This Marine didn’t campaign for school board. Backed by Mom’s for Liberty, he still won.
A local Marine and former band teacher, Victor Ney, won the seat for District 5 on the Beaufort County School Board. He found out he won on Veteran’s Day.
Ney was also one of two candidates endorsed by Mom’s for Liberty, an American conservative nonprofit organization that advocates for parental rights in education. Both candidates won, the other being Elizabeth Hey in District 10.
Ney won 33% of the vote, according to Jean Felix, chairman of The Board of Voter Registration and Elections of Beaufort County. Cynthia Hayes won about 15% of the vote, Gwyneth Saunders won about 30% of the vote, and about 22% of the vote went to other write-in candidates, Felix said.
As an active-duty Marine, Ney was unable to campaign. He will retire from the Marine Corps in March 2023. He served since 1999 starting as a percussionist and retiring as a Bandmaster. He already had his retirement ceremony and isn’t in uniform right now, he said.
“An active duty service member can hold the school board positions but cannot campaign,” Ney said. “It says that in the DoD directive that governs all of the Department of Defense.”
He filed for candidacy Oct. 24, partially motivated by having a daughter at May River High School. He said his family, friends and organizations, including Mom’s for Liberty, spread the word for him.
“I was not anticipating winning for that reason, because I was not able to speak in an advertising campaign on behalf of myself,” Ney said. “I was very surprised.”
His neighbors were able to get Mom’s for Liberty to endorse him. A list recently used to pull 97 books from Beaufort County school libraries nearly matches the list a local Moms for Liberty member created and sent to the school district the morning the titles were taken off shelves.
“I couldn’t participate in any of it,” Ney said. “The people that were endorsing [me], were doing so without my endorsement.”
Ney said that on the board he will put the community first.
“Most important to me is advocating for the students and for the parents,” he said “But of the topics out there, I disagree with CRT [critical race theory], I disagree with SEL [social emotional learning]. There’s some of the books on the shelves that I disagree with, a lot of the books on the shelves.”
Redistricting led to District 5 representative Richard Geier to run unopposed in District 4. No one filed to run for Geier’s current seat in District 5, resulting in a race between write-in candidates.
