Kari MacRae is running for the Plymouth and Barnstable state Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Susan Moran.
Moran, a Democrat, announced in November that she would not run for re-election.
MacRae, 50, a Bourne School Committee member, is seeking the Republican nomination in the Sep. 3 primary. She’ll face off against State Rep. Matt Muratore, 62, of Plymouth. The only Democrat in the race thus far is State Rep. Dylan Fernandes, 33, of Falmouth.
“We need a conservative Republican woman in the State Senate,” MacRae said in a press release.
On her website, MacRae says she opposes safe injection sites for people struggling with drug addiction and wants to prevent Massachusetts from becoming a “sanctuary state” for undocumented immigrants.
She also promises to advocate for parental rights in education and to keep “critical race ideologies out of our classrooms.”
In 2021, MacRae was fired from her job as a math and business teacher at Hanover High School over her social media posts, including a TikTok video in which she said she ran for a seat on the the Bourne School Committee because she wanted to ensure students are not taught “critical race theory” and that they are not taught “whether or not they can choose to be a boy or a girl.” After the posts, the Bourne Educators Association and district administrators asked for her resignation, which she refused to submit.
MacRae sued the Hanover Public Schools in federal court, alleging that it violated her First Amendment right to free speech. In September, U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper dismissed MacRae’s case. She has appealed.
MacRae continues to be a part-time business teacher in the Wareham Public School system.
Fred Thys can be reached at fred@plymouthindependent.org