Democrats say 3 school board candidates are GOP ‘Trojan horses.’ Here are the facts | Opinion
Are there covert Republicans on the ballot for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education in November?
Allegations of hidden loyalties have shaken up a competitive school board race in which 14 candidates are vying for just three seats.
Carolina Forward, a progressive policy organization, recently alleged on social media that three of the candidates are secretly affiliated with Mecklenburg Republicans and Moms for Liberty. The Mecklenburg County Democratic Party reshared the post and accused the “Trojan horse candidates” of trying to trick voters.
“The GOP is having these candidates hide their real affiliations to dilute the Democratic vote because they know they can’t win honestly,” the party said on X, formerly Twitter.
Those three candidates are Annette Albright, Claire Covington and Michael Johnson. The trio has banded together to form what they’re calling the CMS Unity slate. Albright and Covington are both registered as unaffiliated, while Johnson is a registered Democrat, per the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
The accusations are rooted in the fact that all three candidates share a P.O. box and treasurer with several prominent GOP politicians and PACs, according to campaign finance filings. Democrats say this is evidence that the slate is hiding something.
Here are the facts: The address on Albright, Covington and Johnson’s campaign finance reports is a P.O. box in Raleigh, which also happens to be the address listed for a Republican state Supreme Court justice, a Republican candidate for governor and two PACs affiliated with U.S. Sens. Ted Budd and Thom Tillis, respectively.
The P.O. box appears to belong to the campaign compliance business of Collin McMichael, who is listed as the assistant treasurer for all three school board candidates. McMichael has also served as treasurer for Budd, Tillis, former U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows and the North Carolina House Republican campaign committee.
The primary treasurer listed on the trio’s campaign finance reports is Joe Patton, who works for McMichael’s firm. Johnson and Covington told me that Patton was recommended to them by someone at the Mecklenburg County Board of Elections. Since they are first-time candidates, they said, they wanted an expert to handle their campaign finances to ensure they comply with the law. Patton has worked with both Democrats and Republicans, and records indicate that he was once a campaign finance analyst for the State Board of Elections.
Brooke Weiss, chair of the Mecklenburg County chapter of Moms for Liberty, said in an email that the organization is “in no way affiliated with the Unity Slate.” David Merrill, vice chair of the Mecklenburg County Republican Party, also denied that the party is affiliated with the slate. Both criticized Carolina Forward for making false claims and have threatened legal action.
According to Johnson, the slate has not collaborated or communicated with either organization, and any claims to the contrary are “unequivocally untrue.”
“It saddens me because I feel like I’m being attacked by my own party when all of us have the kids’ best interests at heart,” Johnson said.
It’s understandable why Democrats might be apprehensive. Local Democrats in particular are still reeling from the betrayal of N.C. Rep. Tricia Cotham, who switched her party affiliation from Democrat to Republican just months after taking office earlier this year.
School board elections in general have also become more insidious. In last year’s school board elections, a mysterious group called “Success4CMS” spent thousands of dollars in support of its preferred candidates without disclosing its founders, board members or donors. And nationwide, Moms for Liberty has attempted to take over school board races, albeit with mixed success.
Skepticism is fine. Extrapolating information to propel a narrative that there is some GOP-led conspiracy is not, and this case isn’t nearly as open-and-shut as some Democrats proclaim it to be. There is no smoking gun to suggest that Covington, Johnson and Albright are outright lying about who they are. They have received very few donations, and their campaigns are largely self-financed. While the Unity slate does seem to have more moderate views on most issues that some Democrats may disagree with, that doesn’t mean they support book bans (they say they don’t) or anything else on the Moms for Liberty agenda (they called it “divisive”).
Covington called the accusations a “distraction.”
“It’s one of those talking points that get people riled up, but when they’re talking about that, then they aren’t talking about the things that matter,” she said. “This is not the battle we want to fight.”
