Last summer, David Hensley’s former allies turned on him.
Since 2020, Hensley had spearheaded a campaign to seize control of Moore County’s school board, which he and other hardline conservatives believed had been captured by an establishment too focused on promoting racial equity and liberal ideology.
Over the next few years, his faction won six of seven seats and accomplished many of their goals. Moore County was a vanguard in an effort pushed by key players in former President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement to capitalize on pandemic-fueled anxieties and reshape public education in a more traditionalist, conservative mold.
But at the peak of their power, the coalition frayed.
Reporters Carli Brosseau and Jeffrey Billman dig into the disorder that has gripped the board.
Moore County’s Conservative Civil War
After MAGA Republicans took control of the school board with promises to “drain the swamp,” the board imploded. Can a movement based on grievance govern?
“We now have chaos in public meetings and the toxic stew of antagonism and character assassination of the elected chair of this board, as well as the gratuitous attacks on the superintendent,” said one former Hensley ally.
Have a news tip for our team? You can reach us at scoops@theassemblync.com.
Project 2025’s N.C. Ties
Project 2025, the conservative movement’s policy wish list and staffing plan for a prospective Republican administration, has been a major talking point for both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. It was also in the news this week as its director stepped down.
Democrats have attacked the plan as extreme and authoritarian, and Trump has forcefully rejected efforts to tie him to it–despite the participation of many of his former aides.
Contributors to the report included North Carolinian Robert Bortins, the CEO of the Southern Pines-based Classical Conversations, which provides Christian homeschool curricula and testing materials to roughly 145,000 students worldwide. Bortins is also president of Homeschool Now USA, a nonprofit that promotes homeschooling, and owns National Athletic Village, a 70-acre sports and recreational facility in Moore County.
The Assembly’s Carli Brosseau asked Bortins a few questions via email about the plan everyone seems to be discussing.
What was your contribution to Project 2025?
I worked on the first phase of the study on the role of the Federal government in education. I proposed moving the Department of Education HQ to Chicago, Illinois. My reasoning is that Chicago has some of the worst-performing schools in the country, and we should move the department there. (The final document does not include this recommendation; instead, it proposes eliminating the U.S. Department of Education.)
What is your opinion of the final document?
I think some of it went too far, and a lot of it didn’t go far enough. In general, if these ideas and principles were implemented, we would see a fairer U.S. that worked for all people. Income inequality would decrease, and opportunity would increase.
What do you think of Project 2025’s public reception?
I don’t think Project 2025 has a PR team, and I did not participate in the additional phases of the project. It is a policy document put together by a group of think tanks that anyone could adopt some or all, depending on their worldview and belief in the size and scope of government.
From my observations, it appears that the Democrats don’t like it and are trying to tie it to Trump. However, at no point when I was working on it did we know who the nominee was, and [Florida] Governor [Ron] DeSantis was neck-and-neck with Donald Trump in the polls. It was never implied that Trump knew or cared about the project. It was a policy document that would be available for Republicans, Democrats, or Independents to use should they see fit.
What do you hope readers take away from Project 2025?
If you love red tape, hot inflation, and increase in income inequality, then you will probably disagree with Project ‘25. If you think that the federal government has too much power over your daily life and that unelected bureaucrats shouldn’t be running this country, then I think you will like the outcomes of any Project ‘25 ideas that are implemented.
What do you think is being lost in the current public discussion?
The Democrats are trying to make more of it than what it is, and I think that is because so many groups came together to create this document. Even those working on it didn’t agree with everything in it because of our diverse backgrounds and disagreements on policy. If you are interested in Trump’s plan, I’d suggest reviewing Agenda 47.
What We’re Reading
Roy Howdy: WRAL reports that Kamala Harris will make a campaign stop in Raleigh next week alongside her new running mate, which we now know is not Gov. Roy Cooper.
Hosed: PFAS has been found in private wells near Fort Liberty, CityView reports, which the Army tied to use of firefighting foam that contains the so-called forever chemicals.
Overturned: A federal appeals court overturned a lower court’s decision to dismiss the case against a Greensboro police officer who shot and killed a 17-year-old during a 2022 traffic stop. Triad City Beat has the story.
Mounds Don’t: Inside Climate News covers Chapel Hill’s dilemma when it comes to redeveloping a coal ash pile, since there are a whole lot of things you can’t build on contaminated soil.
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