Wake County voters favor incumbents in Tuesday’s school board election
With control of North Carolina’s largest school system on the ballot Tuesday, Wake County voters favored incumbents for the five school board seats up for grabs.
In unofficial results, all five incumbents won reelection to the Wake County Board of Education, with 100% of the votes counted.
Though officially non-partisan, candidates endorsed by the Democratic party will hold a 7-2 majority on the Wake County school board. That majority has been in place for more than a decade and was reaffirmed in 2022 when Democratic candidates won seven of nine seats.
Democratic incumbents Toshiba Rice in District 4, Lynn Edmonds in District 5, Sam Hershey in District 6 and Lindsay Mahaffey in District 8 all comfortably won their races.
Incumbent Republican Wing Ng of District 3 holds a narrow lead of slightly more than one percentage point over challenger Jordyne Blaise.
The school board has had a Democratic majority since 2011. Republicans briefly held a majority for two years, a period of protests when the NAACP opposed efforts to end the district’s busing strategy for diversity.
If all four Republican-backed candidates won Tuesday, they would have joined incumbent board member Cheryl Caulfield of District 1 in forming a new conservative majority.
The Wake County Republican Party endorsed Ng in District 3, Ted Hills in District 5, Josh Points in District 6 and Elizabeth McDuffie in District 8.
The Wake County Democratic Party endorsed Blaise in District 3 and incumbents Rice, Edmonds, Hershey and Mahaffey.
The winners of Tuesday’s election will also likely pick a replacement for board vice chair Monika Johnson-Hostler. She had a big lead in her race for a seat in the General Assembly on Tuesday and would have to resign from the school board if she wins.
Strong incumbent showing
In the 2022 election, when all nine seats were on the ballot, Wake County’s school board added five new members in a dramatic shift. This year voters favored the status quo, returning five incumbents.
In District 4, Rice looks likely to win her first election to the Wake school board. She was appointed to her seat earlier this year when former Wake school board member Tara Waters accepted a position on the county board of commissioners.
District 5 school board member Edmonds, who won her seat in 2022, looks to win reelection comfortably with 68.8% of the vote.
The top vote-getter looks to be District 6 representative Hershey, who appears likely to win reelection with more than 69% of the vote.
District 8 member Mahaffey first won election in 2016 and looks to retain her seat with 59% of the vote.
By far the closest race is in District 3, where incumbent Ng held a narrow one-point lead over challenger Jordyne Blaise.
Period of controversy
The board sets policies for a school district with 160,000 students, the 15th largest in the nation. Wake has an annual operating budget of $2.2 billion.
The election comes after conservative groups have shown up regularly at board meetings to accuse the district of allowing students to read inappropriate books and promoting a LGBTQ+ agenda.
Progressive groups have responded by showing up at board meetings to defend the district and its teachers.
This story was originally published November 5, 2024 at 8:12 PM.
