Wake County school board member Tyler Swanson on Friday, September 29, 2023 in Cary, N.C. Swanson was elected school board chair on Dec. 2, 2025.
CARY
The youngest person ever elected to the Wake County school board will serve as its new leader.
Tyler Swanson, 32, was unanimously chosen by his colleagues on Tuesday to be the new chair of the school board. Swanson was the youngest person to ever join the Wake school board when he took office at age 29 in 2022. He is now the youngest person ever chosen to be chair.
Swanson has spent the past year as board vice chair. He replaces Chris Heagarty, who was limited by Wake policy to serving two years as board chair.
“It’s definitely an honor to have the confidence of my colleagues to serve in this moment as chair,” Swanson said in an interview with The News & Observer after the vote. “We’re coming to the 50th anniversary of the merger and the forming of Wake County Public Schools and to continue that legacy in this moment is an honor. For me the work is still going to be on teaching and learning.”
From teacher to school board chair
Swanson has been involved in political causes for more than a decade. Swanson has proudly noted how he was among the people peacefully arrested in 2013 during the Moral Monday protests in Raleigh against the Republican-controlled General Assembly.
After graduating from N.C. A&T University in 2015, Swanson worked as the N.C. NAACP youth and college field secretary and then as the communications and policy director.
Enloe High School teacher Tyler Swanson works with his freshman English class remotely from his dining room table in his apartment on Aug. 17, 2020, in Cary, N.C. Swanson later quit teaching and became a Wake County school board member. Robert Willett [email protected]
Until 2021, Swanson served three years as a special education teacher at Enloe High School in Raleigh. He’s currently a campaign strategist for nonprofit groups.
In 2022, Swanson defeated Michele Morrow to win the District 9 school board seat representing most of Cary. Wake school board elections are officially nonpartisan, but Swanson was endorsed by the Democratic Party and Morrow was backed by the Republican Party.
Over the past three years, Swanson has spoken about issues such as the level of state funding for schools and opposition to the expansion of private school vouchers.
Sam Hershey elected vice chair
Also on Tuesday, Sam Hershey was unanimously elected by the board to replace Swanson as vice chair.
Wake County school board member Sam Hershey was elected as the new vice chair on Dec. 2, 2025. Wake County Schools
Like Swanson, Hershey was first elected to the school board in 2022. Hershey, 48, has over the past decade been a stay-at-home father, small business owner and official at athletic events.
Hershey made national headlines earlier this year when he said opponents of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) are protecting “mediocre white men.” He later apologized for his remarks.
GOP board members abstain
Both Swanson and Hershey received six votes. The board’s two Republican members, Cheryl Caulfield and Wing Ng, abstained. But abstentions are considered yes votes under board policy.
Group photo of Wake County school board on Dec. 2, 2025: Jennifer Job, Wing Ng, Lynn Edmonds, Chris Heagarty, Tyler Swanson, Sam Hershey, Cheryl Caulfield, Christina Gordon and Toshiba Rice. T. Keung Hui [email protected]
Caulfield and Ng said their abstentions were in response to how the board had appointed Jennifer Job last week to fill the vacant District 8 position. The board interviewed 14 people before selecting Job on the first ballot without any discussion.
Most of the board’s Democratic majority picked Job, a former teacher and a regional vice chair in the Wake County Democratic Party. Caulfield and Ng voted for a different candidate.
“If we are to espouse transparency in what we do, we have failed in the process,” Ng said. “That is why I chose not to vote, because I do not have the confidence that our leadership has been transparent.”
The complaints caused Job, who didn’t participate in the votes for chair and vice chair, to say she would work to earn the respect of Caulfield and Ng.
Heagarty, who was board chair when Job was appointed, was among the board members who came to the defense of their newest colleague. Heagarty said there was no orchestration or predetermined outcome to select Job.
Heagarty said he had expected it would take multiple rounds of voting. He also pointed to how neither Caulfield or Ng had taken him up on his offer to discuss their votes before the first ballot.
“I will not sit here and let the legitimacy of this process be attacked without defense because I know the truth ….” Heagarty said. “It is the height of arrogance, and it is destructive to our system to allege an unfounded conspiracy simply because you don’t win.”
This story was originally published December 2, 2025 at 5:53 PM.
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T. Keung Hui
The News & Observer
T. Keung Hui has covered K-12 education for the News & Observer since 1999, helping parents, students, school employees and the community understand the vital role education plays in North Carolina. His primary focus is Wake County, but he also covers statewide education issues.
