NC schools GOP nominee deflects comments about killing Biden, Obama. It could work. | Opinion

The North Carolina Republican Party’s hard right turn has thrown its race for state superintendent of public instruction into a ditch.

A low-turnout primary dominated by the party’s most conservative voters denied the Republican nomination to incumbent Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt. The party’s nominee is Michele Morrow, a relatively unknown conservative activist whose caustic social media posts put her not only on the far right, but around the bend.

CNN reported last week that Morrow’s posts “expressed support in 2020 for the televised execution of former President Barack Obama and suggested killing then-President-elect Joe Biden.”

CNN cited another post in which Morrow reacted to Biden’s support for having more Americans wear masks to reduce COVID infections. Morrow wrote: “Never. We need to follow the Constitution’s advice and KILL all TRAITORS!!! #JusticeforAmerica.”

Such a history would appear to assure a victory for Morrow’s Democratic opponent, the experienced and respected educator Mo Green. But that’s assuming that this year’s election will be normal. It won’t be. Morrow, a registered nurse who home-schools her children, could be running the state Department of Public Instruction come January 2025.

Remember that Morrow is part of a ticket headed by former President Donald Trump, whose relentless stream of outrageous statements have exhausted the public’s capacity to be surprised or offended. And the GOP’s gubernatorial candidate, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, has a history of derogatory social media postings and public comments that make Morrow’s postings look like standard GOP talking points.

And don’t underestimate the power of a political makeover. Robinson is already rolling back his most offensive comments. Morrow will do the same. Consider her response when I emailed her campaign about the CNN report:

“People are tired of the dysfunctional media trying to create ‘gotcha moments’ out of old comments taken out of context, made in jest, or never made in the first place. I’ve pointed out that North Carolina has 800 failing schools and no plan for fixing them. I’m talking about the millions of dollars misappropriated and squandered that should be put into classrooms. These issues matter more to voters than overdramatized gotcha moments ginned up by the media.”

These gotcha moments actually did get Morrow, but she thinks it won’t matter to voters who share her view that public schools are failing to educate students even as they allegedly indoctrinate them with liberal ideology.

Despite her lack of political experience – her only prior run was a failed bid for the Wake County school board in 2022 – Morrow is a formidable campaigner. Truitt had a much bigger war chest and the support of Republican legislative leaders, but Morrow outworked her.

Morrow said, “Because we didn’t have the financial backing of lobbyists and powerful politicians, we relied on word-of-mouth engagement in neighborhoods county by county.”

The top issue in the campaign for superintendent of public instruction is the need to increase the state’s support for public schools. North Carolina ranks near the bottom nationally in key measures of public school funding.

A result of that neglect is a dire shortage of teachers for the state’s 1.4 million public school students. The gap is actually worse than vacancies indicate. The state’s public schools employ more than 5,000 non-certified teachers, many of them concentrated in low-wealth districts.

Morrow is not focusing on increasing school funding. Instead, she thinks the problem is that current school dollars are “misappropriated and squandered.”

Republican primary voters drove their party’s superintendent campaign into a ditch with Morrow’s nomination. But she may yet drive out of it. Democrats need to take her seriously, because extremism and lack of experience are no longer disqualifying.

This story was originally published March 18, 2024 at 12:22 PM with the headline "NC schools GOP nominee deflects comments about killing Biden, Obama. It could work. | Opinion."