Republican nominee for state Superintendent of Public Instruction, Michele Morrow (Photo: Screengrab from campaign YouTube video)
At a candidate forum on Saturday, Michelle Morrow, the Republican nominee for North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction, apologized for offensive comments she made about Muslims four years ago, explaining that they were made out of “frustration” during a time of political unrest and rioting in “primarily Islamic areas” of the country.
It’s unclear what “Islamic areas” Morrow was referring to.
Morrow said she was “totally wrong” and that it was “not fair” to describe Islam as “evil” and to claim that Islam’s goal was “world domination.”
Morrow has apologized for her comments multiple times, but this is the first time she has done so in front of a Muslim audience. She noted that her presence at the event was largely due to her desire to address this issue directly with the Muslim community.
“There’s a verse in the Bible, and it says that we should be quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to become angry. I failed in that game, so I apologize.”
The forum, hosted by the Muslim American Public Affairs Council in Raleigh, was attended by candidates running for state and local offices. Morrow’s Democratic opponent, Mo Green, did not accept an invitation to attend, according to event organizers.
Morrow said her comments stemmed from frustration over political figures she felt were downplaying or excusing violence that occurred during some of the George Floyd protests four years ago.
“There were several people that were in Congress that were basically giving heed to and saying, ‘this is just a peaceful protest, that there’s nothing wrong with this,’” Morrow said. “My concern was that’s not true. Like it’s one thing to peacefully protest, it’s another thing to demand that people think like you or that you have your way, and if you don’t get that way, you’re going to be violent, you’re going to be destroying property, you’re going to be threatening people.”
Morrow has specifically targeted Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Muslim, and has previously said in social media post that Muslims should be banned from elected office in the United States. She also said Rep. Omar, who came to the United States as a refugee, should “head back to Somalia.”
Morrow spent the remainder of her speech attempting to position herself as an outsider to the education establishment who will bring safety to schools. She called for an audit of the state’s Department of Public Instruction, accusing it of expanding bureaucracy without improving student outcomes. She said she would prioritize civics education, increase vocational and technical training, and pledge to remove what she called “sexualization” from schools.
More controversial attacks
While Morrow sought to offer an olive branch to the Muslim community, she paired it with renewed attacks on another segment of society by accusing her opponent being beholden to “dark money” organizations pushing an “LGBTQIA agenda” in schools.
“I know you agree with me that we do not want the LGBTQIA agenda pushed on our children,” she said.
Democratic nominee for Superintendent of Public Instruction Mo Green (Photo: Greg Childress)
Morrow attacked Green’s affiliation with the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, which she has called a “far left extremist group,” where Green served as executive director for about seven years. She also criticized the foundation’s funding of Equality NC, which she said “is all about increasing the LGBTQIA plus power within our schools, and we cannot have that. That is not why we send our children to schools.”
Equality NC, which has endorsed Green, is the nation’s oldest statewide organization advocating for nondiscrimination in housing, employment, education, for the LGBTQIA community in North Carolina.
In a statement, the organization said, “Equality NC PAC endorses Mo Green for many reasons, including his public commitment to ensuring that all students are safe at school and have access to education that prepares them to be the driving force in their future.”
Morrow did not address several other highly controversial statements that she has made in the past and that have drawn widespread condemnation. In a now-deleted video posted after the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol riot, she called for mass arrests and suggested that former President Donald Trump activate the military to stay in power. She also wrote a series of posts on social media between 2019 and 2021 suggesting that former President Barack Obama be executed on live television, among other comments about national Democrats.
Current state Superintendent Catherine Truitt has said she could not endorse Morrow, a fellow Republican, to succeed her in an agency that is responsible for an $11 billion budget and 2,500 public schools.
“It’s always been a mystery to me why someone who has never trusted her own children with the public school systems, and someone who’s never worked in public schools in any capacity at all, would want to be the state’s leader of our public schools,” Truitt said.