Wilderness Educator
Victim Service Practitioner
Crisis Services Manager
Qualified Mental Health Professional
Addiction and Recovery Technician
Human Rights Advocate
Next Congresswoman for NC-11
I’ve spent a decade working in direct care and as an advocate—standing beside people in their hardest moments, committed to changing their lives. Now, I'm going to take that experience to fight for WNC in Congress as District 11's next representative.
Zelda Briarwood, secretary of the Haywood County Young Dems, has been living and working in Western North Carolina since the 2010s. After studying Psychology and Outdoor Recreation at the University of South Carolina, then Adventure-based Psychotherapy and Adventure Education at Prescott College, she left college with the aspiration of becoming a wilderness therapist. Unfortunately, she succumbed to alcoholism and addiction, which nearly took her life. Today, she has over 6 years of sobriety, and has since used her recovery as a catalyst for positive change. She guided young adults in early recovery on weekend backpack expeditions at Red Oak Recovery, worked admissions at Outward Bound and CooperRiis, managed crisis services at Appalachian Community Center, and provided case management for survivors of sexual violence and human trafficking at OurVoice.When Helene struck, Zelda was working as a technician with Quality Data Systems. She spent the next 3 months working to get ATMs, vaults, and cash counters operational for banking institutions all over WNC. During that time, Zelda witnessed the mountains face disaster recovery head-on. From Banner Elk to Murphy, she saw every single county come together for the sake of others, regardless of circumstance. Zelda, with renewed conviction, decided to take her expertise as an educator and advocate and use it to represent Western North Carolina at the national level.
Zelda, as a proud member of the working class, believes in the community’s power to bring change. She will expand and protect essential federal services like Social Security and Medicare from cuts or privatization. With the knowledge gained from when she successfully unionized her previous workplace, she will fight for unions, protect the people's right to unionize, and bring more high-paying union jobs back to the Blue Ridge. She will fight to increase funding for rural healthcare, for our schools, and for programs that support our small businesses so that WNC can continue to grow. She will get the relief funding we need to rebuild from Helene and invest in climate-resilient infrastructure to protect us from future storms.Outside of working full time and campaigning, Zelda lives with her wife, Danielle, in Canton. When she’s not working or attending community events you can find her playing Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, watching Bob Ross compilations and painting along, and mixing music.
“It takes a village” isn’t just for raising a child—it’s for raising a community. That’s who we are, that's our spirit. When the going gets tough, we don’t run. We face it together.
To solve the issues hurting Western North Carolina, we need to hear what exactly they are from the people actually facing them. For months we’ve done exactly that: traveling and listening to people all over. We asked what they’re struggling with, what needs to change, and how.
What I hear most? Politics as usual ain't cutting it anymore. We’re done with the games. Done with old solutions from old playbooks that have failed for decades. We can no longer afford policies that say be grateful for crumbs while billionaires feast.
It’s time to put communities over chaos, to demand better because we deserve better.Here's some of how we fix it.
• Increase funding for rural healthcare because access to quality care isn't a luxury, it's a necessity.
• Strengthen Social Security by closing tax loopholes for the ultra wealthy, ensuring long-term program stability.
• Increase staffing to expand our ability to support our seniors and disabled neighbors.
• Reject every attempt to privatize the vital institutions of Social Security and Medicare.
• Restore funding and expand Medicare to cover vision, dental, and hearing.
• Lower prescription drug costs by allowing Medicare to negotiate prices while also fighting to cap out-of-pocket expenses for seniors and working families.
• Expand Medicaid to cover more of our neighbors in need.
• Protect our community’s healthcare by expanding hospitals and clinics, including clinics for our Veterans in rural areas.
• Support our nurses by ensuring safe staffing levels so everyone has access to quality healthcare.
• Reduce taxes for the working class and raise the federal minimum wage to at least $17. A full-time job should lift you out of poverty, full stop.
• Cut corporate tax breaks they don't need and instead pour that money into small businesses. Mom & Pop shops have always been vital community cornerstones and family supports.