In his effort to seek a second term in the N.C. House of Representatives, Rep. Mike Schietzelt is facing off against a Wake County math teacher who recently switched her voter registration to run in the Republican primary.
The race is one of several across the state where people who were recently registered as Democrats or independent voters recently switched to the Republican party in order to run in a primary. Joyner-Dinwiddie is one of several of those candidates who is running as part of the N.C. Educators on the Ballot initiative, which sought teachers and other school employees to run in GOP primaries.
"There were a lot of decisions being made in the field of education by people who were not a part of the field of education. And so I want to make sure that I at least represent my fellow teachers, my fellow educators and have a seat at that table," Joyner-Dinwiddie said.
Joyner-Dinwiddie pointed to funding school maintenance and reinstating salary incentives for teachers with Master's degrees as policies that she'd like to work on.
Education has been one of Schietzelt's focuses during his first term in the General Assembly, and he said in an interview that he feels his record on the issues has been "strong."
Schietzelt sponsored a bill that would have increased starting teacher pay to $50,000 and provided a 22% increase in salaries. North Carolina's teacher salaries would be the highest in the Southeast if the bill, which was incorporated into the House budget proposal, becomes law.
Schietzelt also said he is focused on rebuilding trust in public schools. He sits on the House Oversight Committee, where he was recently among one of several lawmakers who questioned Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools about their perceived failure to follow the Parents Bill of Rights, specifically a law that requires schools to inform parents if their child changes the name or pronoun they are using.
"We can't turn a blind eye to the institution, but we've got to work to rebuild trust with it while at the same time living up to our obligations as a state," Schietzelt said.
A party switch
Joyner-Dinwiddie says her switch from being a registered Democrat to a registered Republican was likely overdue, and that it was brought on by feelings that started to grow stronger when her son enrolled in the U.S. Marine Corps.
At the same time, Joyner-Dinwiddie acknowledged a more practical reason for running as a Republican.
"It seems like the Republicans are the majority to where they're making a lot of these decisions and getting things passed in the field of education. So I felt like that was the table I needed to be seated at," Joyner-Dinwiddie said in an interview.
State law is that anybody who is registered with a political party at least 90 days before the election is eligible to seek that party's nomination for office.
Schietzelt said Joyner-Dinwiddie and other newly registered Republicans who met that hurdle are legally allowed to run, but he thinks they could struggle to connect with the base voters who tend to cast ballots in primary elections.
"Anybody that thinks they're going to be able to pull one over on our primary voters is definitely not seeing clearly the primary electorate. Our primary voters are a lot smarter than people give them credit for," Schietzelt said.
Other issues
Schietzelt has also fought against efforts to use tolls to help pay for the projected $1 billion expansion of Capital Boulevard from Interstate 540 to Wake Forest. To stave off the toll, Schietzelt advocated for a provision to be included in the House's budget proposal blocking tolls on the road, also known as U.S. 1.
"You've got people who rely on that road, who depend on that road every day. They've built homes, they've built businesses, and then adding a tax to their commute would be a cost-of-living issue," Schietzelt said.
Asked what other issues are important to her, Joyner-Dinwiddie pointed to environmental protection.
"I would like to see a push for us to become a green state, which up until this point we have not become one at all," she said.
The primary election will be held on March 3. The winner will face Evonne Hopkins, a Democrat, in November's general election.
