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As chairman of Moore County’s school board, Robert Levy pushed a long list of ideas aligned with the Moms for Liberty, a “parental rights” group that started in Florida during the pandemic and quickly rose to national prominence.
Under Levy’s leadership, the Republican-majority school board made the swath of the Sandhills adjacent to Fort Liberty a vanguard in the culture wars centered on public education, approving policies forbidding discussion of “gender identity and gender fluidity,” restricting access to certain books, and banning teaching about structural racism, among other things.
That vote history, and the area’s deep-pocketed Republican donors, made Moore County a focal point in Michele Morrow’s run for the state’s top education post on the same suite of issues.
But even as Donald Trump dominated, both Levy and Morrow lost—as did five of seven school board candidates Moms for Liberty chapters endorsed across the state. As Carli Brosseau and Johanna Still report, the results seem to signal low local enthusiasm for the group’s vision for K-12 education.
Moms for Liberty’s Local Election Scorecard
The “parental rights” group’s North Carolina chapters endorsed seven school board candidates this election cycle. Only two won.
“I see the election results as the community asking us as an entire board to work on the important problems,” said Steve Johnson, who defeated Levy in Moore County.
Have a news tip for our team? You can reach us at scoops@theassemblync.com.
What We’re Reading
Entering Election Week 3: Friday ended with Democratic state Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs up 24 votes over challenger Republican Jefferson Griffin. There are still six counties wrapping up the count of absentee and provisional ballots, WFAE reports.
Move It Move It: CNN wants the defamation suit Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson filed against the company in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina to be moved to federal court, per WRAL.
Sea, Saw: NPR reports that a sixth Rodanthe house collapsed into the sea last week. A recent report from the state Department of Environmental Quality and Cape Hatteras National Seashore found that more than 750 beachfront homes are at risk from erosion.
A Volunteer Army: Volunteers anchor much of the relief and recovery work underway in Western North Carolina. Vox looks at the intersection of grassroots and government response.
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