North Carolina schools chief loses Republican primary to home-schooling parent critical of ‘radical agendas’

North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt lost Tuesday’s Republican primary to Michele Morrow, a home-schooling parent critical of public schools’ “radical agendas” on race and gender ideology. 

Morrow, a nurse and former Christian missionary who ran unsuccessfully for the Wake County school board in 2022, garnered 52% of the vote Tuesday, while the incumbent Truitt tallied 48%, WTVD reported. 

The Super Tuesday upset came despite Truitt’s sizable fundraising advantages and GOP establishment support. 

Morrow, a supporter of former President Trump who accused Truitt of not being conservative enough, collected backing from rural education leaders and will now take on Democrat Maurice “Mo” Green in November.

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State Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt speaks Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021, in Raleigh, North Carolina. Truitt lost narrowly on Tuesday, March 5, 2024 in the Republican primary to Michele Morrow, a home-schooling parent and education activist. (AP Photo/Bryan Anderson, File)

Morrow also criticized Truitt for seeking to briefly delay the implementation of a new “Parents’ Bill of Rights” so that districts would have more time to create new policies, and for continued low reading and math proficiency rates. 

In her first term as schools’ chief, Truitt led the Department of Public Instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic and recovery, and implemented a new legislature-backed plan to improve reading skills in early grades. She had re-election support from dozens of General Assembly members, as well as North Carolina Republican U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis.

Morrow insisted in a statement Wednesday that Republican and unaffiliated voters who voted for her over Truitt “are tired of their taxpayer funds going to push radical agendas in the classroom instead of proven pedagogies.” She said that if elected, she would focus on scholastics over diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and “work to make our schools the safest buildings in our state.” 

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North Carolina Department of Public Instruction Superintendent Catherine Truitt speaks during a briefing at the Emergency Operations Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, Feb. 2, 2021. (Ethan Hyman/The News & Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Morrow participated in the march on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but she said she left the area when ordered by authorities and did not enter the building, The News & Observer of Raleigh reported.

Truitt, whose committee outspent Morrow, was Gov. Pat McCrory’s education adviser and chancellor of Western Governors University in North Carolina. Truitt’s campaign collected more than $150,000 in donations since 2023, while Morrow’s campaign had raised just $8,000, according to WRAL. 

While the 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,” Truitt wrote on Facebook on Wednesday. Her term ends at the end of the year.

Staff and volunteers receive electronically-stored ballots and other polling materials dropped at the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections after polls close during Super Tuesday on March 5, 2024 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Grant Baldwin/Getty Images)

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The Democrat Green, a former Guilford County schools superintendent and previous head of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, won his party’s primary over two rivals – Katie Eddings, a Lee County personal finance teacher, and Kenon Crumble, a Wake County high school principal – after garnering 66% of the vote, according to NC News Line. 

While the state superintendent is head of the Department of Public Instruction, statewide school policy is left to the State Board of Education, for which the governor makes the most appointments.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.