On March 3, North Carolina voters turned out to vote in the primary election and decided which two contenders will vie for State Superintendent of Public Instruction in November.
Representing the Republicans, former Gov. Pat McCrory education advisor Catherine Truitt beat out House education leader Rep. Craig Horn, R-Union, with 57% of the vote. Truitt is currently chancellor of Western Governor’s University.
For the Democrats, Jen Mangrum took 33% of the vote. She is a University of North Carolina at Greensboro School of Education associate professor who took on Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, in the 2018 election. She beat out a stacked field of five contenders. Wake County Board of Education Vice Chair Keith Sutton was her closest competitor, garnering 27% of the vote.
The two are vying for the seat being vacated by Republican Mark Johnson, who decided not to seek reelection for his current post and instead join a field of nine trying to become the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor. He came in third with 12% of the vote, losing out to the winner, Mark Robinson, who got 33% of the vote.
Robinson will face off against somebody on the Democratic side, but it’s not entirely clear who yet. In order to win outright, a candidate had to garner at least 30% of the vote. Rep. Yvonne Holley, D-Wake, will face a runoff against Sen. Terry Van Duyn, D-Buncome. Holley got 27% of the vote and Van Duyn received 20%.
