Shelane Etchison is no stranger to tough assignments.
Etchison, Independent U.S. Representative candidate for North Carolina’s 9th Congressional seat and a Chickasaw citizen, was dramatically impacted by the images she saw on her television screen Sept. 11, 2001, of the twin towers in New York City demolished by hijacked commercial airliners.
She was only 15 years old but became determined to do something to help her country. Upon graduating from high school, she joined ROTC at the University of Central Florida, where she earned a degree and a commission in the Army.
After a deployment to Ramadi, Iraq, as a platoon leader and company executive with the military police, she learned of a pilot program designed to gather information from Afghan women regarding Taliban and al-Qaida targets.
Swooping in on helicopters in the middle of the night with Army Rangers looking for enemy combatants in Afghanistan makes a first-time political candidacy seem almost mild in comparison.
“I don’t mind taking on hard challenges. This is my first time in politics, but I don’t think I’m any stranger to taking on tough assignments. It’s the principle of the matter. I think it’s an important thing to do.”
She said though she’s always been interested in governance and public service, she did think getting into politics would happen at some point. Before doing so, from 2019 to 2022, she earned her MBA from Harvard School of Business and her Master of Public Policy from the Harvard School of Government.
Although she did not have plans to run as a political candidate in 2024, her dedication to service called her.
“I decided to take action and do it now,” she said.
Etchison admits the likelihood of winning as an Independent in North Carolina is a longshot.
“Of course, I’m doing this to win on election day, but I think it’s actually inspired more people to not immediately dismiss independent candidates. It’s given them permission to consider independent candidates and not just accept the status quo."
“I am very much an independent. My parents are small business owners who think fiscal responsibility is important, which I fully believe too. Ideologically, I really am independent. When things go wrong at the hands of either Democrats or Republicans, we need to call it out. And when things are going right by Democrats or Republicans, it needs to be noticed too. I don’t bring any bias to this.”
Etchison objects to unlimited political funding from wealthy individuals and corporations.
“When we have corporations or high-income individuals who are able to put in unfettered amounts of money into influencing and supporting certain politicians for election, those politicians, by the rule of reciprocity, are naturally going to be favoring what their contributors’ needs are.”
She thinks rank-choice voting (a process in which voters rank candidates in order of preference) is a more inclusive system that would entice more voters to get involved in the process.
“Changing to rank choice voting will help make sure our elected officials are accountable to more of the electorate, not the few on the fringes who show up at primaries.”
Etchison believes gerrymandering, the practice that establishes safe seats for incumbents by manipulating the shape of congressional districts, is also bad for democracy.
“Eliminating excessive money in politics and gerrymandering and changing ballots to reflect rank choice voting will make our democracy more robust,” she said.
Whether or not the current system of voting helps her achieve her goal will be decided Nov. 5 of this year. One suspects if it does not, North Carolinians will not have heard the last from Shelane Etchison.