2020 North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction election

2020 North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction election

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Candidate Catherine Truitt Jen Mangrum Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 2,753,220 2,605,169 Percentage 51.38% 48.62%

County results Truitt:     50–60%     60–70%     70–80%     80–90% Mangrum:     50–60%     60–70%     70–80%

Superintendent of Public Instruction before election Mark Johnson Republican Elected Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt Republican

The 2020 North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction election was held on November 3, 2020, to elect the North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction, concurrently with elections to the United States Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, governor, Council of State, and other state and local elections. Primary elections were held on March 3, 2020, with runoff elections being rescheduled to June 23 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ^[1]

Incumbent Republican superintendent Mark Johnson was eligible to run for re-election to a second term in office, but ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor instead. ^[2] Republican nominee and former senior advisor on education to Pat McCrory, Catherine Truitt, defeated Democratic professor and former state senate candidate Jen Mangrum in the general election. ^[3]

Republican primary

Candidates

Nominee

• Catherine Truitt, teacher and former senior advisor on education to governor Pat McCrory ^[4]

Eliminated in primary

• D. Craig Horn, state representative from the 68th district (2011-present) ^[5]

Declined

• Mark Johnson, incumbent state superintendent (2017-present) (ran for lieutenant governor) ^[6]

Results

Republican primary results ^[7]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Catherine Truitt	391,915	56.68%
	Republican	D. Craig Horn	299,578	43.32%
Total votes			691,493	100.00%

Democratic primary

Candidates

Nominee

• Jen Mangrum, professor at University of North Carolina at Greensboro and nominee for state senate in 2018 ^{[8] [9]}

Eliminated in primary

• James Barrett, Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board member ^[10]
• Constance Lav Johnson, magazine owner and former education official ^[11]
• Michael Maher, professor at North Carolina State University ^[12]
• Keith Sutton, Wake County school board member ^[13]

Withdrawn

• Amy Jablonski, education official and former teacher ^[14]

Endorsements

Keith Sutton

Labor unions

• North Carolina AFL-CIO ^[15]

Results

Democratic primary results ^[7]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Jen Mangrum	378,396	33.17%
	Democratic	Keith Sutton	303,592	26.61%
	Democratic	Constance Lav Johnson	240,710	21.10%
	Democratic	James Barrett	122,855	10.77%
	Democratic	Michael Maher	85,239	8.35%
Total votes			1,140,792	100.00%

General election

Post-primary endorsements

Catherine Truitt (R)

Organizations

• State Employees Association of North Carolina ^[16]

Jen Mangrum (D)

Newspapers and other media

• Indy Week ^[17]
• The Charlotte Observer ^[18]
• The News & Observer (Raleigh) ^[19]

Organizations

• Equality North Carolina ^[20]
• North Carolina Association of Educators ^[21]

Polling

Poll source	Date(s) administered	Sample size	Margin of error	Catherine Truitt (R)	Jen Mangrum (D)	Undecided
Harper Polling/Civitas (R) [22]	October 22–25, 2020	504 (LV)	± 4.4%	42%	45%	13%
Harper Polling/Civitas (R) [23]	September 17–20, 2020	612 (LV)	± 3.96%	38%	38%	22%
Harper Polling/Civitas (R) [24]	August 6–10, 2020	600 (LV)	± 4.0%	35%	35%	31%

Results

2018 North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction election ^[25]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Catherine Truitt	2,753,220	51.38%
	Democratic	Jen Mangrum	2,605,169	48.62%
Total votes			5,358,389	100.00%
	Republican hold

References

1. "2020 State Primary Election Dates". National Conference of State Legislatures. December 15, 2022. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
2. Hinchcliffe, Kelly (November 12, 2019). "State school superintendent wants lieutenant governor job". WRAL. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
3. Doss Helms, Ann (November 3, 2020). "Republican Catherine Truitt Elected Superintendent Of North Carolina's Public Schools". WFAE 90.7. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
4. "2020 North Carolina Council of State Candidate Summary" (PDF). Retired Government Employees Association. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
5. Childress, Greg (December 11, 2019). "State Rep. Craig Horn becomes the first Republican candidate to join the race for state superintendent". NC Newsline. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
6. "NC Schools Chief Running For Lieutenant Governor". WUNC. Associated Press. November 12, 2019. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
7. "03/03/2020 OFFICIAL LOCAL ELECTION RESULTS - STATEWIDE". North Carolina State Board of Elections. March 19, 2020. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
8. "Meet Jen Mangrum, candidate for NC State Superintendent" . The Charlotte Observer. October 1, 2020. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
9. Barnett, Ned (July 31, 2023). "An educator is leading NC's battered ranks of teachers to unionize | Opinion" . The News & Observer. Retrieved October 21, 2025. Mangrum, an associate professor of teacher education at UNC-Greensboro, ran unsuccessfully against the state's most powerful Republican, state Senate leader Phil Berger in 2018.
10. Polk, Shelbi (January 11, 2019). "Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board member hopes to become next NC school superintendent" . The News & Observer. Retrieved October 21, 2025. Instead, James Barrett announced that he will run as a Democrat for state school superintendent in 2020.
11. "Voter's Guide: Meet the candidates for state superintendent". EducationNC. February 13, 2020. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
12. Hui, T. Keung (March 5, 2019). "N.C. State professor wants to lead NC public schools as next state superintendent" . The News & Observer. Retrieved October 21, 2025. Michael Maher, the assistant dean of professional education at N.C. State, announced Thursday that he's seeking the Democratic Party nomination in 2020 to be the next North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction.
13. Hui, T. Keung (February 20, 2019). "Wake school board member wants to be state education superintendent" . The News & Observer. Retrieved October 21, 2025. Sutton announced on the Feb. 16 episode of "Education Matters," a weekly show of the Public School Forum of North Carolina, that he will seek the Democratic nomination for state schools superintendent in 2020.
14. Bell, Liz (November 25, 2019). "State superintendent candidates talk about early learning, race in North Carolina schools". EducationNC. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
15. Sprinkle, Jeremy (December 9, 2019). "NC State AFL-CIO Announces Endorsed 2020 Candidates". North Carolina State AFL-CIO. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
16. "EMPAC endorses Marshall, Wood, Truitt for Council of State spots". State Employees Association of North Carolina. August 28, 2020. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
17. Tauss, Leigh (October 14, 2020). "2020 Endorsements: Council of State". Indy Week. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
18. "Endorsements: Our choices for NC schools superintendent, agriculture commissioner, labor commissioner and secretary of state" . The Charlotte Observer. October 21, 2020. Retrieved October 21, 2025. We recommend Jennifer Mangrum.
19. "Endorsements: Our choices for NC schools superintendent, agriculture commissioner, labor commissioner and secretary of state" . The News & Observer. October 21, 2020. Retrieved October 21, 2025. We recommend Jennifer Mangrum.
20. "Past Endorsements". Equality North Carolina Action Fund PAC. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
21. Luebke, Bob (November 19, 2020). "NCAE said they would "change the players in the game." Did they?". Civitas Institute. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
24. Harper Polling/Civitas (R)
25. "November 03, 2020 General Election Results by Contest" (PDF). North Carolina State Board of Elections. November 24, 2020. Retrieved October 21, 2025.