I am running for Blount County Commission, District 8B.
I have called East Tennessee home for twenty-five years. I chose this region before I ever set foot in it, based on nothing more than research and instinct, and it has never let me down. The mountains, the rivers, the small towns, the people. This is one of the most beautiful places in the country and it is worth protecting.
District 8B stretches from Maryville out through Walland and Townsend to the entrance of the Great Smoky Mountains. Every community in this district deserves a commissioner who shows up, listens, and reports back.
I will be present. I will listen. I will answer.
That is the job.
The Person
How I got here
My daughter, our dog, and I were driving cross country in a U-Haul truck with everything we owned. We were starting over. We had a plan, but we were open to wherever life was pointing us.
We kept seeing signs for the Gatlinburg aquarium and decided to stop. We stayed longer than we meant to. We drove into the mountains and something shifted. We talked seriously about not continuing west at all. We were hooked.
We kept our plans and continued, but we came back the next year. This time with intention. I had researched Blount County on paper, never having set foot in the county itself, only nearby, and I knew this was the place. We moved to Townsend knowing no one.
That was twenty-five years ago. My daughter grew up here, graduated from Heritage High School, and went on to earn her Master of Science in Food Science from the University of Tennessee. East Tennessee is one of the most beautiful places in the country and it became home in the truest sense of the word.
Six years ago, I moved back from Knoxville because this is where I want to spend the rest of my life. I have lived in East Tennessee for twenty-five years. What started as questions about Townsend became questions about Blount County — and the answers led me here.
July 2001
This is the photo from that first stop in Gatlinburg — my daughter and I on the Skylift, looking out at the Smokies, not yet knowing that this would become our home.
We had no idea that day that we would spend the next twenty-five years here. That she would grow up in these mountains and build a life of her own in them.
Twenty-five years later, I am still here — and I am still paying attention.
The Beginning
It started with questions.
I had questions about planning, infrastructure, and the decisions shaping District 8B's future. So I went to the meetings myself. I listened. I asked questions. I paid attention.
Over time, that presence became formal. I served as Secretary of the Community Plan Advisory Committee — CPAC — for three years. In 2025, I was appointed to the Townsend Planning Commission. Years in the room, in the record, as a participant — long before I held a title.
When Townsend faced a legislative threat that would have stripped the town of its ability to govern itself, I showed up. I stood with my neighbors. I spoke out.
Not as a candidate. As a resident.
"Christina, you have great ideas. You are just thinking too far ahead."
Mayor Donald Prater, Townsend
I decided that was exactly the right time to run.
Community planning meeting, Townsend
In discussion with community members and consultants
Twenty-five years later
Still adventuring. Still together.
When I say I have skin in the game, I mean it in the most personal way. This is not a political calculation. This is home.
I want it to still look like Blount County in twenty-five more years.
Support the Campaign
Help Christina reach every voter in District 8B before May 5.