Dare lawmaker called out on credentials, Facebook post

Freshman Rep. Beverly Boswell, R-Dare, was asked last week by the North Carolina Board of Nursing to correct online claims that she is a registered nurse.

Board staffer David Kalbacker spoke with the lawmaker by phone after it was called to the organization's attention that Boswell's campaign website and Facebook page claimed she is a registered nurse.

According to board records, Boswell does not hold a nursing license. Her profile on the legislature's website describes her as a "medical assistant phlebotomist."

Boswell's campaign spokesman Luke Stancil told WRAL News that the requested changes have been made. He said the "registered nurse" claim was a mistake made by a campaign volunteer who helped her set up her website and profile.

"There was no intent to mislead anyone. This was just a simple mix up," Stancil said. "We were unaware of the mistakes until we were contacted."

Asked how the candidate could have failed to notice mistakes about herself on her campaign website and profile, Stancil said, "It's unclear, to be honest...It was one of those things that fell through the cracks."

"Going forward, we’re going to make sure that all her information is correct," he added. "We’re going to focus on the issues."

That wasn't Boswell's only controversy last week. She also called a school in Roxboro – more than 100 miles outside her district – in response to a false news report that the school had required students to participate in a walkout organized in response to the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Fla.

According to Boswell's own Facebook post recounting the conversation, she asked a school administrator, "So the students that were eating tide pods last week run your school this week?"

"My Opinion: The students ARE in charge of this school," the post concludes. "This school will not support conservative values."

The post prompted Wake County Commissioner John Burns, a Democrat, to accuse Boswell of "arrogance and ignorance" for criticizing the school and its students.

Boswell made other headlines in her first term by filing a bill that would have required doctors to tell patients receiving a medical abortion that the process could be reversed, a claim physicians say is unfounded, and by filing a constitutional amendment defining conception, rather than birth, as the legal beginning of life.

Boswell faces a primary challenger, Currituck Republican Bobby Hanig, in May. The winner of that primary will face Democrat Tess Judge in November.