A nominee for North Carolina’s schools chief has a track record of conspiracy theories

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JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

Campaigning continues in North Carolina despite storm damage, and the Republican nominee for superintendent of schools is attracting a lot of attention. She’s got a track record for spreading conspiracy theories – like calling Islam a cult – and falsehoods, for example, saying the plus in LGBTQ+ stands for pedophilia. Liz Schlemmer from member station WUNC has the story from the campaign trail.

LIZ SCHLEMMER, BYLINE: At a street festival last month in the town of Wake Forest, outside of Raleigh, Michele Morrow walked through the crowd. Her blue T-shirt said, make education great again. With a smile, she extended her hand to a voter.

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MICHELE MORROW: I’m Michele Morrow. I’m running to be the next state superintendent of public instruction.

SCHLEMMER: As she spoke to voters, Morrow drew on her experience homeschooling her five children.

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MORROW: The majority of homeschoolers would put their kids gladly back into public school if they were sure that they were going to be safe, they weren’t going to be bullied (ph), and they weren’t going to have, like what you’re saying, this world view that is not their family’s world view pushed on their children.

SCHLEMMER: Morrow has never before held public office. Two years ago, she ran for a school board seat and lost. Then she won the Republican nomination for state superintendent in a huge upset.

DONNA LUBUS: Oh, my goodness. She’s the real deal.

SCHLEMMER: That’s Donna Lubus, a retired educator who now volunteers for Morrow’s campaign.

LUBUS: Because I love children, and I hate what public school is doing to them. There’s a lot of an agenda.

SCHLEMMER: The man facing Morrow is Democratic nominee Mo Green. He says he barely knew anything about her before the votes came in the night of the primary.

MO GREEN: It was that night that I said, well, yeah, now that she’s going to be the Republican nominee, let me do a little bit more exploration about her. And, I mean, wow.

SCHLEMMER: His campaign quickly seized on video of her outside the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021, and has now turned it into a campaign ad.

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MORROW: Hey, patriots.

UNIDENTIFIED NARRATOR: This is Michele Morrow. She went to January 6 and called for a military coup.

SCHLEMMER: Green is a former county school superintendent. He says after seeing that, he knew the campaign had to be about more than the details of school policies.

GREEN: We’re at a whole different place, and so I do believe that this has crystallized the fact that the very soul of public education is on the ballot in the election of this position.

SCHLEMMER: His opponent has repeated QAnon conspiracy theories. She says some teachers are, quote, “groomers.” She calls public schools indoctrination centers. Four years ago, she said former President Barack Obama should face a firing squad, which she later said was a joke. But it’s the kind of language people hear at the top of the party ticket, too.

MICHAEL BITZER: These are all things that Donald Trump has honed and developed within the Republican Party nationally. And I think we’re seeing that play out here in North Carolina as well.

SCHLEMMER: That’s Michael Bitzer, a political professor at Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina. He says Morrow’s rhetoric may be why she won her party’s nomination.

BITZER: The real question is, does she only appeal to that Trump Republican base, and does she alienate a whole swath of North Carolina voters that she would need to win state-wide?

SCHLEMMER: And Morrow’s comments are repelling some voters. Erin Lynch is a private school teacher who came to one of Green’s events to learn about him after hearing about Morrow.

ERIN LYNCH: I’m a pretty close follower of state-wide politics, so knew about her pretty early on and just am horrified.

SCHLEMMER: In a state where voters have chosen a Republican as state superintendent in the last two elections, this vote could be a referendum on Morrow’s rhetoric. For NPR News, I’m Liz Schlemmer in Durham, North Carolina.

SUMMERS: This is NPR News.