The 2018 midterm elections overwhelmingly favored the election of pro-school choice candidates in the states, despite massive spending by teachers’ unions.
The National Education Association poured the majority of its resources into toss-up elections in Florida for Bill Nelson, Indiana for Joe Donnelly, Missouri for Claire McCaskill, and North Dakota for Heidi Heitkamp, in addition to smaller contributions toward many House and local elections.
Though the NEA’s funding flowed exclusively to Democrats in these Senate elections, Republican pro-school choice candidates nevertheless prevailed.
“There are now pro-school choice governors and state legislatures in most states in the country,” John Schilling, president of the American Federation for Children, wrote in a recent op-ed.
Of the 377 state races in 12 states that AFC supported, the pro-school choice candidate won 77 percent of the time. This result reflects two recent polls indicating that support for school choice is strong among Latinos (72 percent) and African-Americans (66 percent) and is on the rise nationally.
Two gubernatorial elections in particular (Ron DeSantis in Florida and Doug Ducey in Arizona) indicate that school choice may be an issue that swings low-income minority groups from Democrats to Republicans.
Despite running against African-American candidate Andrew Gillum, DeSantis received 14 percent of the African American vote and 44 percent of the Latino vote. Gillum campaigned on bringing the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program “to a conclusion,” despite the fact that nearly 70 percent of Florida’s more than 100,000 scholarship recipients are minorities.
Similarly, Ducey won 44 percent of the Latino vote in Arizona, significantly more than Martha McSally’s 30 percent in her Senate bid. Ducey is a vocal champion of school choice policy and campaigned on expanding the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account program. Ducey won re-election by 14 percentage points, even though a ballot initiative to expand the scholarship program failed by nearly 30 percentage points.
Though it is difficult to pinpoint exactly why voters ultimately support certain candidates, the education of their children is always a priority.
As union-funded Democrats continue to campaign on shutting down programs from which their constituents directly benefit, they should expect to be similarly shut down at the ballot box.
Kate Hardiman is a contributor to Red Alert Politics. She is pursuing a master’s in education from Notre Dame University and teaches English and religion at a high school in Chicago.
