Last week I wrote about the State Board of Education election coming up tomorrow — similar to a school board, it pits incumbent Mary Lord against Ashley Carter and Howard freshman Tony Donaldson.
Carter, it turns out, is an organizer for Independent Womens Forum and Independent Women’s Voice, two very conservative, Koch Brothers-aligned dark money groups. In the past, her group opposed the Violence Against Women Act, food stamps, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Title IX and feminism in general and advocated for lowering corporate tax rates, for fracking and against gun control. Carter also spoke at a recent “Women for Trump” event. Most of her donors come from out of state as well, and her campaign site mentions none of these things.
But if that weren’t enough reason not to support her, Carter, or someone using her email and password, mocked her main opponent Mary Lord on the DC Urban Moms and Dads message board, a popular forum, calling Lord “old and crazy,” saying she had a “turkey neck” and that she “dress[es]like a homeless party.”
The message was posted from an account named “carterab” (Carter’s initials) which Carter had previously used. Part of the message was later deleted, but others copied the text and confirmed it. At first denying it was her, carterab later posted it was Ashley Carter’s account, but that an unnamed campaign volunteer had posted it while logged into the message board.
A likely story. And even if it’s true, it speaks to a pretty big lack of judgement. It sounds to me like Carter (or this anonymous volunteer) tried to endorse Carter and insult her opponent but forgot to log out of her account.
The thread itself is hilarious, and was later picked up by the City Paper and the Washington Post. Carter claims she no longer supports Trump, so I reached out to her with a number of questions. She has not responded.
I believe that Ashley Carter is trying to hide her beliefs and sneak her way onto the school board. Her website says nothing about her work and most of her campaign material is extremely bland. She’s talked some of my friends waiting to vote and all she talks about is her slogan, “Smarter with Carter.” Other friends have talked to her volunteers and they all seem to know nothing about actual DC school policy or issues. And most of her donors are from outside DC. It all stinks.
And I can’t confirm this, but another person claimed her husband, a former Republican, received this email:
FROM THE DESK OF ASHLEY CARTER
“Smarter with Carter”
Dear Fellow Republican:
My name is Ashley Carter and I am running to serve on the DC State Board of Education as the At-Large Member. As a Republican, I have spent my career working for right-leaning causes like parental choice in education and would like to see a Republican elected in DC citywide. I write to you to humbly ask for your vote to make me the second Republican ever elected to the DC State Board of Education…….
Vote for Mary Lord. She’s actually competent, experienced and talks about what she does and wants to do.
