Candidates for Swain County Chairman share ideas, platforms
Two Democrats and four Republicans are running for chairman.
File photo
The head seat of the Swain County Board of Commissioners was a topic of discussion long before this year’s Primaries.
After Republican Chairman Kevin Seagle announced his resignation, effective Aug. 31, 2025, the role went to Commissioner Tanner Lawson during an appointment process that included individual applications, Republican Party nominations and the late October 2025 selection of Jay Kirkland.
By the General Election, Kirkland will have served one year in the position. He’s seeking another term on the board, but not as its chairman. In total, six candidates — two Democrat, four Republican — are in the running to take his spot.
Voters can choose between Jeramy Shuler or Edward Larry Simonds for the Democratic Party or among Robbie Brown, Courtney Dills, current commissioner Bobby Jenkins or Eugene Shuler for the Republicans. The two winners will face each other in the General Election Nov. 3.
Eugene Shuler did not respond to multiple requests from The Smoky Mountain News for comment.
Democratic candidates
Shuler can trace his ties to Swain County back several generations.
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He’s a Bryson City Fire Department captain and a small business owner of what he describes as “appliance sales and service.” He’s a father and grandfather — three children, three grandchildren.
Jeramy Shuler. Photo from Facebook
Shuler told SMN that his bid for chair is driven by the motivation “to bring back respect and accountability to the taxpayers to the county.”
He resigned from the county board of elections to run for this position, he said, because he sees “the need for the people to have a voice in the county above what they’ve got now.”
Were he to become chairman, public safety, infrastructure and cooperation would be among Shuler’s key issues. His opinion on the first point is straightforward — the county should “spend more money” on public safety in general, including firefighters. Regarding infrastructure, Shuler said the county needs to “work on [its] sewer system and water works with the schools.”
“We’re going to be building a new school,” he said, adding that the project requires “a real good partnership with the town of Bryson City, because they’re going to need the water and sewer for that school.”
Though “funding is short,” he said, commissioners will need to be “aggressive in finding any kind of grants that we can” for the building and similar projects.
For the third issue, Shuler emphasized the importance that the county has “a really good relationship with the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, and at the same time, work with them to work with the citizens of Swain County to make things better.”
He told SMN that he supports increased tourism to the area “because that’s where our jobs are at. That’s where the income for Swain County is at.”
Along those lines, he said, “we could work on getting a better working relationship with Great Smoky Mountains National Park as to what Swain County could additionally provide to bring more tourism … even for us to help beautify our borders with the park.”
Though not tourism-related, Shuler mentioned a third partnership that could bring a significant amount of potential.
“We have a very good opportunity to work with the Cherokee Nation, and with Jackson and Robbinsville County … but we’re not able to take advantage of that, because we can’t work together in that county board right now to take care of Swain County,” he said.
Simonds, the other Democratic contender, also works in the small business realm, co-owning a construction company with his brother. He was born and raised in Swain County, where he’s lived for 41 years.
Edward L. Simonds. Photo from Facebook
“I’ve seen this county go from good to bad,” he said, so, he’s “trying to leave a better future” for Swain County children, something he believes he can do best as chairman.
“Being chairman,” Simonds said, “allows you to set that agenda for that meeting ... That seat allows you to run the meeting.”
If elected chairman, he would prioritize securing affordable housing, mitigating train-related traffic and repaving faulty roads.
“If the county actually had property … that we could build on, the county could actually benefit from … affordable housing, as a whole,” Simonds said, though he did not mention how officials might go about acquiring more land.
As for the GSMR, Simonds took a more adversarial view than his opponent, advocating that the train change its schedule because it runs “exactly the same time that school is out.”
He also thought the company should “pay a higher tax” and compensate the county when it uses the administration building for parking.
While, in theory, further taxing the company might be a solution, the county cannot designate for-profit entities to a specific tax class; property tax remains uniform across every holder in the county.
“The other issue,” Simonds said, “would be the roads,” adding that some need to be repaved — especially the one “going down by the old ice plant.”
Comparing viewpoints
The two Democratic challengers had similar things to say about one important topic — transparency from county commissioners.
“The taxpayers need to know where their money is being spent, and I think that that’s a number one priority,” said Shuler.
Simonds, ostensibly calling closed sessions “backroom meetings,” argued that this practice “should not be allowed.” Commissioners are never required to go into closed session; however, they can choose to do so if the situation permits.
“I think everything should be public,” he said, adding that taxpayers “need to know where their money is going.”
However, Shuler and Simonds had differing views of party and taxes. Simonds supports a tax break for “local people” but a slightly higher tax for Airbnbs, which he said are typically both a “business” and a “second or third home.” Again, though taxing business more heavily could be a reasonable idea, it’s illegal under the “uniform” property tax dictated by state law.
Shuler said he “wouldn’t make a statement on [raising or cutting taxes] either way at this time,” at least until he’s “in the seat and can actually see how the tax base is being done and dispersed.”
Even though the Democratic Party is unpopular in Swain County, Shuler said his leadership would necessitate that he — and Republicans — work across the aisle, a skill he finds vital.
“It’s not about what you’re going to do for party line or for self. There should be a continuity,” he said.
Simonds, however, seemed unsure of why he was running on the Democratic ticket at all. Praising Trump’s tariffs — which ultimately shift the additional burden to American consumers — he alleged that “the Democrat used to be for the working man.”
“The Democrats then are the new Republicans now,” he added.
Then again, he argued, party shouldn’t really make a difference, so long as “whoever gets [elected] is [there] for the people and for the right reasons.”
Republican candidates
Brown has lived in Swain County for 51 years.
In that time, he’s started a small business; he’s worked for the school system and at the Unity Youth Center in Cherokee. He’s currently employed at the Cherokee Indian Police Department.
Robbie Brown. Photo from Facebook
He once worked on the campaign of a friend from Deep Creek, Heath Shuler, who became a congressman. That’s as close as Brown has gotten to elected office.
“I never really thought I would get into politics — to be honest, I didn’t really like politics — but after working in the school system and seeing the shortfalls in funding, I feel like I need to step up and help fix that,” he said.
“If somebody is leading our county, leading the people, our budget … if they’re trying to lead in the opposite direction, the chair has the direction to lead the wagon, to lead the ship and what direction we go in,” he added.
If elected to office, he would prioritize issues like school funding, infrastructure and regional collaboration.
Brown noted that the county is “either second to last or last in giving funds to the school system.” Indeed, Swain County ranks dead last in relative school funding effort — defined by the Public School Forum as “the relative measure a county spends on education compared to its total local revenue” — and second-to-last in funding statewide.
He’d like to bolster that ranking. Plus, when Brown was employed by Swain County schools, he “had a four-year degree and was only making $19,000 [per year] as an assistant.”
“That’s not a livable wage at all.”
Education, he said, ties into concerns around collaboration because Swain schools receive funding from enrolled Cherokee students.
“People forget about Cherokee being part of Swain County,” Brown observed.
It’s not solely about forming partnerships with Cherokee, he said, but “Robbinsville too, any of our bordering counties and surrounding counties — the seven-county area is what we always talk about — is being able to do stuff with them.”
Regarding infrastructure, Brown noted the need for “an additional bridge in town for some of our traffic issues.”
“It’s also for safety reasons,” he explained.
Brown’s number one priority is perhaps to address the county’s antiquated sewer.
“We’ve got a middle school coming online … Right now, they can’t hook up to sewer … So that’s the main one, is the sewer and water.”
Dills feels disconnected from big-name electoral politics — she doesn’t consider herself a politician at all.
“I don’t have any ties to anybody in those offices. I don’t have investors’ interests — I have the locals’, and by that I also mean the transplants that live here now,” she said.
Courtney Dills. Foggy Moon Photography photo
Honoring those interests is the reason her name is on the ballot.
“I’m tired of watching a good old boy system. It feels like it’s time for a change,” she said.
A similar line of thinking drives her motivation to be not only commissioner, but also the commissioner in charge.
“I want to be the chair because I would like to be a bridge between the transplants and the locals and kick some of the ‘good-old-boy’ stuff to the curb,” she said.
As Swain County’s chair, Dills would focus on cleaning up departments, encouraging county land use, rebuilding place-centered community and implementing youth intervention programs.
“We have a lot of nepotism and creating departments in order to put somebody’s family member in a county job,” she said.
In particular, she criticized the culture within the county’s Department of Social Services.
“I genuinely mean that the DSS office is abhorrent, the way they treat people … a little circle of mean girls that are just friends, cousins,” said Dills.
Encouraging county land use, to her, means “utilizing property that we already own” or “acquiring” it. She said the airport, specifically, is one parcel that could become county property and thus “keep our taxes low.”
When considering how to improve quality of life within the county, Dills isn’t exactly looking to obtain greater funding. In fact, she’d like the county to do the opposite — rely on government money even less.
“I believe that people need to build up their own communities … If we were to build the communities back up in that manner again, then you have a lot of your needs taken care of at a basic community level,” she said, without quite knowing how to get that initiative started.
Dills however isn’t opposed to using money the county won through the opioid settlement to support youth rehabilitation, she told SMN that she’d like to see “early intervention and counseling for youth … trying to get to the root of their problems instead of waiting until they’re full-blown active addicts on the street.”
For Jenkins, a current commissioner, career goes hand-in-hand with an elected county position.
“I’ve worked for the county for 14 years … I just like to give back to the community and do what I can to help the county. I know that I’ve saved the county a lot of money over doing projects … and I like making decisions to move the county forward,” he said.
He mentioned two factors weighing into his decision to run for chairman.
The first is that “there wasn’t anybody really filed the day before the filing deadline.”
“So, I went ahead and filed for chairman … And lo and behold, I filed, there … were several filed [the day of the deadline],” he said.
Filing at the deadline is a relatively common practice.
The second factor has more to do with meeting decorum and culture.
“As of late, we’ve had some meetings get out of hand … if I do become chairman, we will have order in our meetings,” said Jenkins.
As chairman, he said he’d address county-wide maintenance and repairs, both of which he believes are urgent and important. Structural integrity is just one piece of the puzzle; another consideration is the plumbing.
“We have an issue with the sewer, trying to get sewer to the new school, getting that taken care of and getting some of the buildings updated in the county,” he said.
Jenkins would also look toward the Rec Center — “getting some repair work done and maintenance updated on that.”
But as with everything, these upgrades require funding, especially “some of the bigger projects, like replacing heat systems, cooling systems,” he said. “We would probably have to look at grants to do that.”
Comparing viewpoints
Of the three Republican candidates interviewed by SMN, not one was truly keen on the party label.
“To be straight up, honestly… I’ve never been a Democrat or Republican. I was an independent,” Brown said.
“So, I switched to Republican because [Swain County is] a strong Republican area. I lean towards the conservative mentality as far as politics … but for years, up until a little more than 90 days now that I switched to the party … I was still unaffiliated,” he recounted.
Jenkins had a similar backstory to explain his arrival at ‘Republican.’
“I was unaffiliated for when I was elected, but when you have to get out here and beat the bushes and get 500 signatures, that’s a lot of trouble. And I align with the Republican Party more so than the Democrat Party, so I did change my affiliation,” he explained.
And Dills took her stated nonalignment with the two-party system even further.
“Well, since, to quote some people of the county, I bullied Kevin Seagle into stepping down, I went ahead and threw my name in the hat. And in order to do that, I had to be a registered Republican … I’m not for the party system at all. I don’t believe in the inflammatory diatribe that spews from either one of them,” she said.
Another topic garnering near-unanimity among the three candidates was the need to review and revisit the recreation department. Brown agreed with Jenkins’ analysis that the park was due for improvements.
“Our rec department needs an overhaul, as far as the softball fields in the baseball field and stuff which would get us into the game,” he said.
Dills named another reason for the chaos within the department.
“Our rec park is in a wreck — pun intended. There was no decent leadership … the salary that is offered … it doesn’t compensate. So those programs are slacking,” she said.
Though party and recreation were the only two issues to generate somewhat of a consensus, at least two out of three candidates basically agreed on several different topics. Dills and Brown highlighted a need for transparency among commissioners. Jenkins, however, feels that throughout his term, the board has been open with the public.
While the commissioner “believes in transparency, he underscored that “there’s not anything that I saw in the last year that was underhanded or criminal.”
Jenkins also claimed that “the only reason [commissioners] have closed session is discuss personnel issues, which you can’t do that in the open meeting.” It’s true that commissioners cannot release privileged or confidential information to the public, but closed sessions are optional under state law.
When it comes to taxes, Brown suggested helping locals by increasing the percentages for Airbnb owners and GSMR patronage. Neither of those recommendations, however, are feasible, as explained earlier.
Dills and Jenkins, however, wouldn’t designate raises to a group of people — though that’s because Dills understands that “you can’t really discriminate with taxes.” Jenkins, on the other hand, doesn’t support an increase because it would single people out.
“I believe in fairness,” he said, adding that a raise would harm the elderly, who are already hurting.
Dills and Brown also differed in their opinions of the GSMR.
“While [the train] is beneficial, there’s already circulating rumors that they’re going to bring in H-2B workers. So that’s not going to be beneficial to my community, to my economy, to my locals,” said Dills.
“I believe that the train needs to be reined in to a degree. I’m not sure why they block every street in town and it’s just acceptable,” she added.
As for Brown, he’s “absolutely 100% for the train.”
“I think we need reasonable accommodations,” he said. “I don’t think you come in and just turn your county and your town over to them.”
On the other hand, he said “I think we need to strengthen the partnership with them and grow with them, rather than be an adversary in any way.”
