NC voters split on Green and Morrow in state superintendent race
Republican Michele Morrow and Democrat Mo Green are in a statistical dead heat in the race to oversee North Carolina’s public schools, according to a WRAL News Poll released Monday.
Morrow held 41% of the vote, while Green had 40% in the race to become the state’s superintendent of public instruction. Nineteen percent of respondents were undecided.
The poll, conducted in partnership with SurveyUSA between March 3 and March 9, has a credibility interval of 4.9 percentage points. A credibility interval is similar to margin of error but takes into account more factors and is considered by some pollsters to be a more accurate measurement of statistical certainty.
Morrow, a homeschool mom who has called public schools "indoctrination centers," pulled off an enormous upset in Tuesday’s GOP primary, beating incumbent state Superintendent Catherine Truitt. Green, a former superintendent of Guilford County Schools, overwhelmingly beat out two competitors for his party’s nomination.
Green leads by five points among adults who have children under 18 at home. Morrow had a four-point lead among North Carolina voters who don’t have children at home.
Seventy-two percent of those who say they’ll vote for former President Donald Trump said they would vote for Morrow, who is a right-wing Republican. Seventy-seven percent of Biden voters back Green, according to the poll. Unaffiliated voters favor Green by seven points.
Green — who was also a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools deputy superintendent and chief operating officer — touts academics and character education as his top priorities. As a part of that, he believes it’s essential to revere public school employees, tailor services to students’ needs, engage parents and community members in schools, ensure a safe learning environment and remind people of the good things that are happening in schools. He wants to urge the General Assembly to provide more funding for schools, but he said he has experience aligning existing resources with top priorities.
Morrow, a former nurse and current property manager, doesn’t believe schools need more funding. She is pushing for uniform student discipline policies and stopping schools from including diversity, equity and inclusion training for staff. Morrow also says public schools are too “woke,” alleging that they’re pushing leftist agendas on LGBTQ issues and racial equality.
