There’s a trend in school board elections across North Carolina — more are becoming partisan races, where candidates appear on the ballot with their political party marked beside their names. Cabarrus County is conducting its first-ever partisan race for school board this year.
Mishell Williams is a first-time candidate running for the Cabarrus County School Board. She says, for the most part, voters at the polls have been willing to hear her out, but a handful have balked when they hear she’s running as a Democrat.
“I will say that I’ve had experiences standing at a poll or speaking to folks and giving them my palm card, and I’ve had some people really think I’m a great candidate, but then once they hear ‘Democrat,’ you know, they give me my palm card back," Williams said.
At the request of a local state lawmaker, Cabarrus County was added to a bill last year making school board races partisan in Henderson, McDowell and Mitchell Counties. Of the 87 school boards with an election this year, 52 are partisan, according to an analysis by EdNC. Prior to 2013, only 10 school districts conducted partisan elections. So why is this happening?
Steven Greene, a professor of political science at North Carolina State University, says it's because "everything has been going partisan in North Carolina and the whole country.”
Judicial elections across the state, non-partisan for more than a decade, all turned into partisan elections starting in 2018 as a result of legislation in the years prior. Greene says school board races are the latest example of a concept called “conflict extension,” where partisan tension boils over into new arenas.
“We hear all the time about political polarization of people being driven to the extremes of the political parties, the parties being more antagonistic to each other than ever. And it’s a real thing.”
Republicans in the General Assembly have argued partisan school board elections are more transparent and give voters a clear idea of where candidates philosophically stand. In Cabarrus County, four Republicans and four Democrats are running for four open seats.
In an email to WFAE, Republican candidate Melanie Freeman said the partisan format has “helped people identify candidate values.” But she’s also noticed more people aligning with their party and asking fewer questions about school issues.
“For the most part, people do their homework, so they’re gonna look at the candidates either way and see if they align with their views or the issues at hand," said Rob Walter, the only incumbent candidate running as a Republican. "So I don’t think it changes a ton. I think it just makes it somewhat easier for the people who were asking that question anyway ahead of time.”
Roughly 33% of voters in Cabarrus County are Republicans, and 28% are Democrats, while the rest are unaffiliated. The Democratic candidates in Cabarrus are more alarmed by the change.
Keshia Sandidge, the only Democratic incumbent running, is concerned voters may only vote along party lines. She also worries future board members may feel pressure to stick to party ideas. And she’s frustrated by how school board discourse is often bogged down by discussions of national hot-button issues such as, she said, book banning.
“We bring these big issues to a place where they’re not an issue. And that disrupts the likelihood of education that’s occurring in our schools.”
And here’s Democratic candidate Rob Cerulo:
“I don’t think the school board race should be partisan. In doing so, it pulls us from the real issues and all uniting behind our kids and fighting for common interests.”
Candidates of both parties in Cabarrus County say they won’t let party politics influence their opinions on what decisions are best for students.
Greene, the political science professor at NC State, is skeptical. He worries partisan labels create more partisan discourse. But he also notes that political parties have always played a role on school boards, even in non-partisan elections. After all, local political parties usually endorse and support candidates, and residents often know candidates’ political alignments, even if they’re not listed on the ballot.
