With one retweet, Senate candidate Michele Morrow reminds us why she’s as bad as ever | Opinion
Deputy Opinion Editor Paige Masten is covering the 2026 election for The Charlotte Observer and the Raleigh News & Observer.
When Michele Morrow ran for North Carolina superintendent of public instruction in 2024, her candidacy helped usher in a level of extremism not typical in statewide campaigns.
She lost, of course. But now her chaos and conspiracies are fueling yet another campaign, this time for U.S. Senate. Morrow is hoping she’ll be the Republican running against former Gov. Roy Cooper in November, and she’s already giving us a sneak peek at what that might look like.
After federal authorities announced last week they had thwarted a local teenager’s plot to carry out an ISIS-inspired attack on New Year’s Eve, Morrow reshared a ridiculous post from far-right activist Laura Loomer that accused Cooper of “setting North Carolinians up to be murdered by ISIS.”
According to Loomer, Cooper is responsible for “the Islamification of North Carolina” because he issued executive orders expressing support for North Carolina’s Muslim population.
One of the examples cited by Loomer is a 2024 proclamation recognizing January as Muslim American Heritage Month. In that proclamation, Cooper acknowledged North Carolina as the 11th most populated state for Muslims in the U.S., and mentioned efforts to promote understanding and acceptance of the state’s Muslim population. Loomer also cited a proclamation from March of that same year celebrating Ramadan, the holiest month for the Muslim community.
Morrow shared Loomer’s post, adding, “Once again, NC is making headlines for all the WRONG reasons. We have a duty as North Carolinians to protect the country from the disastrous agenda of Roy Cooper!”
Of course, such proclamations are purely symbolic gestures intended to highlight all types of causes, both big and small, and they’re issued at all levels of government. Cooper issued dozens of these proclamations each year as governor, with each month typically carrying multiple designations. Also in 2024, for example, Beef Month and Jewish American Heritage Month were both recognized in May, while October honored pharmacists, certified public managers and the construction workforce. Any organization is free to request a proclamation for their cause online.
But more importantly, ISIS is not Islam, and it’s wrong to conflate the two. Islam is one of the world’s largest religions, and its billions of followers should not be defined by extremist groups that commit acts of terror in its name. There are roughly 130,000 Muslims in North Carolina, and they make meaningful contributions to our state. Stereotyping them as terrorists — or otherwise implying they are a threat — is a level of prejudice that just shouldn’t be tolerated in any statewide campaign. Besides, domestic terrorism is a much bigger threat to our country than international terrorist groups like ISIS, as evidenced by the attack on the U.S. Capitol five years ago that Morrow herself attended.
Unfortunately, though, this is the kind of rhetoric you get when you allow extremism to work its way into the mainstream. It’s what happens when you give a microphone to people like Michele Morrow.
And is that really what anyone wants? It’s not just that these kinds of comments are dangerous and wrong — they’re also a waste of time. The more time spent battling disinformation and dishonesty means less time spent discussing things that even matter, let alone relevant to how a candidate plans to represent our state. Morrow showed in 2024 that it’s pretty impossible to have a genuine debate about public education with someone who wants to destroy it. It’s similarly difficult to talk about the economy or health care with someone who exists in a completely different reality.
Our politics are ugly enough without elevating candidates who accuse their opponents of breeding terrorists or suggest that certain politicians should be killed. Morrow is partially right: North Carolina does make headlines for the wrong reasons, but it’s not because Islamic terrorists are on the loose, or because Democrats like Cooper have made our state unlivable. It’s often because of candidates like Morrow, whose rhetoric is so vile that it makes the national news. That actually is the kind of disastrous agenda —and extremism — that North Carolina doesn’t need.
This story was originally published January 6, 2026 at 2:10 PM with the headline "With one retweet, Senate candidate Michele Morrow reminds us why she’s as bad as ever | Opinion."
