The Dive: A School Bellwether in Tuesday’s Primary Election

It’s a truism that New Hanover County is a “purple” county–a roughly equal mix of Democrats, Republicans, and unaffiliated voters. But there’s another level of complexity within the politics of southeastern North Carolina if you look under the increasingly broad tent of the Republican Party.

Case in point: Michele Morrow’s strong showing here in the Superintendent of Public Instruction primary this week.

Morrow, a former nurse who homeschooled her five children, pushed conspiracy theories about COVID-19 vaccines and election fraud during her run for the Wake County school board in 2022. Morrow lost that race, but garnered endorsements from the local GOP, Moms for Liberty, and anti-vaccine groups. 

In her 2024 bid to lead the state’s public schools, Morrow attacked incumbent Catherine Truitt from the right. But Truitt’s no centrist; just last week she pledged she would “keep working to get woke politics out of our public schools,” and has boasted that she ended mask mandates and lockdowns in schools, “barred boys from playing girls sports,” and helped pass the Parents’ Bill of Rights.

But Morrow, whose right-wing bona fides include taking her kids to the January 6th rally in Washington, D.C. as a lesson in civics, went harder. Her supporters painted Truitt as a corrupt or inept bureaucrat, Thom Tillis’ “Republican in Name Only” candidate, or even, improbably, a tool of Gov. Roy Cooper’s “liberal agenda.”

Whatever you think of Morrow’s politics, you’ll be unsurprised to know she did well in Pender County, where it’s common to hear conservatives refer to the government as a “swamp.” Pender voters ousted all but one incumbent in local primaries on Tuesday, and embraced other populist conservatives–namely former President Donald Trump and Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who ran five to six points higher there than their state-wide averages. 

Morrow did less-well in more moderate Brunswick County, where politics are tempered in part by migrants from northern states where “Republican” means something a bit different. Trump and Robinson were both down three to four points in Brunswick, the incumbents pretty much all held on to their seats, and Truitt eked out a one-point lead.

Then there’s New Hanover, where things get even more complicated. Trump and Robinson were both down four or five points, while Morrow was up five.

Out at the polls, I talked to several voters who learned about Morrow when she endorsed Natosha Tew, a local school board candidate who snagged one of three wins in the GOP primary. Morrow was also endorsed by Melissa Mason, the current school board vice chair. Voters told me they liked Morrow, Tew, and Mason for the same reasons–namely opposition to “woke” educational practices and “pornography” in schools, and support for parental rights.

This is, after all, the county where voters sent two very different types of Republicans to the Board of Commissioners and Board of Education in 2022. 

When it comes to the levers of local government, voters tend to ignore candidates running on hyperbolic or outright fictional claims. Our county commissioner incumbents might have their distinct ideological bent, but they’re also, no disrespect, a little boring. But some overlapping bloc of voters also responded to candidates that alleged there was pornography and grooming in the schools, and who equated masking with Nazi tyranny and social emotional learning with socialism. 

We’re no doubt seeing this phenomenon, for better and worse, because parents’ concerns for their kids can both cut through their political apathy and expose them to political manipulation. 

It’s also, I think, because it is getting more difficult to parse New Hanover as just some measurable mix of red and blue. 

–Benjamin Schachtman

For a detailed breakdown on primary results in the Cape Fear region, read WHQR’s coverage here.

---

Party of None

The number of voters registered as unaffiliated continues to climb, now at 2.7 million as of Tuesday. 

Unaffiliated voters first eclipsed Democrats as the state’s largest group in 2022. Since 2020, the unaffiliated “party” has added more than 453,000 voters–a 20 percent gain. These voters tend to skew younger, and most were born outside of the state.

Johanna F. Still looks at the growing number of voters who are declining to list a party choice.

The number of North Carolina voters registered as unaffiliated continues to climb, at 2.7 million as of Tuesday.

---

Not a subscriber yet? Good journalism is expensive – and we need your support to do more of it. For just $6 a month or $60 a year, you’ll unlock full access to our archives and help us grow in 2025.

Already a subscriber? Consider giving the gift of The Assembly to a friend.

---

Less than a Quarter

Primary turnout was pretty dismal in the Cape Fear Region. 

About 22 percent of registered voters in New Hanover County cast a ballot, lower than the state’s total turnout of 24 percent. Local turnout was also down compared to the last primary election with a presidential race in 2020, which was 31 percent. 

Tuesday was the lowest-turnout presidential primary election in years, and onlookers say it’s partially because so many contests are seen as non-competitive, said Aaron King, an associate professor of political science at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

With former President Donald Trump heavily favored on the Republican side and President Joe Biden running uncontested for the Democrats, the highest-profile race wasn’t all that exciting. “Somebody that may not have liked those candidates may say, ‘Well geez, the cake’s already baked. I don’t need to participate,” King said.

Plus, knowing who to vote for in primary elections can be tough, especially further down the ballot. It takes homework, and it’s not always easy to track down candidates’ perspectives. Even for someone like King, whose job it is to follow politics, getting up to speed on candidates took “a lot of work,” he said.

But still, putting in the work in a primary is important, he said. “You’re kind of the one in charge of setting up the menu for what you’re going to eat later on.” 

“When less than a quarter of the registered voters are having a say in who the candidates are on the general ballot, I don’t think anyone would think that is ideal,” he said.

–Johanna F. Still

Read this newsletter online or contact The Dive team with tips and feedback at wilmington@theassemblync.com.

---

Around the Region

Who’s Got the Bill? New Hanover County Commissioners are defending their support of the school system amid public demands that they cover a funding shortfall, Port City Daily reports. The school board hasn’t yet asked the county to cover its nearly $11 million hole, and the superintendent is insisting on sending a budget without a deficit. 

Signs of the Times: Newsweek recently highlighted the work of a University of North Carolina at Wilmington researcher who discovered rice plantation artifacts from the Brunswick River. The structures were likely built by enslaved people to control water flow in the early 19th century.

Wrongful Death: The father of a man who died in 2022 has filed a complaint against the Wilmington Police Department, alleging officers didn’t use proper protocol in pursuing a missing persons report and investigating his death. Port City Daily reports. In its own investigations, the department found police did make mistakes both before and after his death.

---

Around the State

---

---