Dueling Separation Allegations Shed Light on Michele Morrow’s Political Plans

The homeschool mom who surprised many in the state when she won the Republican nomination for state superintendent of public instruction last year isn’t through with her political aspirations.

Following her narrow loss to Democrat Mo Green last fall, Michele Morrow set her sights on the national stage. She founded an organization called the National Alliance for Education Reform and has reportedly considered running for U.S. Senate. On the day in March that President Donald Trump ordered the closure of the U.S. Department of Education, Morrow appeared on Steve Bannon’s influential podcast to celebrate the end of the “bureaucratic bloat system.”

Morrow also has been trying to get a job in the Trump administration, according to testimony by her husband, Stuart Morrow, in an April hearing about custody of the couple’s 12-year-old son. She even scored a meeting with the chief of staff to Education Secretary Linda McMahon in February, he said.

Morrow is pursuing her next move at a difficult time in her personal life. She told Stuart on January 24 that she’d had a lawyer draw up a separation agreement, he said in court. (In North Carolina, a married couple must be separated for a year to be eligible for divorce.)

Michele sought a domestic violence protection order three days after asking for the separation. “Stuart has threatened to ‘destroy my reputation,’ shouted and slammed doors when I refused to sleep in the same bed as him–broke a bed frame, stormed into our son’s room while he was sleeping, turned on the light and shouted that I am ruining our family,” she wrote in her complaint.

She said Stuart had threatened to contact friends, family, and the media to have them present while he crashed a car into a tree in order to kill himself and hurt her reputation in the process. He repeatedly told her that marriage was “until death do us part,” she wrote. Neither Michele nor Stuart Morrow responded to interview requests.

A History of Allegations

The judge who signed off on the domestic violence protection order found that the couple, whose other four children are now adults, had a history of violence. 

During an April court hearing over custody arrangements for the 12-year-old, Michele estimated that Stuart had hit her about 15 times over their 28 years of marriage, twice in front of their youngest child. Michele’s mother, Lucille Manley, testified to having witnessed one instance of violence, in which Stuart repeatedly slapped Michele. 

Michele’s domestic violence protective order alleged that he hit her as recently as last November, punching her in the arm 13 or 14 times while he was driving a vehicle and she rode in the passenger seat.

Stuart rejected Michele’s account in his rebuttal testimony and denied that he was ever physically abusive in front of their child. He estimated that Michele had hit him about 25 times, at least once in the child’s presence.

In both court filings and testimony, Stuart blamed Michele’s political activities for their marriage faltering. He testified that she ran to lead the state’s public schools last year against his wishes and described their co-parenting relationship after she launched her campaign as “hell.” 

He linked the decision to enroll their youngest child in a Christian private school to her campaign schedule—a notable departure for someone who touted her experience homeschooling her children as a primary qualification for leading the state’s schools.

She denied the claim that her campaign brought about the change, saying “the real reason” is that she was no longer teaching his older siblings, which would make the educational experience different for him, and she was ready for a break and to start looking for work. (She has maintained her license as a registered nurse.)

Stuart also took issue with Michele’s political messaging. In one court filing, he alleged that her “controversial, often vitriolic, political speech has resulted in the child being alienated” and that many of the issues she discussed inside and outside of the home “resulted in the child’s premature introduction to adult topics.”

Her rhetoric before and during the campaign drew national attention for its apparent support of violence. CNN reported last year that she called for the execution of prominent Democrats in social media posts, using the hashtag #DeathtoTraitors at least 12 times. Her claim that the “plus” in LGBTQ+ stands for pedophilia and decision to take some of her children to the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, also yielded headlines. 

Protecting children from adult subjects has been a central theme in her political activism. In a 2023 speech to the Wake County school board that went viral, she attributed the increasing incidence of anxiety and depression among children to “discussing things with them that they are not emotionally, intellectually, and morally able to handle.” 

“We need our children to be able to be children, to be able to be innocent, to be able to enjoy childhood and not know of all the drama and all of the difficulties in adult life,” she said.

During the April custody hearing, Michele said that she had at least twice apologized to her 12-year-old son that he had been thrust  “in the middle of” the couple’s marital disputes. She described having received a letter signed by both her husband and son, urging her to modify the terms of her domestic violence protection order and to agree to begin marital counseling with their pastor. She reported that letter to police, she said, because it violated the terms of the protection order. 

Stuart has been arrested twice this year for alleged violations of the protection order —first in March, following the letter, then again in July, after Michele reported to Cary police that he had again tried to communicate about custody matters through their son. 

District Court Judge Christine Walczyk awarded Michele temporary legal custody in May. Under the terms of the court order, the child visits his father every other weekend. The couple must “encourage and foster in the minor child sincere respect and affection for both parents,” Walczyk ordered.

Morrow’s Political Ambitions

In between court proceedings, Michele Morrow has continued to try to raise her political profile. She registered as a lobbyist in Raleigh in January. In February, she went to Washington, D.C., recording a video in front of the U.S. Department of Education to promote her new organization. She also attended the Conservative Political Action Conference, where she connected with Bannon, and in March, appeared on his podcast. 

Soon afterward, Morrow said she was considering a run for Thom Tillis’s U.S. Senate seat. She has often derided Tillis as not conservative enough. “I am committed to doing all that I can to ensure that the best interests of the citizens of North Carolina are fully and vigorously represented—here and in Washington,” she told reporter Bryan Anderson. 

Morrow has not declared her candidacy, even as Tillis opted not to run for reelection amid mounting pressure from the Trump administration. Michael Whatley, the chair of the Republican National Committee and former chair of the North Carolina Republican Party, has emerged as the GOP frontrunner despite not yet formally declaring his candidacy. (Though at least one other right-wing candidate, Andy Nilsson, remains in the running.) Former Gov. Roy Cooper jumped in on the Democratic side on Monday.

Sam Hassell, a political operative with ties to former Speaker of the U.S. House Newt Gingrich, is working with Morrow on her new organization, the National Alliance for Education Reform. He is listed as the registered agent in state business filings and is one of the contacts on its state lobbying registration. On LinkedIn, he says he is chair of the organization’s board. The organization’s website lists him as chief operating officer. In a brief interview Monday, Hassell said he was unaware of Morrow having any plans to run for the U.S. Senate. He declined to speak about the alliance’s specific activities to date.

The organization’s website says it is a 501(c)(4), a type of nonprofit that can engage in politics while shielding its donors’ identities. Its tax returns have yet to be made public. Hassell made headlines in 2012 for using the same type of organization, America Foundation, to try to orchestrate an “October surprise” torpedoing then-President Obama’s reelection.

Exactly what the National Alliance for Education Reform has been up to is unclear. No state legislators mentioned on the group’s social media accounts agreed to talk for this story. In court filings, Morrow reported having received no income from the organization.

The alliance’s postings on X lambast public schools as places where children “have been attacked for decades-physically, psychologically, intellectually and spiritually” and call for investigations and audits. 

The posts frequently tag state and federal government officials and right-wing media personalities, a tactic Morrow has used in the past to try to make her message go viral. The account’s banner image shows Morrow standing before microphones and TV cameras.

Carli Brosseau is a reporter at The Assembly. She joined us  from The News & Observer, where she was an investigative reporter. Her work has been honored by the Online News Association and Investigative Reporters and Editors, and published by ProPublica and The New York Times.