Susan McKenney

Retired journalist, marketing executive, and former radio station owner, Susan McKenney has produced and conducted training programs for the Alabama Democratic Party’s county executive committees for the past two years. She presently serves as Chairwoman of the Marshall County Democratic Executive Committee, President of the Marshall County Democratic Club, Alabama House District 27 representative to the State Democratic Executive, Committee Chairwoman of the U.S. Congressional District 4 Democratic Committee, and was an elected delegate to the 2024 Democratic National Convention.

McKenney worked in Chicago and St. Louis radio and print media before buying her own FM station in Alabama in 1997. Occasionally slurred as a “Yankee”, she became Southern royalty when Alabama fans learned that her great uncle Frank Thomas was Bear Bryant's coach. In 2011 she sold the radio station and devotes her time to her passion for politics.

Her father, a revered criminal defense attorney, served simultaneously as the Democratic county chair and attorney for the Illinois Republican Party. He also authored one of the most sought-after true crime books, Legally Sane. Her activist mother was the sole proofreader of The Memoirs of Richard Nixon.

Just as her uncle brought Notre Dame-style football to the South, McKenney brings Chicago-style politics here and has written the official training manual for county executive committees. She is considered an elections expert.

Now living in Guntersville, McKenney has three grown children: A son with doctorate degrees in physics and economic engineering, and two daughters, one with a degree in zoology and the other with a master’s in social work.