a whole, to have a different way of thinking on the board,” he said.
June 2025 State Board of Elections data about Swain voters reported about 78 registered Democrats per 100 registered Republicans, and 82 registered Republicans for every 100 registered as unaffiliated.
Republican candidates
Newcomer Barker, incumbent Carson and current chairman Kirkland will be running as Republicans. Of the candidates, only Kirkland responded to SMN’s multiple requests for comment.
Kirkland told SMN he’s running simply as commissioner because he “honestly felt like you probably need a little more experience than what I’ve had.”
Jay Kirkland. Donated photo
Though the expertise he’s gained over the past few months since his appointment — filling the seat of resigned former chairman Kevin Seagle — is the reason he’s throwing his hat back into the ring at all.
“I’m getting a lot of experience fast,” said Kirkland.
Plus, he wants to stay involved in county activities, though he knows firsthand that being chairman, especially right now, is a lot of work.
“I can’t ever remember time in our county when our chairman’s resigned, our county manager, our sheriff. Our superintendent’s leaving. Football coach is leaving. Our town manager’s leaving … there’s just no security there,” he said.
There are other issues the chairman has grappled with during his short term — namely, public calls for accountability from current commissioners. Though Kirkland found it difficult to jump to conclusions about any overspending without seeing the budget.
“And that’s what I told [commissioner] David Loftis,” he recounted. “I said, ‘David, until we have concrete evidence, we have no ground to stand on.’”
In the future, he’ll ensure accountability by directing the new county manager “to sit down with each department head” to discuss hours worked and performance.
“And quite frankly, if you’re not doing your job, you get fired,” Kirkland said.
On top of promoting diligent recordkeeping, commissioners “have got to figure out how to get more money in our county without raising property tax,” he said, suggesting a tax raise on second mortgages.
However, in practice, there is no way for the county to single out this class of homeowner. At the end of the day, he can’t understand why the county receives so little funding. “There’s no reason we’ve got the tourists that we have in Swain County, and our schools and our county is struggling to meet budget. There’s no excuse. Somebody’s not doing their job,” he said.
In reality, the situation in Swain County is not any one individual’s fault at all. Tourists generate revenue through occupancy, or room, tax, mandated by state law to be managed by the Tourism Development Authority, a group then required to allocate nearly all of it to tourism-related services. At the same time, an influx of tourists requires the county to spend money on more public services, straining its resources. The primary way counties generate revenue is through property taxes, and with such a small tax base, Swain is firmly stuck in a cycle it did not create or consent to.
However, given a hypothetical instance of increased funding, Kirkland would prioritize the school system and parks. Regarding the rec park, Kirkland told SMN that he “would love to for kids to be able to have more through the summer and do more.” After all, he said, “It’s all about your kids in your county.”
Hence the chairman’s advocacy for the public school system.
“I know the state sets the teacher salary, but then I know in some counties, the counties can kick in and subsidize a teacher salary, and we’ve got teachers — I just don’t think they make enough. I wish we could move that quarter percent we get for the schools to 1%. I wish we could do more for our teachers, our kids, our school,” said Kirkland.
He recommended increased funding for law enforcement, noting that “Brian’s doing a phenomenal job.” Kirkland also brainstormed a strategy in the case of conflicting interests across departments.
“I want to meet with the school board, the commissioners and the train people and the town at a round table, and everybody address their problems and sat down and looked at each other eye-to-eye,” he said.
And it’s important to have effective resources — for every department.
“I’m strongly for having good equipment. I think if you have good equipment, you get better people,” he said.
When asked about moments of pride from his term thus far as board chairman, Kirkland thought he’s succeeded in “communicating with everyone and setting up meetings and meeting people when I say I’m going to meet people and doing what I say I’m going to do.”
“And I think engaging in conversation is super big for me, whether it’s the county to the public, the county to this town, the town to the county to the school board,” he added.
Part of this push toward conversation involves moving a town hall-style public forum to every work session.
“But in saying that, if it gets chaotic and it gets out of hand, then we’ll probably have to do away with it,” he said.
The chairman has also seen misbehavior from the board of commissioners, citing one instance in which he said, “‘David, I agree with a lot of what you’re saying. I don’t agree with how you say it sometime. I do think people will listen to you if you can be respectful.’”
Finally, SMN asked Kirkland if, in hindsight, there has been anything he’d do differently as chairman.
His answer: “Probably not.”
