From Lived Experience to Public Leadership

Raised with Purpose

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Teddy McCullough is an enrolled citizen of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, born in Northern California. His mother raised him largely on her own, sometimes working three jobs to keep them stable, moving across California, New Mexico, and eventually settling in the Pacific Northwest. She showed him what it means to carry a family through difficult circumstances without losing your dignity.

His First Civics Lesson

A woman and a small boy standing in shallow water at the beach, smiling and raising their arms.

His grandmother served as a city clerk in a small California town, and she treated civic participation as a family obligation. She brought Teddy to meetings, to hearings, to the rooms where decisions got made. What he learned watching her was simple. Who leads matters as much as who shows up.

From the Classroom to the Capitol

A young man in a blue graduation cap and gown with a red, white, and blue bow tie, standing between a man in a gray shirt and a woman in a pink dress with a black lace cover-up, all smiling outdoors.

Teddy studied political science at American University in Washington, D.C., then earned his MBA in Finance from Tulane University. He saw that real change requires understanding how government works and how money moves.

A Career in Service

Two men in suits wearing red sashes with white text and beads around their necks, standing outdoors in front of a building, with people and police visible in the background. One man is smiling, and the setting appears to be a cultural or community event.

Teddy took his grandmother’s lessons to the White House in the Obama administration. He co-founded The Mato Native telehealth initiative to bring healthcare to Native families left out of the system, and later directed community development finance work focused on tribal and underserved communities. He also became a parent through adoption and founded The Native Ledger, a newsletter covering Native American policy and current affairs.

Fighting for Colorado

A man speaking at a podium outdoors, gesturing with his right hand while another man observes in the background.

As a co-founder of the Colorado Intertribal Policy Alliance, Teddy has led statewide Native advocacy on healthcare, criminal justice, and cultural rights. He has helped draft and advocate for legislation including expanding healthcare access and parks accessibility for Native people. When Native people lead, decisions ultimately reflect the communities our government is meant to serve.

Why He’s Running

Group of people sitting around a table in a room, engaging in conversation, with some taking notes and others listening attentively.

Teddy knows what it feels like to grow up in the gaps institutions were never built to close. Northeast Denver deserves a councilmember who carries that experience into every vote, every budget decision, every conversation about who this city is building for. No family in District 8 should feel invisible here.

Proud to Call Montbello Home

Five people standing in snow-covered landscape with mountains and evergreen trees in the background, dressed in winter clothing.

Teddy lives in Denver’s Montbello neighborhood with his husband, Eric, their three dogs and a cat, and his parents, Della and Chad, who roam Colorado in their RV but keep a furnished bedroom at the house they called their home base.

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