Education Week - September 26, 2018 - 13

Most Teachers Running for Office Advance Past Primaries
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

'Year of the Teacher'
While Education Week's analysis
only includes teachers competing
for state legislative seats, educators
are also running in the general election for other high-profile positions.
In Connecticut, Jahana Hayes, the
2016 National Teacher of the Year,
won the Democratic primary for
an open U.S. House of Representatives seat. Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim
Walz, a former teacher, narrowly
won the primary for governor of
Minnesota. And Wisconsin schools
Superintendent Tony Evers took
the Democratic nomination for governor in that state.
Many retired teachers and administrators are running for state
office this year, too, as well as
teachers who are seeking election
to school boards and other local
offices.
It's the "year of the teacher,"
Waldron said. "Teachers want to
make the world a better place, and
now we're finding an appropriate
venue for doing that in the field of
politics."
Educators say voters are especially attuned to the problems in
public education after the walkouts.
That engagement, along with a
boost in donations and volunteers,
is a major factor behind their primary wins.
In Kentucky's Republican primary, for instance, a high school
math teacher beat out the incumbent, who is a House majority
floor leader and an author of the
controversial pension-reform plan
that sparked the state's widescale
teacher protests. R. Travis Brenda
has credited his victory to massive
support from educators.

ON THE BALLOT
This election year has been deemed the "year of the teacher." Education Week has counted almost
160 current teachers who are running for state legislative seats, mainly in Oklahoma, Arizona,
Kentucky, and West Virginia. These candidates, who are all running on a public education platform,
had a strong showing in the primary elections.

Candidates at a Glance:

Of the 158
teachers
running
for state
legislature ...

GENDER
86 (54%) of teachers running for state office are women vs.
72 (46%) who are men

} }

general election, and in West Virginia, six have advanced. In both of
those states, only one teacher was
knocked out during the primaries.
Most of these educators are firsttime candidates, with little political experience. But they have one
major advantage: They are riding
the wave of teacher activism that
began in a half-dozen states, including Arizona, Kentucky, Oklahoma,
and West Virginia, in the spring.
In those states, teachers walked
out of their classrooms to protest
low wages, cuts to school funding,
and, at least in Kentucky, changes
to the state's public pension system.
"These days, when I come to
[voters'] doors and say, 'Hey, I'm a
public school teacher running for
the legislature. You know why I'm
here, don't you?'-at that point,
they'll say, 'Yes, we know,' " said
John Waldron, a high school social
studies teacher who is running for
Oklahoma's House as a Democrat.
"People get that education hasn't
been funded, and it's a crisis in
Oklahoma."
After 10 years without pay raises,
teachers in Oklahoma received an
average $6,100 boost this spring,
although they still walked out of
their classrooms to call for more
school funding.

MOVING FORWARD

101 are

going to
the general
election.

THE PRIMARIES

69% of women are advancing to the general election, compared
with 58% of men
* Beat opponents in the primary:
22% of the female candidates
vs. 25% of the male candidates
* Lost the primary:
31% of the female candidates
vs. 42% of the male candidates
* Unopposed:
43% of the female candidates
vs. 31% of the male candidates
* Write-ins to the general election (not in a primary):
3% of the female candidates vs. 3% of the male candidates
Male candidates were more likely to be in contested primaries
(67% of male candidates vs. 53% of female candidates).

POLITICAL PARTY
79% of teachers running are Democrats, 18% are Republicans,
2% are Independents, and one candidate is in the Green Party
* 53% of the Democrats were in contested primaries
vs. 97% of Republicans

won

59 were

unopposed in
the primary

* 71% of the Democrats who ran will be on the ballot in November
vs. 28% of Republicans

LEGISLATIVE POSITION SOUGHT

5 are write-in

candidates and didn't
have to compete in
the primary

18% of teachers are running for state Senate seats vs. 82% who
are running for state House positions
* 38% of state Senate candidates were in contested primaries
vs. 64% of House candidates
* 90% of state Senate candidates are Democrats
vs. 3% Republicans + 3% Independents + 3% Greens
* 77% of state House candidates are Democrats
vs. 22% Republicans + 2% Independents
SOURCE: Education Week

And in Oklahoma, Craig Hoxie,
a high school science teacher, is
hoping to unseat the House majority whip, GOP state Rep. Terry
O'Donnell. O'Donnell voted for
teacher pay raises, but Hoxie said
he has failed to take significant action to improve public education.
"He's part of the leadership that
has failed for so many years now to
bring about real change," he said.
For Jennie Scott, a 4th grade
teacher who is running for Oklahoma's House as a Democrat, her
status as a teacher might have given
her an advantage in the primary, too.

She said she was more informed
than her opponent about specific solutions to issues like teacher shortages. And voters seemed receptive
to listening to her, Scott said.
"Teachers are a very trusted part
of our community for the most
part," she said. "We entrust our
children with teachers."

Second Time Around
While most of the teachers running for office this year are firsttime candidates, a few are on
their second lap. In 2016, about

40 teachers ran for the Oklahoma
legislature, though many were
knocked out during the primary.
Only about five teachers were victorious overall.
Some of those educators now say
they're more experienced and better organized than they were two
years ago, when they struggled to
raise money and articulate their vision to enough voters.
"I think I'm in a much better,
stronger position," said Waldron,
who ran for the state Senate in 2016
and lost in the general election.
So far in his race-this time for

the state House-he's knocked on
10,000 doors in his district and is
talking to people for the second or
third time, he said.
"I bring a different energy to the
door now," he said. "I'm not there to
confront people or argue with them.
Instead of meeting them head-tohead, I'm standing there side to
side and pointing out what's wrong
with our state."
There is also more collaboration
among the teachers this time, he
said-just last month, there was a
union-organized campaign rally for
the dozen teachers running for office in the Tulsa area.
Waldron said it's easier to get
both campaign contributions and
volunteers this year. That's partly
because of his previous campaign,
he said, but it's also because of the
new political awareness of the problems facing schools in the state.
Indeed, the state's teacher walkout has changed the tone of the
campaign by placing education at
the top of voters' minds, said Jacobi
Crowley, a crisis interventionist in
the Lawton school district who is
running for the Oklahoma House
again, after losing in 2016.
"This April really provided that
wave of enthusiasm and hope [for]
something different," he said.

A Diverse Field
Many of the teachers running
this year are also part of another
historic movement: More women
are seeking political office than
ever before, experts say. Indeed,
more than half the candidates in
Education Week's database are
women (although that's still a
much smaller percentage than the
percentage of all teachers who are
female).
And while about 88 percent of
the teachers who will be on the
ballot in November are Democrats, candidates say their conversations on public education with
voters often transcend party lines.
"Public school funding is an
issue that most people agree
should not be a partisan issue,"
said Joe Bisaccia, a middle school
teacher who's running for the Arizona House.
Sarah Carnes, a high school art
teacher who's vying for the state
House in Oklahoma as a Democrat, said that she makes a point
to tell Republican voters: "I'm here
to represent everybody, because
that's what I've been doing as a
teacher."
The experience of working in diverse schools has paid off in her
campaign, she said.
"Ultimately, teachers are really good mediators and mentors,
and we help solve problems in the
classroom, and we work with parents hand in hand," Carnes said.
"We want to help everybody, that's
why we have giving hearts. I think
that's what's connecting and resonating with the constituents right
now."
Librarian Maya Riser-Kositsky
contributed to this article.

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