Dacey takes down Dove for Craven County school board District 4 seat

Trevor Dunnell, Sun Journal
·2 min read

Editor's Note: All results remain unofficial until canvassing is completed on November 18.

When it was all said and done Tuesday night, Republican candidate Jennifer Dacey upended Democratic candidate Victor Dove for the county's District 4 seat on the Craven County Board of Education.

Early on, it was Dove who took an early lead over Dacey when early voting numbers came in. Vote tallies across the county were delayed due to River Bend running out of ballots and needing to extend voting until 7:55 p.m.

It did not take long for Dacey to overcome Dove's brief lead and while the race remained tight until the final precinct reported, it was Dacey finishing with 2,958 (50.66%) votes to Dove's 2,881 (49.34%).

CRAVEN COUNTY:ELECTION RESULTS

Dacey was selected by the Craven County GOP to run in place of May's Republican primary winner Michael Genovese won the right to represent the party against Dove in the General Election. However, Genovese's employment at Fleet Readiness Center East (FRCE) aboard Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point prohibited him from participating in a partisan election.

Dacey is a licensed attorney in North Carolina and the Commonwealth of Virginia, although she is not currently practicing. She is a graduate of Duke University and received her juris doctorate degree from George Mason University. She and her husband Scott have two children.

In an October questionnaire that both candidates took part in, Dacey said laid out her thoughts as to what was the most important issues the school board currently faces.

"Students must be the focus of our school system and the board must ensure that our schools are safe places for them to achieve academic excellence. The board is failing to address these fundamental issues. In many schools, students are not performing at grade level. Learning losses dating back to Hurricane Florence have been compounded by COVID lockdowns and quarantines. Learning interventions need to be implemented with existing federal funds to target those students most impacted. Our schools need to be laser-focused on the basic fundamentals of reading, writing and arithmetic, not the flavor of the day social engineering."

This article originally appeared on Sun Journal: Dacey takes down Dove for Craven County school board District 4 seat