A Vote for Mortellus
is a vote for Stewardship
Rutherford County deserves leadership that acts with transparency, integrity, and works for the people.
Meet Mortellus
With a lifetime rooted in Rutherford County and years of service through interfaith ministry, advocacy, education, and community support, Mortellus approaches public office as an extension of lived responsibility—environmental stewardship, disaster recovery, and the long-term care of the land.
FAQ & Facts
Why run for Soil and Water?
Because soil, water, flooding, and land use decide whether communities endure storms or keep repeating the same harm. I’ve lived through both recovery and loss firsthand, and I’ve seen how quickly “natural disaster” becomes a long-term failure of planning. This role is about prevention, resilience, and making sure we stop treating predictable damage as unavoidable.
Why aren't you fundraising?
I am choosing not to accept donations or engage in campaign fundraising. Any expenses will be kept minimal and covered personally where necessary, using free or low-cost resources wherever possible. This is a deliberate decision: I don’t believe public office should be shaped by fundraising capacity or financial access. Campaigns should be grounded in people, not money, and measured by community support rather than financial backing.
Why don't you stand for the flag?
I don’t stand for the flag because I treat civic ritual as something meaningful, not automatic. I participate fully in civic life—voting, service, and community responsibility—but I don’t engage in every symbolic act attached to it. Many faith traditions also choose not to stand, understanding it as a form of worship or devotion that belongs to the divine rather than the state. My choice comes from that same place of conscience. I respect the rights of others to express their patriotism in their own way, and I ask the same respect in return.
What does it mean that you're Pagan? Are you trying to bring faith into office?
Being Pagan is how I understand my relationship to land, responsibility, and community—it’s a lived worldview, and not separate from public life. Everyone—whether religious or secular—brings belief, values, and lived experience into public service and people are allowed to be known as who they are. I choose to state that plainly rather than obscure it because my goal, always, is transparency in government.
What does it mean that you're trans?
Being trans means my lived experience of gender doesn’t fit what was assigned to me at birth. It shapes how I understand dignity, and being treated as fully present in public life. “Trans” simply means using a term for myself other than what appears on my birth certificate. I do not use the term “woman” to describe myself as I'm an intersex person with chimerism and I identify as nonbinary.
What does it mean that you're nonbinary?
It means I don’t experience gender in a strict binary, and I don’t treat it as something that defines or limits how I move through the world. As an intersex person with chimerism, my passport is marked “X” instead of “M” or “F,” which is one of the ways institutions already acknowledge that reality. It isn’t a statement or a stance—it’s just how I exist, and it shapes how I understand who gets seen and who gets erased in systems.
Why One Name?
The mononymic Mortellus is the name I took at ordination, and it is who I am in my religious life, public work, and professional practice. A religious name is not a nickname or alias, but a name taken in spiritual commitment and recognized within a faith community as the name by which a person lives and serves in that context. Use of religious names is protected under U.S. religious liberty principles, and in my case the name Mortellus appears in official records including my passport, Library of Congress filings, and as the name I use to sign documents. It reflects identity, practice, and vocation.
It is not an effort to obscure who I am, but rather to utilize the name by which I am known in the community. For those curious about my past I've been married to Joseph Amorello for 11 years now and am legally Terrayle Amorello. I was previously married to Robert Fender (deceased) and carried the surname Fender, and I was born Terrayle Laughter.
Is this a publicity stunt?
Existing as a public person isn't a stunt, and running for office isn't theater because the work is civic, not performative. Any “controversy” comes from differences being treated as disruption rather than participation. My focus is on service, responsibility, and doing the work of local government clearly and in good faith.
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