{"biography":"## Current office and 2026 campaign\nMark Walter Gerson ran in the March 3, 2026 Republican primary for the Caldwell County Board of Education, one of seven candidates competing for four nominations. He finished sixth with 10.04% of the vote; Teresa Branch (20.32%), Joe Sims (17.39%), William \"BJ\" Fore (17.26%), and Lesa Bolick Widener (14.30%) won the four Republican nominations. Gerson will not appear on the November 3, 2026 general-election ballot [1].\n\n## Background\nAccording to the North Carolina voter file, Gerson is a registered voter in Caldwell County, North Carolina, registered since 2016 (10 years), with party affiliation listed as Republican [2].\n\nThe voter file shows Gerson's year of birth as 1970; NC publishes only the year of birth in its bulk voter export, so day and month are not part of the public record [2].\n\nThe voter history file shows 9 elections voted in since 2016, most recently the 2026-03-03 primary election [3].\n\n## Sources\n[1] [North Carolina State Board of Elections \u2014 March 3, 2026 primary official precinct-level results](https://s3.amazonaws.com/dl.ncsbe.gov/ENRS/2026_03_03/results_pct_20260303.zip)\n[2] [North Carolina State Board of Elections \u2014 Voter Search](https://vt.ncsbe.gov/RegLkup/)\n[3] North Carolina State Board of Elections voter history file (`ncvhis_Statewide`), published at [dl.ncsbe.gov](https://dl.ncsbe.gov/)","campaigns":[{"contest":"county_school_board","county":"caldwell","county_count":1,"electiondate":"Tue, 03 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT","pgr":"general","state":"NC","title":"Caldwell County Board Of Education"}],"cf_filings":[],"firstname":"Mark","fullname":"Mark Walter Gerson","lastname":"Gerson","middlename":"Walter","office_history":[{"campaigns":[{"contest":"county_school_board","contest_title":"Caldwell County Board Of Education","county":"caldwell","county_count":1,"electiondate":"2026-03-03","office_county":"caldwell","office_key":"county_school_board","office_title":"County School Board Member","party":"REP","pgr":"general","state":"NC"}],"county":"caldwell","cycles":[{"general":{"contest":"county_school_board","contest_title":"Caldwell County Board Of Education","county":"caldwell","county_count":1,"electiondate":"2026-03-03","office_county":"caldwell","office_key":"county_school_board","office_title":"County School Board Member","party":"REP","pgr":"general","state":"NC"},"party":"REP","primary":null,"term":null,"year":2026}],"office_key":"county_school_board","office_title":"County School Board Member","state":"NC","terms":[]}],"summary":"Per the NC voter file: REP voter in Caldwell County since 2016.","terms":[],"token":"12318e6053947a5b"}