Who will control Wake school board? This race could be bellwether for others in NC.

The upcoming Wake County school board elections could serve as a bellwether for how North Carolina goes politically this campaign season.

Control of dozens of North Carolina school boards will be decided on a Nov. 8 midterm election ballot packed with national, state, county and municipal races. The election has been particularly heated in Wake County, where conservative candidates are battling with moderate to liberal candidates over who will run North Carolina’s largest school system.

“If the Democratic majority school board in Wake County goes Republican, that means most counties in North Carolina are going to be like that,” David McLennan, a political science professor at Meredith College, said in an interview.

Conservatives hope to win on issues such as concerns over the decline in test scores, fears about school safety and complaints about graphic books in school libraries. There’s precedent in Wake County, where the 2009 election led to a conservative school board majority taking over for two years.

“There’s a sense of dissatisfaction with school board direction,” Bob Luebke, director of the conservative John Locke Foundation’s Center for Effective Education, said in an interview. “There are people involved in school board races who didn’t feel they needed to be before but are brought in because of the issues, i.e. Critical Race Theory, sexual orientation in schools.”

But other groups are warning about what they see as a rise in extreme school board candidates with anti-LGBTQ platforms.

“A lot of extreme candidates are running for school board,” Janice Robinson, North Carolina program director for the left-leaning Red, Wine & Blue, said in an interview. “They’re pushing this fake stuff about CRT and are trying to change accurate history from being taught to Black and brown students.

“The thought that these people are pushing policies that don’t promote equity is atrocious.”

School board endorsements

All nine Wake County school board seats are on the election ballot. Five incumbents (Karen Carter, Roxie Cash, Christine Kushner, Jim Martin and Heather Scott) are not running for reelection.

McLennan said having so many open seats on the ballot increases the potential for a change in board direction.

“This is a tossup between the Democratic school board members staying in the majority or the conservatives becoming the majority,” McLennan said. “I don’t know where it’s going to go, but I think it’s that close.”

The races are officially non-partisan, but the two main political parties have endorsed candidates in every race.

The Wake County Democratic Party is endorsing Ben Clapsaddle in District 1, board member Monika Johnson-Hostler in District 2, Doug Hammack in District 3, board member Tara Waters in District 4, Lynn Edmonds in District 5, Sam Hershey in District 6, board vice chair Chris Heagarty in District 7, board chair Lindsay Mahaffey in District 8 and Tyler Swanson in District 9.

The Wake County chapter of the North Carolina Association of Educators has endorsed the same school board slate. Wake NCAE is the largest group representing Wake school employees.

The Wake County Republican Party is endorsing Cheryl Caulfield in District 1, Monica Ruiz in District 2, Wing Ng in District 3, Becky Lew-Hobbs in District 4, Jackie Boegel in District 5, Chad Stall in District 6, Jacob Arthur in District 7, Steve Bergstrom in District 8 and Michele Morrow in District 9.

There are endorsement differences among conservative groups due to multiple conservative candidates in some districts.

The Wake County chapter of Moms for Liberty is endorsing Katie Long in District 7 while mirroring the rest of the Wake GOP slate.

The N.C. Values Coalition’s endorsements for Wake County school board partially mirror the GOP slate. But the group is endorsing Patrice Nealon in District 6 and didn’t announce endorsements in District 1, District 4 or District 9.

“It should be a good year for conservatives,” Luebke said. “How much, we’ll see.”

Candidate’s ‘ban Islam’ tweet

The race for the District 9 seat that represents much of Cary has drawn the most attention, both locally and nationally. That’s due to the candidacy of Michele Morrow, a conservative social activist with a long history on social media espousing her views.

Accounts have been created on Facebook and TikTok to highlight Morrow making remarks such as a Jan. 7, 2020 tweet that said “ban Islam” and “ban Muslims from elected offices.”

She’s also made remarks in videos such as that schools “are pushing a godless agenda” and “the largest socialist army is the United States of America educational system.”

Morrow has also drawn fire for having been among the protesters in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021 who were denying that Donald Trump had lost the presidential election.

In an interview with The News & Observer, Morrow said it was wrong for her to have made such a sweeping generalization about Islam. Morrow said she was talking about “radical Islam” in the aftermath of protests over the U.S. drone strike that killed Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.

“I should have said anyone who defends radical Islamic terrorists should not be in office in the United States,” Morrow said.

Morrow also said she’s never tried to hide the fact that she was in Washington on Jan. 6, including talking to reporters about what she saw. But Morrow said she left when ordered by the authorities, unlike other protesters who stormed the Capitol Building.

“I broke no laws,” Morrow said. “I damaged no property. I did not enter the Capitol Building.”

Bellwether school board race

Robinson, of Red Wine & Blue, said she’s not buying Morrow’s arguments.

“She can try to walk back what she said, but it’s clear what values are coming from her mouth,” Robinson said. “We’re not going to let her and other extremists get into office and take over public schools.”

Morrow calls the attacks over her past statements and actions an attempt to “appeal to people’s emotions and fears.”

“I have been exposing the failures of the current board and the current school system,” Morrow said. “I’ve been calling out how students are being harmed and not being served.

“I pose a threat to the status quo, and I think this is a diversionary tactic to not talk about what’s broken in our schools.”

Morrow is running against Tara Ann Carwright, who has stopped campaigning, and Tyler Swanson.

“I get that folks are angry, but what we have to realize is that we’re talking about our schools and communities,” Swanson said in an interview. “I’m confident that the voters in District 9 and the voters in Wake County are going to dig deep and understand there’s a clear difference. I hope the voters will reject dog-whistle politics — the racism, the homophobia and the other isms.”

McLennan, the Meredith College professor, said the District 9 race will be the bellwether contest for conservative school board candidates across North Carolina. According to EdNC, a majority of the board seats will be on the Nov. 8 ballot in 44 North Carolina school districts. That’s more than a third of the state’s school districts.

“If Morrow does well in a suburban district, that could mean a lot of school board districts in the state are trending red,” McLennan said.