LOCAL NEWS

Three School Board Candidates Recommended by New Hanover RLC Endorsement Committee

Chris Sutton, Melissa Mason, and Pat Bradford recommended for Saturday's vote by the membership

David A> Perry David A> Perry

Wilmington, NC - This afternoon the Endorsement Committee of the New Hanover RLC voted to recommend that the Caucus' membership endorse three Republican candidates for the New Hanover County Board of Education: Chris Sutton, Melissa Mason, and Pat Bradford. The Committee had received completed candidate surveys from two of the four Republican candidates for the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners, but ultimately decided not to recommend endorsment for either of them. The Committee had also received completed candidate surveys from four of the five Republican candidates for the New Hanover County Board of Education, but ultimately decided to only recommend endorsement for three of them.

Each of the candidate surveys were graded carefully by individual members of the committee, and their answers were discussed thoroughly within the committee before decisions were made about whether to receommend them for endorsement. Only those candidates who averaged a 90% score or higher on their survey were utlimately chosen to receive the committee's recommendation for endorsement.

Some people might question the decision not to simply recommend endorsement for all the candidates who submitted surveys. After all, there are two slots available on the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners, and four slots available on the New Hanover County Board of Education. In response, the reason is quite simple - we don't want to waste our time and money supporting candidates who are only a "lesser evil" and don't really support most of the principles our organization stands for. The goal of the New Hanover RLC Endorsement program is to help elect principled Republican candidates who share our vision of individual liberty, small and limited government, the primacy of the Constitution, and fiscal conservatism. We are NOT saying that the candidates who did not receive the committee's recommendation are bad people or bad candidates. The fact is that most of them came very close to receiving the committee's recommendation. We just have to focus our efforts on helping "the best of the best" make it through the primary process.

Ultimately, the committee's recommendations are just that - recommendations. The membership of the New Hanover RLC will vote on which candidates it should endorse at its March Special Meeting w/ Guest Speaker Matt Rhodes for NHC Sheriff on March 19th. Regardless of whether the candidate received the recommendation of the Endorsement Committeee, any candidate who submitted a survey is eligible to be endorsed by the membership, subject only to the approval of the North Carolina RLC Candidate Vetting Committee. So we encourage all candidates and their supporters to attend the meeting. Only New Hanover RLC members can vote, and so if you aren't a member yet then be sure to join today!

We want to thank all the candidates who submitted candidate surveys. All of them displayed the courage of their convictions and were happy to be recorded on the record about their positions on the issues. Here is a list of links to their submitted surveys:

Board of Commissioners

Board of Education

Endorsement by the New Hanover RLC goes far beyond mere recognition. Once the membership decides on its candidate endorsements, we will be getting to work to do whatever we can to lead these candidates to vitory in their May 17, 2022 primaries. We hope that you will get involved, and help us fulfill our mission of being the "Conscience of the Republican Party."