NEW HANOVER COUNTY — The New Hanover County Democratic Party has decided to endorse only three out of four school board candidates that emerged from this year’s primary due to unearthing of prior criminal convictions. Though the discarded candidate, Wendy Dale, claims the party has known about her past for months.
Court records show Dale was convicted of four misdemeanors, all of which more than a decade old, including disorderly conduct, criminal contempt, communicating threats, stalking and obstructing a highway. Dale was also cited for violating probation in 2016.
WECT reported Dale was arrested for stalking and communicating threats by the Raleigh Police Department in 2012. Dale pled guilty and was sentenced to 45 days in jail, with six months of supervised probation. In 2014, she would plead guilty to criminal contempt involving a no-contact order in the stalking case. For contempt, Dale was sentenced to 30 days in jail with 12 months of supervised probation.
WECT reported Dale’s 2014 disorderly conduct charge stemmed from an altercation with a police officer in Orange County. Court records state Dale cursed, banged on the jail door and scratched an officer after learning her son had been arrested. Dale was sentenced to 30 days behind bars, with 12 months of supervised probation.
Court records show Dale also filed for bankruptcy in 2018.
On May 18, the New Hanover County Democratic Party’s County Executive Committee voted to exclude Dale from the party’s endorsement of school board candidates Jerry Jones, Brittnei LaRue and Margie Gewirtzman. Hopman said the concern was over transparency with the public.
“The public can forgive past mistakes if a candidate is honest about those mistakes before a primary and allows voters to make an informed decision,” Hopman wrote in a text to Port City Daily. “That unfortunately did not happen here.”
All candidates that filed as a Democrat were provided a candidate questionnaire asking them to disclose any problematic information from their background. Dale said she received a form prior to the primary but didn’t have the time to fill it out; she said the form was also labeled voluntary and no one told her it was otherwise.
Dale told Port City Daily she never tried to conceal her prior convictions and pointed out anyone can find them by searching court files. Additionally, Dale said she disclosed the “most serious conviction” — stalking and communicating threats — to Hopman within days of her filing for election in December 2025.
“She was like: ‘Well, it’s always possible that the opposing party can use your past against you, but it’s probably unlikely to come up in a local board of education race,” Dale said.
Hopman acknowledged that Dale did tell her about “one past incident in limited detail.” Per Dale’s description of the conversation, Hopman was “nonchalant” about the matter and didn’t ask for additional information. Hopman said this was a mischaracterization of the conversation.
Dale also told Port City Daily why she didn’t publicly disclose the convictions at that time, including that she didn’t want the 10-year-old convictions to distract from her campaign and didn’t think the convictions were major enough to matter. Though the big reason, she said, was that her stalking and communicating threats convictions have a consent order where she is not allowed to discuss the details, she said.
“Anyone that’s ever had contact with the system will know that in and of itself is a traumatizing event,” Dale said. “I don’t want to be retraumatized by ending up back in court.”
Despite her concerns involving the consent order, Dale said she was willing to publicly disclose if the Democratic Party thought that was the best option, though no one started pushing her to do so until April — after another Democratic candidate dropped out of the race due to association with a convicted felon.
The morning after the March 3 primary election, WHQR broke the news that school board candidate Rick Southerland’s roommate, who also worked on his school board campaign, is a registered sex offender. Jaymes Osborne pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography to receive a less severe sentence five years ago in Virginia, and was sentenced to 36 months in prison and 15 years of probation.
Though Southerland initially resisted the Democratic Party’s calls for him to withdraw his candidacy, he announced his decision to end his campaign on Thursday, March 5. However, Southerland stood by his association with Osborne, though apologized for not being upfront with voters about the relationship.
In the aftermath of Southerland’s withdrawal, Hopman told Port City Daily the party would implement new vetting procedures. These include background checks for candidates along with a questionnaire where candidates are expected to disclose criminal background along with those of any adults they live with. A newly formed committee is also charged with conducting searches of public records for problematic actions.
Hopman told Port City Daily Dale did not consent to the new vetting procedure.
“Although any registered Democrat can run for office, whether they agree to the NHCP’s vetting process or not, we will alert the party and the public if a candidate declines to participate in the future,” Hopman wrote.
Dale said she wasn’t asked to complete the form again following Southerland’s withdrawal, though she did receive an email from a third party a couple weeks ago requesting she consent to a background check. She declined.
“No one had spoken to me about consenting to a background check or explained why it was needed,” Dale said, adding she had already disclosed her convictions to the party.
After the party selected Gewirtzman as Southerland’s replacement — she was the first runner-up in the primary — Dale said she met with her fellow candidates to discuss campaign strategy. Dale told Port City Daily she disclosed her past convictions there as well.
Dale told Port City Daily after she provided context around her convictions to her campaign group, she was given the impression it wasn’t a huge deal.
“I was a poor single mother, gradually working my way up in improving the quality of life for me and my son, and I was under a lot of pressure, and you know, it was definitely a mistake, but it’s in the past, and it’s over,” Dale said.
Dale said the party’s concerns were about the public disclosure, not her crimes. She said she was urged by some candidates and their campaign managers to disclose the matter publicly.
Port City Daily reached out to Jones, LaRue and Gewirtzman for comment on the endorsement and asked when they were informed of Dale’s convictions.
Jones said he learned about Dale’s history after the primary and since has “strongly and repeatedly” encouraged her to disclose it to the public.
“I believe that mistakes in someone’s past are not an automatic disqualification for public office,” Jones wrote in an email. “I also believe that a relationship of trust, respect, and transparency with the public is vital for anyone seeking an elected position. I work hard to be that kind of candidate and look forward to bringing those ethics to the school board.”
LaRue said she learned of Dale’s background over the past few weeks, but was not aware of specific details until they “became public.”
“I believe candidates for the Board of Education should be held to a high standard because public trust, transparency, accountability matter when serving students, families and the community,” LaRue said.
Gewirtzman said she became aware of background concerns when she became part of the ticket and encouraged Dale to share her background.
“Timely transparency is the most valuable commodity candidates have in any election, and without it we can never hope to earn the trust or vote of our community … although I fully agree that certain actions and discretions committed earlier in life can be understood and forgiven, hiding these things from the public you hope to serve is not something you can easily explain away,” Gewirtzman said.
Gewirtzman added she was uncomfortable running on the same ticket with Dale when it became clear Dale had decided to keep silent.
Following the meeting with other candidates, Dale and Hopman confirmed they met on April 27 to discuss her background. Dale said Hopman had not discussed the handling of the convictions since Dale first told the chair.
Dale said she thought the meeting, which included publicist Amy Booker Kidd, was designed to strategize public messaging about her convictions. What it actually was, she said, was a meeting urging her to withdraw from the race.
“[The conversation] was basically like: ‘It’s not a good idea to publicly disclose this; the Republicans will use it against you,” Dale said. “They did say that it was likely to come out anyway. It was almost as if they were saying there’s nothing that can be done here, and the only thing you can really do is withdraw.”
Hopman acknowledged she said Republicans would attack Dale and the New Hanover County Democratic Party, even if Dale disclosed it to the public immediately; Hopman said she told Dale she didn’t see an outcome where that could be avoided.
“We were advising her about electability and said that there were not good options at this point in the election cycle,” Hopman said.
Despite that conversation, Dale said she was not told the party wouldn’t be endorsing her.
Dale said she wished the party had done a better job of communicating its expectations with her and if she had known the party wasn’t going to endorse her, she would have disclosed her record.
“If I don’t win, a Republican is going to win, so that doesn’t make sense to me why they would do that,” she said. “I think they probably were just counting on the fact that I was just going to pack up and leave. I can assure you, I have no intention of doing that.”
As for maintaining trust with the public, Dale said her past mistakes and lack of disclosing them don’t have any bearing on her ability to do the job of school board member.
She said the party’s decision to exclude her from endorsement is regrettable because she wanted the party’s support and believes in Democratic values.
“Whether [not disclosing] was a good decision or not, I suppose time will tell because my goal, ultimately, is to win the election and be able to make an impact in the public schools,” Dale said. “But it was, it was my decision, and I did the best I could.”
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