I’m Sheila Grooms McMahan, a lifelong East Tennessean born and raised in Cosby, deep in the Smoky Mountains. My family has called this land home for centuries, and I still live on the land they settled. For me, Appalachia isn’t a slogan, it’s a responsibility.

I grew up poor in a working family that knew how to stretch a dollar and look out for one another. I come from a long line of moonshiners, sharecroppers, soldiers, and the men who helped carve the Great Smoky Mountains National Park during its creation under President Roosevelt. My family helped build these mountains into what they are today, and I believe we owe it to the next generation to protect them.

I’ve spent my career as a respiratory therapist in emergency rooms and ICUs, including on the front lines of COVID, where rural hospitals were pushed to the breaking point. I understand healthcare, work, and survival not as political talking points, but as lived experience.

I never set out to run for office. But when corporate tax giveaways were prioritized over rural schools, hospitals, and working families, it became clear our community needed someone willing to stand up and say enough.

I’m running to invest in public education, strengthen rural healthcare, support local jobs, protect property owners, and preserve Appalachian land and culture. I believe in responsible government that serves people, not special interests.

Everything I am came from right here. Now I’m fighting to make sure our future does too.