Lifetime of service to others, thinking ‘outside-the-box’ paved way for Michele Morrow’s 2024 foray into statewide politics
We’ve all heard of or seen the movie ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington’ which details a frustrated Everyman’s long-shot, but eventually successful, bid to take on our federal government. Here in 2024 North Carolina, we may be ready to produce that film’s sequel called ‘Mrs. Morrow Goes to Raleigh.’
At the start of the 2024 campaign season, Michele Morrow was best known for her resounding defeat in the 2022 Wake County Board of Education election. When Morrow filed to challenge incumbent DPI superintendent Catherine Truitt in the GOP primary, there weren’t many politics watchers taking her seriously. (BIG Mistake.)
Morrow stunned the North Carolina politics universe by taking out Truitt in the March 5th GOP primary. However, the snickering and whispering about her as a joke picked up steam.
But then we began to notice something strange. Quite a bit of the major-league professional Left began targeting Morrow. CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post and others started swinging away at the suburban mom who had pulled off the biggest upset of the young North Carolina politics season.
Media Matters – a leftist DC based slime factory which has taken on the likes of Donald Trump and the late Rush Limbaugh – decided they needed to take a few swings at Mrs. Morrow.
It’s an awfully unusual, strong reaction to have in response to someone who is supposedly such a big joke.
There has been talk among the GOP establishment of abandoning Morrow in November and conceding the DPI seat to Democrats. But grassroots activists from Murphy to Manteo have clearly telegraphed the message that they aren’t about to let that happen. Two long-time, prolific donors and fundraisers for North Carolina Republicans are hosting a Raleigh fundraiser for Morrow on April 10.
WHY? You’d have to ask Morrow, a married mother of five from the Raleigh suburbs, why on Earth she’d put herself through all of the hassle and obnoxiousness that IS running for office these days. We caught up with her to talk about this and other subjects.
“I worry about whether our kids will be able to compete in coming years,’’ Morrow told us. “Is an onslaught of DEI, CRT, SEL and other left-wing sacred cows really going to be enough to help our kids be good employers or employees when they graduate?’’
Morrow told us she’s a big fan of allowing more options when it comes to educating our children.
“One size does not always fit all. Sometimes you need options or adjustments to meet students’ needs,’’ Morrow told us. “I’d like to see some options out there for our kids. Public schools, private schools, charter schools. I’d like to see parents and their kids presented with as many quality choices as possible.’’
Morrow said she appreciated having choices when it came to educating her daughter, who is special needs. The candidate said the schools in the locale where her family resided at the time just were not giving her daughter what she needed.
“She was spending all day at school,’’ Morrow said. “Then, she would come home and we would spend three to four hours on the stuff she was supposed to be learning at school.’’
Morrow said the family determined, after talking with her daughter’s school and investigating some other options, that homeschooling would be the best option. The candidate said the move produced fantastic results. Her daughter is currently pursuing a college degree.
Morrow joined forces with some other homeschooling parents to organize something called a curriculum collective. Parents formed a homeschooling faculty – teaching classes based on their own specialties from college and the working world. (Morrow said she has taught subjects ranging from biology to chemistry, Spanish to even government and civics.)
“The kids had a college-style schedule,’’ Morrow explained. “They would go to class all day Tuesday and Thursday. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday they would work independently from home reaching out to parents and other teachers when they had questions or needed help.’’
A background of service to others. Before she was a mother, an education advocate, and a political candidate, Michele Morrow was a nurse – a career track that has more than its fair share of classroom and hitting-the-books time. Her assignments ranged from a neurosurgical intensive care unit, to an emergency room, and to a labor-and-delivery unit.
“Nurses often find themselves spending as much, if not more, time with patients as doctors do,’’ Morrow said. “You find yourself acting as a mentor and an educator as part of helping them recover and get back to their regular lives.’’
One of the breaks Morrow took from nursing occurred during her four-year stint with a permanent mission in Mexico. The candidate, who is fluent in Spanish, helped lead efforts to teach locals English, and to tutor them in math and other important job skills.
Morrow and her husband also managed a youth wilderness camp in mountainous rural Colorado. They both taught survival skills to campers. Morrow leaned on her medical training to advise campers on various first-aid and life-saving techniques.
The Job. The candidate said she has a pretty good understanding of what she would be facing at the state Department of Public Instruction.
“Critical thinking is such an important skill for our kids to acquire,” Morrow said. “It’s a skill we need to put to use more often when considering the state of education. We need to be constantly studying our system and asking ourselves: ‘Can we do this better?”’
The candidate admits that success at DPI will require a lot of teamwork. “The General Assembly is a very key, very important player in our state’s education system,” Morrow said.”I helped lead recent successful efforts, like the Parents’ Bill of Rights, through the legislature. I have some good relationships at the legislature that have reaped benefits in the past, and should continue to do so when I am at DPI.”
The Left would rather put Michele on the defensive than defend their hyper-Leftist candidate running for DPI.
When she ran for the Ex Board of Wake GOP some time back; she ran with a slate. She was the only one on that side who addressed some of my concerns. I voted for the other side. I had friends who supported her and her whole slate. Some of them don’t like it when I bring up that they wanted me to vote for her then; but vote against her now.
If you are unhappy with the state of education in NC then vote for Mrs. M.
While not easy on the candidate, it I is funny watching the Left melt down over Morrow and how obsessed they are with past comments. The Left has nothing to offer so it makes sense old comments are all they talk about. What is disappointing are the usual establishment “republicans” siding w the left. They would rather have Truitt who instituted a bunch of leftist policies including equity offices than someone who voiced frustration shared by so many with Obama and company. It’s a sad commentary on those who consider themselves “republicans” and lived through the “mean tweets” of Trump who can’t get behind this candidate and instead would allow leftists who are okay with kids wanting genitals chopped off in charge (I mean if we are going to oust extremists here). Her background sounds like what public education is in desperate need of. Definitely voting Morrow!
I got to know Michele Morrow back in 2021 when I ran HB 558, a bill to prohibit vaccine mandates, during the COVID (Fauci virus) plandemic. She was part of a group of about 500 people who came to Raleigh to rally in support of the bill, which Tim Moore was refusing to be allowed to be heard. I guess Tim knew they were coming. He managed to be out of town that day, and still refused to let the bill be heard. Later, the bill’s supporters had a meeting at another location and asked me to come. They were still supportive of what I had tried to do. Getting to talk to Mrs. Morrow, I easily recognized her deep commitment to children’s needs and citizens’ rights. When I saw she was running for DPI Superintendent, I put her on the list of candidates I personally endorsed on my Facebook page. I spoke up for her whenever I could out at the polls as I campaigned for Cabarrus County Commissioner, and put out some of her signs, especially in my front yard. A lot of people in Concord tell me that they ride by my place during election time to see whom I support so they know, or at least get an idea, how they will vote themselves. So I guess I helped her some. I was tickled to death when she won the primary. She still has my full support for this election. I was hoping someone good would take out Truitt, and got excited that Michele ran. I was the one who led the fight in the Legislature to get rid of Common Core. During my last term in Raleigh, I produced a bill that would have finally gotten that done, and went to talk to Truitt about it, seeking her suppoert. She said, “You don’t need to run that bill. We are going to review Common Core next year, and we’ll get rid of it then.” So, considering that to be a promise, and knowing how much of a challenge I was going to have to get any bill past Timmy, I unfortunately trusted Truitt to do what she said. I should have know she wouldn’t. So good riddance to her, and let’s get Michele Morrow elected!!!