Cheryl Caulfield

Cheryl Caulfield

Republican Party

Candidate, North Carolina State Senate District 18

Wake County Public School System, District 1

Tenure

2022 - Present

Term ends

2026

Years in position

3

Predecessor: Heather Scott (Nonpartisan)

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Report an officeholder change

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 8, 2022

Next election

March 3, 2026

Education

Bachelor's

Fashion Institute of Technology, 1988

Personal

Profession

Property management

Cheryl Caulfield is a member of the Wake County Public School System in North Carolina, representing District 1. She assumed office on December 6, 2022. Her current term ends in 2026.

Caulfield (Republican Party) is running for election to the North Carolina State Senate to represent District 18. She declared candidacy for the Republican primary scheduled on March 3, 2026.^[source]

Biography

Cheryl Caulfield earned a bachelor's degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology in 1988. Her career experience includes working in property management.

Elections

2026

See also: North Carolina State Senate elections, 2026

General election

The primary will occur on March 3, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. General election candidates will be added here following the primary.

Democratic primary

Democratic primary for North Carolina State Senate District 18

Incumbent Terence Everitt (D) is running in the Democratic primary for North Carolina State Senate District 18 on March 3, 2026.

		Candidate
		Terence Everitt

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined.
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Republican primary

Republican primary for North Carolina State Senate District 18

Cheryl Caulfield (R) and Chris Stock (R) are running in the Republican primary for North Carolina State Senate District 18 on March 3, 2026.

		Candidate
		Cheryl Caulfield
	Submit photo	Chris Stock

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	There are no incumbents in this race.
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Libertarian Party primary

Libertarian primary for North Carolina State Senate District 18

Brad Hessel (L) is running in the Libertarian Party primary for North Carolina State Senate District 18 on March 3, 2026.

		Candidate
		Brad Hessel

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	There are no incumbents in this race.
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Endorsements

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2022

See also: Wake County Public School System, North Carolina, elections (2022)

General election

General election for Wake County Public School System, District 1

Cheryl Caulfield defeated Ben Clapsaddle in the general election for Wake County Public School System, District 1 on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Cheryl Caulfield (Nonpartisan)	58.5	24,776
		Ben Clapsaddle (Nonpartisan)	40.7	17,240
		Other/Write-in votes	0.8	334

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 42,350
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Campaign themes

2026

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

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2022

Cheryl Caulfield completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Caulfield's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

My husband and I moved to Wake Forest 16 years ago to start our family. We love our charming town feel, and we have watched our community grow in leaps and bounds, and have always tried to be a part of that growth, advocating for the community. I am a mom of two teen boys in Wake County Public Schools currently attending high school in Wake Forest. I have been very involved in many activities at their schools since pre-school. I have volunteered many hours working with students, teachers, PTA, and many school events, including sports and clubs, such as school plays and football. I also volunteered with a pilot program started at another local elementary school for Every Tray Counts, a wonderful program to teach the children about composting and more eco-friendly lunches. I earned my degree from F.I.T. and went on to Business Management at SUNY Farmingdale. I worked as a Senior Underwriter for over 16 years where I trained staff, opened a new branch, and reformed another. When my children were born I switched to property management allowing me the flexible schedule to raise my two active boys. While it allowed me more free time to volunteer at the schools, I also got to see the struggles our teachers and students face. I care about the real issues, and getting to the source of the problem and resolutions. I see the need to make changes, remove the politics from the classroom, and get back to the basics.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Teachers need our support. That starts with understanding the real issues, what they need and how to get it. First, we need to listen to our teachers. We pay $100,000’s to consultants, yet teachers are our front-line, and they know what works in the classroom. Their #1 problem is no support from admin., and they feel their hands are tied. Another struggle they have is discipline in the classroom. This interrupts class and makes for bad learning environment, and work setting. They do not have the resources they need (did you know they are limited on copies they can make for class? They also pay for their supplies. They wear too many hats, and need more resources in the classroom.
• Transparent curriculum, along with parent involvement create a team effort to work together to help our children reach their potential. If we have a transparent curriculum, the teachers and parents can have a clear understanding of what our children need, and what is expected. WCPSS needs to focus on our learning loss recovery, and get back to basics; remove the politics in the classroom, and focus on reading, writing, and arithmetic.
• Fiscal responsibility is imperative. We budget for million of dollars on textbooks, but our children do not have textbooks. While our superintendent is the highest paid in the nation, our teachers sit at the low end of the national pay. We have a large amount of administrators making six figures, and programs that are unclear if they have resulted in any student improvement. We need to go through the budget line by line, and remove ineffective items. There are questions that need to be answered, and if hands are tied work more closely with legislators or the source that ties them.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

School safety is vital. If students, staff and teachers do not feel safe in school, then WCPSS will not have an effective learning environment. This extends to bullying, and the mental health crisis we have right now. Schools need proper resources, such as, SRO’s in all schools (currently elementary schools do not have SRO’s), and more effective lockdown drills (WCPSS only has one per year, regardless if missing points in the drill), every SRO should have an entry key as part of their uniform (currently supervisors hold the keys, and limited supply, and in case of an emergency they may not be able to assist another school, or might experience a delay or covering a sick fellow SRO). Our school should also have very clear, and transparent policies. Our bullying policy states “zero tolerance,” but what does that mean? Bullying is increasing, consequences are vague, left to school discretions, and inconsistent. This is not just students, teachers have been intimidated, and harmed. Clear discipline policies should be consistent through the county, with accountability, and more resources available. Our budget needs to allow for more mental health resources, especially at this time. WCPSS received $400 million in Covid Relief Funds. Perhaps we put those unspent funds to good use, especially with the high amount of teen depression, and bullying we are enduring right now.

What is the primary job of a school board member in your view?

Local school board should represent their community visions and values through policies, curriculum, and goals, to meet our students educational needs. Their main objectives should be the best outcome for our students. WCPSS is boasting a 90% graduation rate, however, our Math1 high school math students have 79% not-proficient scores. Our 3rd grade reading is 50% not-proficient. Our students are not failing, we are failing them, by not addressing such a learning loss, and advancing them to the next level, without the skills they need, and without the fundamental building blocks. Our students and teachers are being ignored. As a school board member I will work hard to create solid policies and programs that best support our students, and teachers. I will advocate to remove ineffective spending, failing curriculum, to get back to basics, remove politics out of the classroom, remediate our current learning loss, and provide our teachers with the resources they need to have a successful classroom.

Who are your constituents?

Parents, teachers, staff and community members are my constituents.

What issues get in the way of quality education? How would you address these obstacles?

Wake County boasts a 90% graduation rate, however we have scores of 79% not-proficient in Math1 (HS Math), 50% not-proficient in 3rd grade Reading, which is a pivotal point where children progress from learning how to read, to reading to learn. They are missing fundamentals building blocks, yet our students are passed through to the next level without the full comprehension, and retention needed to advance. By passing them on without the proper remediation, we are failing our students. As the grades progress the struggles increase, causing strains for our students, and teachers. We need to provide more tutoring resources, and aides to assist the teachers in class, and close those gaps. Mental health counselors can also help with these struggles. We are burning out our students, and our teachers. Let's get the politics out of the classroom, let's get back to basics, and focus on reading, writing and arithmetics.

What strategies or plans would you advance to ensure the schools are properly funded?

WCPSS receives $2.1 billion dollars for education. We also received $400 million in Covid Relief Funds, which has not all been applied towards all the struggles we had from the pandemic, and extended school closures. We budget for millions in textbooks, yet our students do not have textbooks. We have extended programs that have utilized millions in our budget, yet it is not clear if they have any improvement on academic success. For schools to be properly funded we should start first with what, and how, our funds are being allocated, and if those funds have been effective toward our goals. Then, we should break down which items need to be reevaluated and removed, where we need more resources, like higher teacher salaries, resources, tutoring, mental health counselors and programs. Better checks and balance would be very beneficial to WCPSS's needs. WCPSS can also work close with legislation to make adjustments where it is needed. Constantly spending more money, does not ensure better results. Making sure we are spending effectively is a better option, and then work from there to expand on what we need.

What principles drive your policies for safety in schools?

If we do not feel safe in our classrooms we cannot have a good learning environment. Please see my full response above for more details on school safety.

What role do you imagine technology playing in (and outside) the classroom in the future? How would you prepare the district for this?

We budget millions of dollars for textbooks. I am hearing complaints from parents, students and teachers across the board that there is too much dependency on the Chromebook's, and that they all would like to see more books, and paper back in the classrooms. Although technology can be very helpful, I believe we need to have a better balance. Special Education students also tend to struggle more with too much screen time, and would benefit from less computer lessons, and more engagement in class.

What will you do to build a relationship with parents in the district? What plans do you have to be inclusive of parental involvement?

Parent involvement can be a key component in the success of their child. The teachers I have spoken with across our district want parents to be more involved. They need the help, especially now, and can really make a difference for that child, both in and out of the classroom. Parents have expressed the lack of textbooks also make it harder to work side by side with a struggling student, and most times it is just unclear what they need to do. If teachers work with students in class, and parents work from the back end with transparency, and good communication, they can close gaps, and provide for that team environment. After all, we should all have the same goal, helping our students reach their potential. This will require input from all parties.

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Campaign finance summary

Campaign finance information for this candidate is not yet available from OpenSecrets. That information will be published here once it is available.

See also

2026 Elections

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Footnotes

[show]

Current members of the North Carolina State Senate

Leadership

Majority Leader:Michael Lee

Minority Leader:Sydney Batch

Senators

District 1

Robert Hanig (R)

District 2

Norman Sanderson (R)

District 3

Bob Brinson (R)

District 4

Eldon Newton (R)

District 5

Kandie Smith (D)

District 6

Michael Lazzara (R)

District 7

Michael Lee (R)

District 8

William Rabon (R)

District 9

Brent Jackson (R)

District 10

Benton Sawrey (R)

District 11

Lisa Barnes (R)

District 12

Jim Burgin (R)

District 13

Lisa Grafstein (D)

District 14

Dan Blue (D)

District 15

Jay Chaudhuri (D)

District 16

Gale Adcock (D)

District 17

Sydney Batch (D)

District 18

Terence Everitt (D)

District 19

Val Applewhite (D)

District 20

Natalie Murdock (D)

District 21

Tom McInnis (R)

District 22

Sophia Chitlik (D)

District 23

Graig Meyer (D)

District 24

Danny Britt (R)

District 25

Amy Galey (R)

District 26

Phil Berger (R)

District 27

Michael Garrett (D)

District 28

Gladys Robinson (D)

District 29

Dave Craven (R)

District 30

Steven Jarvis (R)

District 31

Dana Jones (R)

District 32

Paul Lowe (D)

District 33

Carl Ford (R)

District 34

Chris Measmer (R)

District 35

Todd Johnson (R)

District 36

Eddie Settle (R)

District 37

Vickie Sawyer (R)

District 38

Mujtaba Mohammed (D)

District 39

DeAndrea Salvador (D)

District 40

Joyce Waddell (D)

District 41

Caleb Theodros (D)

District 42

Woodson Bradley (D)

District 43

Brad Overcash (R)

District 44

Ted Alexander (R)

District 45

Mark Hollo (R)

District 46

Warren Daniel (R)

District 47

Ralph Hise (R)

District 48

Timothy Moffitt (R)

District 49

Julie Mayfield (D)

District 50

Kevin Corbin (R)

Republican Party (30)

Democratic Party (20)