Democrats won all three contested seats on the Cabarrus County school board Tuesday, reflecting the party's wins down the ballot in a historically Republican-dominated county.
Incumbent Pam Escobar will remain on the board. She was the only incumbent of the six candidates — Democrat Sam Treadaway and Republican Shannon Lancaster declined to seek reelection. Escobar took the largest share of the vote total at 19%, according to unofficial election results Tuesday night.
Fellow Democrats Mishell Williams and Courtney Steinberg took the remaining two seats over Republicans Robert Kirk, William Barbee and Bubba Hartsell.
The Democratic sweep narrows the school board’s Republican majority to 4-3. The school board was nonpartisan until the 2024 election.
Nearly every candidate cited Cabarrus County Schools’ rapid growth as a major concern and backed a $340 million bond that would pay for new schools and repairs at Cabarrus County Schools and Kannapolis City Schools.
But voters weren’t swayed. The bond failed by about two percentage points. Another $60 million bond for Rowan-Cabarrus Community College also failed.
Other school board races
Democrats were less successful in other area school boards.
In Gaston County’s first-ever partisan school board race, Republicans won all five contested seats Tuesday night. Board Chair Josh Crisp and Vice Chair Dot Cherry retained their seats against challengers Brenda Eskridge and Debra Gunnings-Johnson. After Democrat Chéz Adams ousted incumbent Lee Dedmon in the primary, she lost to Republican Tim Taylor.
Republican incumbent A.M. Stephens III defeated Democrat Barbara Walls, and incumbent Republican Tod Kinlaw beat challenger David Gain-Tang Chee. Kinlaw faced calls for his resignation earlier this year over a controversial Facebook post about Islam.
On the Union County school board, three of four incumbents either declined to seek reelection or lost in a primary. The fourth, Barry Tucker, ran unopposed.
Republicans won the other three. Linda Robinson beat Democrat Alexis Stadler for the at-large seat; Stephen Smith beat Brittany Cabuno in District 4; and Brandi Smith beat Evan Metaxatos in District 6.
