Tia “Fix” Rumbaugh for Cabell County Commission

District 3 · Democrat · General Election November 3, 2026
General Election: Tuesday, November 3, 2026 · Early Voting October 21 – 31

Three Core Priorities

  • Open the Doors. Commission meetings are at 10 a.m. on Thursdays. Public comments are disabled on the livestream. The agenda is rarely published. Tia will push for meeting times that work for working people and restore real public participation. No more hiding behind closed doors.
  • Tell the Truth About What the Commission Can Do. When residents ask about roads or infrastructure improvements and get told "we don't do that," that's not by statute — that's by choice. The commission can act, inform, advocate, and even issue financing to get projects done, but they haven't for most people, for almost two decades, because it's quicker to say "no" than tell the truth. Tia will tell you the truth.
  • Know What You're Owed. Most residents don't know what a county commissioner does, and some elected prefer it that way. It's the most powerful position in the county — but it can be used as a rubber stamp for party politics, over people. You should have a say in where your tax dollars are spent. Tia doesn't rubber-stamp; she takes everything and everyone case by case, with a deep understanding of our Constitutional Rights and Responsibilities. She wants to stop the bleeding of our tax dollars to out-of-state interests, and treat transparency as a basic obligation, not a courtesy. Neighbors, first.

The Tea on Tia

Tia grew up in Ceredo and graduated from Ceredo-Kenova High School in 1996. Born to Jim and Donna Rumbaugh, she was raised up at Central United Methodist Church on 11th Street West and Jefferson Avenue in the West End of Huntington. Her mother operated a commercial plant business called Perennial Favorites Greenhouse, and Tia worked in every aspect of the family business for the next 30+ years. Maybe you saw her on KidsMag in the 1990's, or when she hosted its spinoff KidsMag Theater? Tia was Student Body President, loved Model United Nations, ran cross country too slowly, modelled dresses for Yellow Brick Road, and was an avid computer-BBS-using, geeky-nerd type. Her screen name in the early days of the internet was: The Adventurer.

She earned a B.S. from NYU in 2000, and lived in New York working very successfully in tech, overlapping with the arts and entertainment industries until 2005. She then pivoted to work overseas in South Korea, China, and Thailand from 2006–2010 in education and business development, which became the foundation for her legacy work upon returning to the States.

As a serial entrepreneur, her first registered business back in WV was Madison Avenue Gardeners, which won the state contract for perennials, annuals, shrubs and trees circa 2011–2012. This was just the beginning of her meteoric rise back home in Huntington.

After the birth of her daughter and son, Tia founded So Social LLC in 2013 — an early-education consulting firm and childcare facility grounded in Montessori and RIE practices — and in later years Forest Adventure Co-Op, an innovative OST child-care center and summer camp program. After a decade in WV early education, she was selected as a Fellow for the Hunt Institute, a national nonpartisan policy advocacy group, and worked with WV state leaders on national trends and strategies for childcare improvements via legislation.

In 2024, Tia diversified her work further, returning to her tech background and beginning work in AI data annotation and property management throughout Cabell County. Most recently, she is learning to drive a forklift and earning her OSHA-30 certification via the Assistantship Readiness program at Mount West Community and Technical College, with a personal goal to drive a bulldozer on her 24-acre farm just outside the city limits of Huntington.

Tia's uniquely diverse professional experiences — in small business and corporate, national and international, agricultural, technology, and education — have prepared her to take on almost any issue that Cabell County may face.

Tia's Governance Trend

In 2020, voters elected Tia to Huntington City Council, District 3, which is the downtown area known as river to rail and 1st Street to 20th Street — it includes Pullman Square and much of Marshall University. She was elected for a second term in 2024. As a councilwoman, Tia has taken a residents-first approach to making decisions, consistently listening to their feedback on agenda items and siding with the majority of residents, not necessarily the administration, regardless of Republican or Democrat affiliation. Tia believes in people over party.

Over the years she has pushed for a safer, more walkable downtown, expanding childcare access and grants and subsidies, increasing public bathroom access, more water fountains, more green spaces, and addressing homelessness with dignity via common-sense enforcement of loitering and nuisance laws and supporting social-service interventions. Tia knows recovery is possible, and that mental-health treatment access is crucial for a better, safer Cabell County.

She has called for parking reforms, holding slumlords accountable, pre-emptive data-center protective policies for residents, storm-water fee duplicate-billing removal, reduction in the user fee, upholding constitutional rights for business owners from search without a warrant, upholding rights to free speech, upholding rights to assemble, upholding 2nd Amendment rights, supporting Special Metals and Cabell Nurses' Unions, expanding festivals and events, supporting the arts, addressing potholes, advocating for new sidewalks, curbs, and lighting, addressing street flooding, soliciting international business to build locally, advocating for the animal shelter's full funding, calling out hypocrisy, calling out lies, and celebrating our local victories big and small. She's been a part of a lot and doesn't sit quietly by while the world churns around us. Tia jumps in to help, wherever she can, on behalf of her neighbors.

She is running for County Commission because the same principles she rallies — transparency, neighbors first, and innovative solutions — need to govern the decisions made at the courthouse.

Tia's Personal Life

Tia Fix Rumbaugh lives in downtown Huntington with her two biological children, Emmaleah and James, and a uniquely blended family — including co-parent Japheth Stump, an Iraq Veteran National Guardsman, and Japheth's child from a former marriage, Isaac Stump, a recent Marshall University graduate. Every other weekend they are joined by co-parent Chris Douthat, a Navy Veteran originally from Huntington and now residing in Columbus, OH. In 2025, they had the honor of becoming a foster family to a 13-year-old and her newborn infant, and host to the teen's biological parent. Together but living apart, Tia's partner of almost 7 years is Dr. E. Del Chrol. She follows the Golden Rule in all things, loves her neighbors, our military veterans, and law enforcement. She truly believes we're all in this together, and invites everyone to join her at the table.

Cabell County Commission Platform

  1. Childcare, Detention, and Early-Learning Infrastructure. As a Hunt Institute Fellow and founder of two early-education programs, Tia knows what working families and early-education providers face, and the importance of investing in our children's future and well-being. Commissioners are uniquely responsible for inspection of detention centers for children. Sadly, Cabell County teen facilities went derelict, staff were underpaid and absent, regulations were not met, and children were harmed. Not under Tia's watch. She will make sure our children are a priority. Investing in our children means lower social-service costs down the road when they grow up, it means greater productivity, greater quality of life, and children who stay in Cabell and prosper.
  2. Public Transit Is Infrastructure — Treat It Like One. The TTA connects workers, families, and communities across Cabell County — but it can only do more with stable, long-term funding behind it. Voters just renewed that support, and Tia backed it. She will keep advocating for transit funding so that expanding service is a standing priority, not a scramble every five years. She vows to treat public transportation with the respect it deserves, because for a lot of Cabell County residents, the bus is their only means of travel.
  3. Orphaned Roads, Bridges, and Infrastructure. State law requires commissioners to survey orphaned roads, maintain county bridges, and inventory dilapidated structures, with broad authority to "improve" such. "Our hands are tied" is not in the statute. The commission can act directly, negotiate with the State on behalf of residents for equipment and laborers or work with private contractors, and even finance the project for residents over a 10-year period with a fixed APR — all under statute.
  4. Put Our Sand and Stone to Work. WV law empowers commissioners to operate sand deposits and stone quarries on county-owned or leased land. Cabell is not utilizing this authority — while spending public money importing aggregate for road projects that local deposits could supply. West Virginia was once home to nearly 400 glass factories. Blenko Glass in Milton, one of the last handmade glass manufacturers in the country, imports its sand from out of state. Tia will push for a geological and economic feasibility study of Cabell's sand and stone resources, and explore how county operations could supply local construction needs and support local industry. This means more jobs, as we push for a glass industry and artisan revival.
  5. Mental Health Access as a County Responsibility. WV §7-1-5 authorizes the commission to fund mental health clinics and programs for the well-being of residents. This is not a state-only responsibility. Tia will use every tool available — grants, facility partnerships, and intergovernmental cooperation — to expand access and get residents the help they need, and a place to go off the street.
  6. EMS & County Staffing That Shows Up — and Pay That Keeps Them Here. The commission is responsible for building and equipping emergency-services facilities and staffing county positions. Progress has been made on ambulance stations, but EMT pay and retention — especially in unincorporated areas of Cabell — still need work. We need more staffing at the county level to handle legal and permitting issues. Tia will push for staffing-first budgeting. We have to take care of our first responders, so they can take care of us. We have to make sure development permitting isn't dropped, so flooding downstream doesn't occur.
  7. Don't Cut Disability Services Off the Ballot. For the first time in decades, neither Green Acres nor Autism Services appeared on the Cabell County levy ballot. The commission made that choice to exclude them, with no public input from residents. Green Acres has employed people with disabilities and served this county since 1982. Autism Services supports individuals and families across the region. The incumbent's explanation for excluding them was that it was "tough to pick and choose." That's the problem — it shouldn't be the commissioners' job to pick and choose for us, without our feedback. The commissioners could have kept both entities on the ballot for smaller monetary amounts than requested, and ultimately voters would have decided if they wanted to pay. Instead, the commission took that option to vote away from residents, arbitrarily. Tia doesn't think that's right, and she doesn't think that's the way to run the county commission. We're all in this together. Tia will ensure that organizations serving our most vulnerable residents are not quietly dropped from the ballot to make the commission's math easier.
  8. Flood Relief and a Funded Hazard Mitigation Plan. Flooded-out families have waited too long. The commission has authority to pursue FEMA partnerships and infrastructure improvements. A mitigation plan that sits on a shelf is not a plan. Tia has been championing relief for multi-year flooded residents since 2023. Kanawha County Commissioners helped flooded Sissonville residents, and we can do the same in Cabell. Tia will work with municipalities to solve flooding infrastructure issues. We're all in this together.
  9. Parks, 4-H Camps, and Public Markets. State law explicitly empowers commissioners to operate parks, recreational facilities, 4-H camps, and public markets. These are quality-of-life investments that determine whether families stay in Cabell County, and Tia will treat them as the statutory priority that they are. We need more public restrooms, water fountains, seating, and pump-out stations at our public boat ramps, and better warning signs — such as “No Swimming” signs where tragic drownings have occurred — to protect our children.
  10. Small-Business Stewardship and a Local-First Economy. Cabell thrives when local people get to build it. Tia will support cooperative ventures, grocery access, festivals, and small-business incubation, and scrutinize every subsidy to make sure local owners, not outside speculators, are the ones cashing the check. Business development does not rely on tax breaks alone; it relies on personal relationships, a beautiful community like Cabell, and creative thinking. Tia is brilliant at all of these.
  11. Smart Justice and the Regional Jail Bill. Cabell County sends over $3 million a year to the Western Regional Jail. Commissioners have direct authority and leverage over how that money is used. Tia will push to expand pretrial diversion and the Quick Response Team model, because keeping people out of jail beds is both morally right and fiscally smart. Rehabilitation rarely happens behind bars; it happens with community, finding faith, and physical accountability. Facilities and food fall under the Commissioner's purview by statute, and that's where costs skyrocket. A lot of people don't give a second thought to our friends and family behind bars, but Tia does. This is Golden Rule stuff.
  12. A Commissioner for Every Resident. A county commissioner represents everyone — every family in every corner of Cabell County. Tia takes that without reservation. She does not take corporate PAC money. She is not beholden to party politics and believes we have a lot more in common as neighbors than we do with those in Washington, DC. She follows the Golden Rule, for everyone, always. She does not lie, despises hypocrisy, doesn't put up with malarkey, and always calls out malfeasance. She would be honored to have your vote and represent you as your County Commissioner.