Former President Barack Obama on Friday criticized the Republican who wants to lead North Carolina’s public schools, calling Michele Morrow a conspiracy theorist who promotes political violence.
“We can't have somebody saying just crazy stuff running your school system, purchasing textbooks, allocating resources for our kids,” Obama said during a speech in Charlotte, where he was campaigning for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
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It’s unusual for a former president to weigh in on such a low-on-the-ballot state race. But Obama has taken a keen interest in this one, he said. In a social media post, Morrow once called for Obama’s execution, suggesting it should be broadcast on pay-per-view television so the government could make money.
“The Republican candidate has been spreading conspiracy theories and thinks I should face a firing squad,” Obama, a Democrat, said without mentioning Morrow by name. “So I guess I am self-interested.”
The former nurse and homeschool teacher, who unseated incumbent Republican Superintendent Catherine Truitt, is locked in a tight race with Democrat Mo Green.
Morrow's campaign said in a statement late Friday: "We don’t pay too much attention to what Barak [sic] Obama says, unless he’s actually talking about ways to save our children. Judging by his statements, that’s no more on his mind than it is on Mo Green’s."
Morrow has a history of divisive social media statements that promote political violence. In addition to the Obama post, she has also called for using the military to keep former President Donald Trump in office. She has said the comments were in jest but has also defended them, suggesting Obama is a war criminal and should be tried for treason. The death penalty is a possible punishment for treason, she has pointed out.
Obama said that kind of rhetoric can turn people off from politics. “It's an example of how frustrating politics can be sometimes — that there's so much crazy just swirling, especially on social media,” he said.
Last week, Morrow held a news conference to clarify statements that compared the upcoming Nov. 5 election with war, and urged people to fight — a statement that political opponents and some voters said promoted political violence. “This is the American Revolution 2.0! We either willingly fight now, or we will be forced to fight on Nov 6th,” she wrote in a message to Republican groups last month.
Morrow later said it would be “ridiculous to imply that I am calling for an armed revolution,” noting that her comments were a reference to the metaphorical “war” families are engaging in and against public schools.
While Morrow said the comments aren’t calling for violence, they come as fears about political violence are elevated ahead of the first presidential election since the Jan. 6, 2021, riot in which Trump supporters broke into the U.S. Capitol as Congress sought to certify the 2020 election.
Morrow was at the Capitol that day but says she didn’t enter the building.
An Elon University poll in August showed 70% of North Carolinians have concerns about violence after the upcoming election or during the inauguration.
“Voters are very sensitive to candidates’ language connected to violence,” Jason Husser, director of the Elon University poll, told WRAL News last week.
“It’s made people quite concerned, particularly given the events of Jan. 6 to Trump assassination attempts and many other bad things that have happened over the last four, four or five years,” he said.
The superintendent position oversees the distribution of more than $13 billion in state and federal funds and supports the work of school systems across the state.
Obama, of course, urged North Carolinians to vote for the Democrat in the superintendent race. Green is a career public schools administrator who was superintendent of Guilford County Schools.
“You need somebody like Mo Green, who's actually run one of the largest school systems in the state and will make sure your kids get the education they deserve,” Obama said.
Morrow has been endorsed by the North Carolina Values Coalition and various North Carolina Republican lawmakers.