How conservative activist Michele Morrow pulled off a major upset in her quest to run NC public schools

On paper, Michele Morrow didn’t look like an Election Day threat.

The Republican candidate for state superintendent didn’t have a career in education, let alone experience as a public school parent in North Carolina. The homeschool mom regularly spoke out against public schools, calling them “indoctrination centers,” urging parents not to send their kids to them. And she had a losing political record, failing to win a Wake County school board seat in 2022.

Yet Morrow managed to beat incumbent Republican state Superintendent Catherine Truitt — a lifelong educator-turned-political adviser — in Tuesday's GOP primary for the chance to run the state’s public schools. Morrow will face Mo Green, a longtime school administrator, who won the Democratic primary.

Going into Tuesday, Truitt had a hefty résumé. She already had most of one term under her belt and some accomplishments along the way. She guided the state’s schools through the post-pandemic years, helping them recover from learning loss faster than many other states and oversaw changes to how reading is taught in classrooms.

Truitt also had the backing of prominent Republicans, including state Senate and House leaders. She boasted a relatively substantial war chest. And she demonstrated plenty of conservative bona fides — such as supporting the expansion of private school vouchers and new anti-transgender legislation.

As of Feb. 17, Truitt had far outpaced Morrow, raising nine times as much money in the same period — $327,000 — and had spent about $100,000 on the primary up to that date. Morrow had raised just under $38,000 and spent most of it, over $25,000.

To some political observers, however, Morrow’s 52%-to-48% win wasn’t entirely a shocker. She benefited from a constellation of factors, they said, including rising skepticism among conservatives toward public school education and high turnout from staunch conservative voters on Tuesday.

“It was kind of a perfect storm of the things that were going on in our state, the things that are going on nationally, and I think [Morrow’s campaign] took advantage of that,” said Roger Farina, a district chair for the Republican Party.

Retail politics

There was also the simple fact that Morrow relentlessly out-campaigned Truitt, according to political operatives familiar with the campaigns’ strategies. Truitt was sidelined in part by her day job of running one of state’s most visible and politically fraught agencies, the Department of Public Instruction, which accounts for more than 30% of the state’s entire budget.

Morrow, a former nurse and current property manager, traversed the state, taking time away from work to meet with parent groups and conservative groups, selling her message: She doesn’t believe schools need more funding, and she is pushing for uniform student discipline policies and stopping schools from including diversity, equity and inclusion training for staff.

Farina recalled Morrow receiving a big applause when she spoke to his district’s party convention late last year. “That speech she gave was like the culmination of the past few years, of all the work that she's been doing and her passion,” Farina said.

He remembers meeting at a Golden Corral restaurant in Smithfield years ago and thinking she had a bright future with the party. He also thinks Truitt’s supporters underestimated Morrow. “Not only did they take Michelle for granted, but they took her grassroots supporters for granted,” Farina said.

Amy Kappelman, president of the Chatham County chapter of the conservative Moms for Liberty, said Morrow was more responsive and attended more events than Truitt. Kappelman thinks voters wanted a change and that Truitt hadn’t produced enough change in her three years in office.

“[Truitt] definitely didn't listen to parents,” Kappelman said. “We tried to get in touch with her; she brushed us off. She definitely didn't seem interested in what we had to say. And I think that was her downfall.”

Truitt declined a request for an interview on Wednesday.

“From the day I stepped foot in the Superintendent’s office, I have been singularly focused on doing what is best for students and their families,” Truitt said in a statement posted on social media. “... While last night's election did not go the way I had hoped, I’m deeply proud of what we accomplished and I am gratified by the support of educators, parents, school and legislative leaders and so many others from across the state.”

Morrow, who also declined an interview Wednesday, said in a statement: “People are ready for schools to fulfill their mission to deliver quality education to every student, regardless of family income or student ability."

Focusing on culture wars

Morrow’s campaign came at a time when some conservative parents were itching for change and as higher-profile Republicans were messaging on similar themes. Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who won the GOP gubernatorial primary on Tuesday, has been a vocal critic of public education during his years in office.

He has accused teachers of “indoctrinating” students, and he launched a website enabling parents to complain about classroom lessons they see as politically biased. He’s also been at the forefront of efforts to remove from schools books that reference systematic racism or LGBTQ+ issues. He said during his GOP primary victory speech Tuesday that he would focus on “removing agendas from the classroom.”

Morrow has used similar language in the past, calling schools “socialism centers” and “indoctrination centers.” She also accused Truitt of not being conservative enough and has subscribed to the notion that public schools are too “woke,” alleging that they’re pushing leftist agendas on LGBTQ issues and racial equality. Truitt, as the person in charge of public schools, would've found herself in the crosshairs even if they never mentioned her by name.

State lawmakers this year passed a law, which sponsors called the Parents’ Bill of Rights, in part to address grassroots complaints about purported school indoctrination. But then Truitt asked lawmakers for more time to implement the policy. The delay was based on legal and procedural concerns voiced by school leaders around the states. But candidates attacked her for recommending the delay, messaging that sought to reach voters who saw school administrators as the problem.

Truitt “should have been ready, at the ready, to give to the state Board of Education the policies for them to vote on so they could have given those to the 115 districts so that when school started in August, our children would have been protected and our parental rights would have been respected,” Morrow told WBT FM radio in Charlotte.

Looking ahead to November

The question remains whether Morrow's message and strategy will work in the general election, where she faces a similar competitor — a longtime administrator with a track record in the state’s public schools.

Nationally, polling of parents in the past two years has shown some of a shift in thinking among voters. Parents still overwhelmingly think their own child’s school is good but are skeptical about the education system as a whole, especially Republicans. Some polls have also shown a middling interest in culture wars among parents. Some recent school board elections in Kentucky and Virginia have also shown liberals taking seats once occupied by conservatives.

In the months ahead, the superintendent race is expected to focus on culture war issues like how or whether schools should address topics related to LGBTQ people and minority groups.

Candidates will also shine the spotlight on test results that show students are still struggling significantly with basic reading, science and math skills even years removed from the pandemic, when remote schooling was blamed for harming academic progress.

Green, the Democratic primary victor, declined to comment on Morrow being his opponent. He said his campaign will form a plan for facing her but he’ll also keep emphasizing what he’s already been running on.

“The stakes have already been high,” Green said. “We’ve not really focused at this point on the opponent. And there will be time enough to do that, and [I] certainly look forward to engaging with my opponent.”

Green — who was also a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools deputy superintendent and chief operating officer — touts academics and character education as his top priorities. As a part of that, he believes it’s essential to revere public school employees, tailor services to students’ needs, engage parents and community members in schools, ensure a safe learning environment and remind people of the good things that are happening in schools.

Green wants to urge the General Assembly to provide more funding for schools, but he said he has experience aligning existing resources with top priorities. “We ought to focus on the vision that we have for public education,” Green said, adding: “We should strive to be the very best school system in the entire country and … I think I have enormous experience in running complex and large organizations and moving them to levels of success.”

Democrats have already bought a website domain, whose name appears to be a pro-Morrow effort, that shows visitors a video Morrow took ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Morrow attended a rally at the Capitol that day with her oldest children and said she was there to teach her children a lesson about citizens’ role in a democracy. She said she didn’t enter the Capitol.

Chris Cooper, a Western Carolina University political scientist, said many GOP voters aren’t bothered by Morrow's Jan. 6 actions. “A year ago I’d say that you can’t be all about Jan. 6 and win,” Cooper said. “But when Donald Trump came to Greensboro [on Saturday], he talked about the ‘hostages.’ That was the word he used. So when the leader of the party is using that sort of language, it normalizes it for all other candidates.”

Many more moderate candidates also lost Tuesday, even though North Carolina has more unaffiliated voters and Democratic voters than Republican voters.

"To be unaffiliated is not to be independent,” Cooper said. “And I think it’s also the case that a lot of these MAGA-aligned candidates did a good job of getting out their message. A catchy slogan and money well spent can make all the difference."

Laura Leslie, Will Doran, Paul Specht, Brian Murphy and Jack Hagel of the WRAL NC Capitol team contributed to this article.