Former Democrat, CMS candidate is now chair of Charlotte’s Moms for Liberty chapter
Former Charlotte Democrat Annette Albright is the new chair of Mecklenburg County Moms for Liberty, a conservative advocacy group.
Moms for Liberty is a national organization founded in Florida in 2021 to oppose mandatory COVID-19 restrictions, such as mask mandates, in schools. It now has 310 chapters across 48 states.
The Mecklenburg County chapter also launched in 2021 as the 11th chapter in the U.S. Its goal is to promote “parental rights at all levels,” according to its website. In recent years, it’s advocated heavily for removing books with content it deems inappropriate from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools libraries.
Nationally, the organization focused recent efforts on separating school bathrooms and sports teams by biological sex and repealing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
As chair, Albright said her first mission is to change the organization’s image.
“The very first thing that I’m going to focus my work on with this chapter is dispelling some of the myths, dispelling some of the non-truths, dispelling the notion that we are a racist organization,” Albright told The Charlotte Observer, referring to some characterizing the group as racist for its opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
She pointed to the Southern Poverty Law Center as an example. The SPLC has classified Moms for Liberty as a “far-right” and “antigovernment” organization that promotes “anti-student inclusion activities.”
Albright plans to host a series of town halls around Charlotte over the next six months to engage community members.
“What I want to do basically is to help people understand that we are there to empower parents to navigate the educational process and to advocate for their children,” Albright said. “We’ll work with Democrats, Republicans, anyone that is invested in public education.”
Charlotte Democrat to conservative advocate
It’s not Albright’s first affiliation with the right. In 2025, the Trump administration invited her to the White House to view the president sign executive orders that aim to promote stricter school discipline and discourage schools from evaluating whether discipline practices disproportionately impact students of color.
“The thing I really embrace about this executive order is that we have to base suspension rates on behaviors, period,” Albright told The Observer last year. “We have to look at behaviors, see if they align with policies and hand out consequences based on behaviors, not based on a child’s race.”
Albright also spoke at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in July 2024 where she discussed her experience working in public schools in North Carolina.
Albright is a former Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools teacher and unsuccessfully ran for CMS school board three times on a platform of promoting school safety and discipline, after she was attacked by students at Harding University High in west Charlotte in 2016.
“I understand you know the things and the issues that actually need to be addressed within CMS,” Albright told The Observer about how her experience as an educator will inform her role as chair. “What I want to do, and first and foremost, is create collaborative relationships with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools board members, their administration and their educators.”
Previously a Democrat, Albright came under scrutiny during her most recent school board run in 2023. The race was non-partisan, and she was registered as unaffiliated.
However, Carolina Forward, a progressive policy organization, alleged on social media that three school board candidates, including Albright, were secretly affiliated with Mecklenburg Republicans and Moms for Liberty. The candidates’ campaigns shared a P.O. box and treasurer with some Republican candidates and conservative political action committees.
The Mecklenburg County Democratic Party accused the “Trojan horse candidates” of trying to trick voters, comparing them to State Rep. Tricia Cotham, who switched from Democrat to Republican a few months after being elected in 2023.
But Albright said she’s done running for the CMS board.
“In Charlotte, running as a Republican is very hard… and even though the Board of Education is supposed to be a nonpartisan race, the last time I ran, it was definitely a partisan race,” she said. “I feel that I have more reach and flexibility working as Moms for Liberty chair and continuing my role with working with the Department of Education with the Trump administration.”
Moms for Liberty advocated in favor of North Carolina’s Senate Bill 49 – or “The Parent’s Bill of Rights” — which became state law in 2023. It restricts instruction on gender identity and sexuality in early education, mandates that parents be informed if students want to go by different names or pronouns, requires parental approval before a student can receive in-school health screenings and increases parents’ access to school materials.
Even with the law passed, Albright said there’s more to do. Specifically, she said her organization is focusing on how incidents of assault and sexual assault on school grounds are reported and handled.
“What we’re looking at now is accountability in public schools,” she said. “Accountability for reporting incidents that impact educators, that impact students, that impact anyone that walks upon steps upon a school campus.”
