Zelda Briarwood
Zelda Briarwood (Democratic Party) is running for election to the U.S. House to represent North Carolina's 11th Congressional District. She is on the ballot in the Democratic primary on March 3, 2026.[source]
Briarwood completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Zelda Briarwood earned a high school diploma from Council Rock North High School and a bachelor's degree from the University of South Carolina, where she studied psychology and outdoor recreation. Briarwood also studied adventure-based psychotherapy and adventure education at Prescott College. Her career experience includes working as a mental health professional. She has guided backpack expeditions at Red Oak Recovery, worked admissions at Outward Bound and CooperRiis, managed crisis services at Appalachian Community Center, provided case management for survivors of sexual violence and human trafficking at OurVoice, and worked as a technician with Quality Data Systems. Briarwood has served as the secretary of the Haywood County Young Dems.[1][2]
Elections
2026
See also: North Carolina's 11th Congressional District election, 2026
General election
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
The primary will occur on March 3, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. Additional general election candidates will be added here following the primary.
General election for U.S. House North Carolina District 11
Travis Groo and John Rogers are running in the general election for U.S. House North Carolina District 11 on November 3, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Travis Groo (L)  | |
| John Rogers (Independent) | ||
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| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House North Carolina District 11
Jamie Ager, Zelda Briarwood, Richard Hudspeth, Paul Maddox, and Lee Whipple are running in the Democratic primary for U.S. House North Carolina District 11 on March 3, 2026.
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| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Jacob Lawrence (D)
- Chris Harjes (D)
- Morris Davis (D)
Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. House North Carolina District 11
Incumbent Chuck Edwards and Adam Smith are running in the Republican primary for U.S. House North Carolina District 11 on March 3, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Chuck Edwards | |
 | Adam Smith | |
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| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Libertarian primary election
The Libertarian primary election was canceled. Travis Groo advanced from the Libertarian primary for U.S. House North Carolina District 11.
Endorsements
Briarwood received the following endorsements. To send us additional endorsements, click here.
Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Zelda Briarwood completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2026. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Briarwood's responses.
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- We need universal healthcare. 69% of the globe's population has universal healthcare. It's unacceptable that the richest nation in the world cannot take care of it's citizens. Health insurance as an industry provides no actual benefit for the working class. It doesn’t contain costs, expand coverage, or expedite care. It makes all of that worse. Its sole function is profit. No one should be profiting on someone living or dying. I will fight to ban for-profit healthcare from the public sector. Furthermore, we should not be policing what people do with their bodies. I will bring Roe V. Wade into law, then work to have it amended into the Constitution.
- We have an affordability crisis. From 2016 to 2024, inflation and prices became the primary self-reported financial challenge. I will lower taxes for households making less than 1 million a year while increasing taxes for billionaires and corporations, which will ultimately bring in more money. I will hold corporations criminally liable for price gouging. I will raise the federal minimum wage to AT LEAST 20 an hour and peg it to the consumer price index and the inflation rate. I will ban private-equity firms from purchasing residential housing. I will integrate pre-k into the public school system. I will raise teacher pay and properly fund our public education system so teachers aren’t buying supplies out of their own pockets.
- Corporations are not people and workers' rights are more important than profits. I will make sure that all workers in the public sector have a right to unionize.
I will make sure that any companies caught exploiting their workers are prosecuted and heavily fined.
I will always prioritize small businesses over corporations. I will bust all of these monopolies that the government is simply just letting happen. I will tax the rich. When we actually tax corporations, they have two options: either they pay those taxes, or they invest in their workforce. I will make sure that AI is HEAVILY regulated so our workforce doesn’t suffer. I will work to overturn Citizens United or codify into law that corporations are not people.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign website
Briarwood's campaign website stated the following:
What I'll fight for
• 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 and increasing funding for 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.
• Ban for-profit healthcare and education.
• Review and expand disabilities and conditions accepted to receive Medicare & Medicaid.
• Allow Medicare to aggressively negotiate prescription prices to lower costs for everyone.
• Ban private equity from purchasing residential housing.
• Introduce Bill that restores full funding and staffing to pre-DOGE requirements for any department gutted by DOGE and the BBB.
• Introduce legislation that enshrines the right to Privacy and Bodily Autonomy.
• Reduce taxes for the working class and raise the federal minimum wage to at least $20. 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.
• Invest in education by raising teacher pay and providing free school meals to every single student.
• Increase funding for continuing teacher development.
• Work with the Department of Education to create programs that connect incoming high school students with the option of vocational training or traditional high school, then provide avenues of connecting graduates with college and/or apprenticeships after.
• Fully fund special education and mental health services so every child has access to every tool they need to succeed.
• Disconnect school funding levels from student test scores, base on student numbers with a set minimum regardless of other factors.
• Introduce legislation that provides for free Community College for all.
• Review of and collaboration with other universal healthcare systems to find the best way to implement universal healthcare in the US.
• Resuscitate our economy by cutting company tax breaks.
• Provide tax incentives and grants for small businesses that hire locally and offer competitive wages.
• Invest in research that creates new job opportunities.
• Hold companies accountable for price gouging.
• Expand USDA programs to prioritize our farmers, give them resources to achieve competitive pricing and bring food costs down, and get them the help they need to continue to adapt.
— Zelda Briarwood's campaign website (February 13, 2026)
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2026 Elections
External links
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Candidate U.S. House North Carolina District 11 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on February 8, 2026
- ↑ Zelda Briarwood for Congress, "About", accessed February 13, 2026
