Facing the voters: Denise Wright – Cleveland County Commissioner candidate

By Chuck Thompson | The Shelby Independent

Denise Wright

Denise Wright is a candidate for Cleveland County Commissioner. She’s just one of seven candidates vying for two seats up for election. She also ran for commissioner in 2024, jumping into the race a little late; she managed to finish in a strong fourth place out of three seats up for election in many of the precincts.

Wright grew up on a small farm in Upper Cleveland County. Her husband works for the City of Shelby, and they have two grown children.

A graduate of UNC-Charlotte, Wright has a bachelor’s degree in Math; at the time she thought she might be a math teacher but realized early on that was not her personal calling. She worked for a property and casualty company, engrossing herself into corporate America for 21 years, before leaving to start her own real state firm.

In 2020 she sold her firm to Coldwell Banker Mountain View Real Estate. This gave Wright more flexibility and realized she was more passionate about working with people than managing the business.

Wright is, and has been, involved with several boards and volunteer work, from serving as a cook at her church for the youth, and served as a deacon during a time when her church was without a pastor.

From Habitat for Humanity and cleaning up roads, to also being a member of The Junior Charity League, Wright said she isn’t comfortable talking about herself, but she believes everything she has done has prepared her for being a county commissioner.

She has also served on the Cleveland County Social Services board, the board of adjustment, and the Crime Stoppers board. She is also on the Board of Directors for the College of Business at Gardner-Webb University.

Wright is running for county commissioner for many reasons, all of them involve her love of the people here in Cleveland County and her passionate belief in community service and the need continuing need for strong people to make tough decisions.

She says she is her own person and does what she believes is best for the people, stating, “I don’t follow along; I do what I need to do - what’s best for everyone.”

Wright continued, “I won’t be on either side,” she said firmly, speaking on taking a sides on an issue when serving on the county commissioners’ board. She said there’s a clear split forming on the board that could become more intense depending on who wins the upcoming race.

“I’ll vote on what’s best, not what the board wants me to do and not what’s best for me — we’re talking about 100,000 people. It’s about them; it should always be about what’s best for them.”

Wright also doesn’t agree with making promises on the campaign trail that she can’t actually bring to fruition, noting it takes at least three, but better if all five agree, when making something happen.

“The first step of running for office is honesty, I’m not going to make any promises of something I can't do,” Wright noted.

She also is a firm believer in getting out among the community, doing more than the bare minimum; to truly be an elected representative of the people.

“There’s a lot of things a county commissioner does, besides just go to meetings.  People in the community want you to go to events they have, or just answer the phone - and I think that’s extremely important,” explained Wright. “As a county commissioner you have to be involved. You have to go and do. You can’t just be elected and vote on a monthly basis. You have to be present both in the meetings and among the citizens of Cleveland County.”

Wright believes it’s important to listen to everyone.

“I think I get along well with people even problem I don’t like” it’s all about professionalism to Wright. “Everyone needs to feel valued and that their voice matters, whether you agree with them or not.”

She firmly believes that the major problem with county government is spending.

(Denise Wright continued below..)

“I understand taxes are a necessary evil, but I don’t feel the county has a revenue problem, I don’t think we’re short on revenue… I think we have a spending problem,” she stated.   

“However, there’s some things, no matter what, that we can’t cut certain budgets,” she added. “There’s fat we can’t reduce, but other things that are not as important can be. So, it’s important to me that we wisely manage our revenue, because if we do, I think that will have a ripple down effect on taxes.”

But she’s aware of saying such things noting, “It takes a board majority to make changes, so one commissioner alone can’t – but before I get in, there are certain things, there’s topics which can’t be commented on by me until I get in office and know fully what is going on.”

But being frugal with spending is her specialty.

“Anyone that knows me, knows that I will nickel and dime you to death before I let someone spends money they don’t need to spend,” she laughed.

“And I won’t vote for something that I don’t fully understand,” she concluded. “I’m not running for a title; I am running to serve the citizens of Cleveland County. My decisions will be guided on conserve principles, fiscal responsibility, support of free speech, all first responders and protection of property rights for families.”

The Primary is on March 3.

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Chuck Thompson is a reporter and columnist for The Shelby Independent. 

The Shelby Independent.