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This time last year I wrote about how little difference endorsements seemed to make in the six district races for Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board. This year’s at-large race saw a new player: Mecklenburg County’s Democratic Party decided to endorse three candidates rather than highlight all the registered Democrats in the nonpartisan school board race. And the party’s “blue ballot” recommendations appear to have made a difference.
Endorsements by the local party — along with its African American caucus, the Black Political Caucus, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Association of Educators and The Charlotte Observer — put the spotlight on four candidates: Lenora Shipp, Monty Witherspoon, Liz Monterrey and Shamaiye Haynes. As I anticipated, they were the top four, with Shipp in first place and Witherspoon and Monterrey virtually tied for the next two positions. Haynes, who fell almost 7,000 votes short of their totals, got the nod from all of the groups above except the Democratic Party. (Find all totals here.)
In a blue county where many voters struggled to sort out a 14-person slate — and some worried about inadvertently picking candidates who didn’t reflect their values — the party’s ballot seems to have steered votes.
Last year Witherspoon ran for the District 2 seat and got all the big endorsements — and still fell short in a race between three Democrats. This year, with the backing of the party, he claimed a seat representing the whole county.
Monterrey, a 34-year-old finance professional who’s only been in Charlotte for three years, was on the blue ballot even though most of the other groups didn’t endorse her. She won a countywide race on her first try for office, with no local activism on her resume. That’s unusual. But as Monterrey is quick to note, no one should assume she was passively plunked into office by the party.
Working to get voters’ attention
Monterrey, who is originally from Miami, is the daughter of Cuban immigrants. “I grew up poor. I didn’t have a lot growing up,” she told me. “I have a lot of privilege now. I have a lot of resources. I have a great career.”
In Charlotte, Monterrey found herself in a community with a booming Latino population that’s looking for people to run for office. She considered Charlotte City Council before settling on the school board — her son starts kindergarten next year, and 30% of CMS students are Hispanic.
Once Monterrey made her decision she got to work: “I spent over 200 hours calling, canvassing, meetings. I went to over 150 community events.” She said she thinks that work got her on the radar for local Democrats and for voters.
And local Democrats worked to get their chosen three in front of voters. The party printed 40,000 “blue ballots” and had 500 volunteers passing them out, party Chair Drew Kromer says. And this year they added photos of the candidates to humanize the slate.
On Dec. 12, Monterrey and Witherspoon will bring fresh eyes and a young-parent perspective to a leadership team that’s essentially starting fresh: Seven of nine members — plus the superintendent and much of her cabinet — will have no more than one year’s experience in their roles. Monterrey sees herself as a voice for Spanish-speaking and immigrant families, as well as young adults, who haven’t seen themselves represented until now.
Partisan politics on a nonpartisan board
The new board will be racially diverse — five Black and three white members, in addition to Monterrey as the first Latina. Politically, it’s made up of eight Democrats and one Republican.
Democrats account for 41% of Mecklenburg’s registered voters, compared with not quite 20% who are Republicans. But when you throw in the 38% who are unaffiliated, that means a board trying to keep this sprawling county united can’t speak just for the die-hard Democrats. Bill Fountain, the only Republican on this year’s school board ballot, came in fifth out of 14 overall, but he was first or second in several north and south suburban precincts.
For 13 years Rhonda Cheek, a Republican from the northern suburbs, acted as a strong center-right voice on a school board that skewed left. Sean Strain, a Republican from the southern suburbs, joined her in that role for five years. Both lost their reelection bids last year, leaving Lisa Cline, who was elected to represent south Charlotte and Matthews last year, as the sole GOP school board member.
Cline told me last week that she pushes back on majority views, but she prefers private conversations to public posturing. She has broken with the majority on some big votes, including hiring Hill as superintendent and approving new school boundaries in south Charlotte. But she was joined by some of her Democratic colleagues in those votes — and when the majority prevailed, she supported the board’s decisions.
“We have healthy discussions as to what’s important for our kids. Sometimes we disagree and we have to find common ground,” Cline said. “I joke with many of my colleagues, they thought I was this crazy right-wing person but I don’t think I have been.”
And Monterrey told me that campaigning taught her that she’s not interested in demonizing people with different views. “I think that’s what’s fundamentally broken in our system, where we’re fighting amongst each other,” she said. “I don’t want to continue that narrative. I’m willing to work with all folks from across the aisle and to listen and learn.”
No confidence in CMS? Not so fast …
Critics of CMS can be vocal, and there was some talk that massive turnover on the board signaled a desire to throw the bums out. The Observer’s editorial board declined to endorse Shipp, the only incumbent running this year, saying she was capable but “represents an error-plagued past that voters might want to put behind them.”
Voters didn’t see it that way, giving Shipp a strong first-place finish with 45,627 votes. That’s significantly more than the first-place finishers in the last two at-large board races: Elyse Dashew got about 35,000 votes in 2019 and Ericka Ellis-Stewart got almost 37,000 in 2015.
Shipp says the message is that voters want “consistency and sustainability” along with change.
“At a time when we have a new superintendent, when we’re moving forward with a plan, we really need that,” she said.
Seven of the nine seats have turned over in the back-to-back 2022 and 2023 elections. Three incumbents lost, but four simply chose not to run.
And, of course, there was the approval of $2.5 billion in school bonds. The margin of victory was down a bit — 63% in favor, compared with low 70s in the previous two bond referenda — but it wasn’t as tight as many expected, given that a property tax hike was on the table. Organized opposition came from the African American Clergy Alliance, which said Black and financially-strapped residents of “the crescent” would be especially hard hit by rising taxes. But the bonds passed in 188 of 195 precincts, including all of them in the crescent. The bonds failed in seven conservative south and southeastern precincts.
Approval of the bonds will bring concrete results over the next several years. But at least as important is the fact that the vote clears the way for CMS leaders to focus on improving academics. Those of us who remember the aftermath of the 2005 CMS bond defeat know how much time and energy was diverted into restoring community confidence in CMS construction and planning. Critics raised valid questions about the cost and scope of the 2023 bond package, but a defeat would have distracted the new leadership team as it prepares to launch a much-needed push to improve equity and academic success. Approval won’t make the work easy, but it gives the team a fighting chance.
