Stephen Wray Wood

Current office and 2026 campaign

Stephen Wray Wood (Republican) has served on the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools Board of Education representing District 2 since winning election in November 2022 to a four-year term (2022-2026) ¹. Wood ran in the March 3, 2026 Republican primary seeking renomination, but finished ninth among the 10 Republican primary candidates with 3,719 votes; only the top four advance to the November 3, 2026 general election for District 2's four seats, and Wood is not among them, per the NC State Board of Elections' official precinct-level primary results ².

Background and education

Wood earned a B.A. in History/Religion from Asbury University, a Th.B. in Bible/Theology from John Wesley University, an M.A. in History from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, an M.Div. from Houston Graduate School of Theology, and a D.Min. from Luther Rice University, per Wikipedia ¹. He served in the United States Army from 1970 to 1971, reaching the rank of private first class ¹.

Career

Wood served eight terms (1984-2005) in the North Carolina House of Representatives representing District 61 (Guilford County) and was elected Speaker Pro Tempore of the NC House from 1997 to 1999, becoming only the second Republican to hold that post in the 20th century ¹. As the first Republican chairman of the House Education Committee (from 1995), he led passage of North Carolina's initial charter-school legislation, lateral-entry pathways allowing teachers from the military and other fields to enter classrooms, and the state's first online public school academy ¹. Before his legislative service he was a professor of history and education and assistant academic dean at John Wesley College in High Point, NC, from 1975 to 1981 ¹.

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