North Carolina’s Senate race is among the most competitive in the nation this year. But voters across the state are also weighing in on highly contested school board races fueled by parents who felt voiceless throughout the pandemic and a conservative focus on how topics like race and sex are taught in public schools.
In many North Carolina counties, the May 17 primary offers voters a long list of candidates to choose from for their local school board.
In Forsyth County, 28 candidates are vying for nine school board slots, and in Johnston County, 13 people are on the ballot to fill three open seats. In solidly Democratic Durham County, a slate of conservatives is hoping to capture a majority of the board, and a Wilmington-based political action committee has endorsed four Republicans for the New Hanover County Board of Education.
The largest school system in the state, Wake County, won’t hold a school board election until November, but it’s already expected to be competitive with all nine of the board’s seats up for election.
“We are seeing a lot more people running and a lot of veteran school board members retiring,” said Leanne Winner, executive director of the North Carolina School Boards Association.
