‘Educator spring’ spawns wave of teacher candidates
Teachers are building the next blue wave — without much help from Democrats.
Angry educators are flooding down-ballot races in the wake of recent red-state teacher strikes, accelerating the Democratic Party’s rebuilding process at the statehouse level and raising the prospect of legislative gains after years of decline.
Nearly 300 members of the American Federation of Teachers union are running for political office this year, more than double the number in each of the years 2012 and 2016. The teacher candidacies are part of a rising tide of political activism in 2018, with nearly 800 candidates running in the first round of Oklahoma's primaries, breaking the previous record of 594 set in 2006, and more than 200 filing to run in next month's Arizona primary — more than ran during each of the previous three election cycles.
The teacher candidacies suggest that the wave of teacher strikes and protests that began last winter in West Virginia and later spread to Oklahoma, Arizona and elsewhere created a grass-roots political opportunity. With their unions still reeling from a Supreme Court decision last month that's expected to deal a heavy financial blow, the teacher candidates are hoping to unseat conservative majorities that have dominated state legislatures since the Obama years.
“We’re receiving applications by the hour. It’s amazing,” said Lily Eskelsen Garcia, president of the National Education Association. “We’re really seeing the sun, moon and stars line up with the women’s march, the educator spring.”
There are some early signs of success, and not just among Democrats. In May, high school math teacher Travis Brenda defeated the majority leader of the Kentucky House, Jonathan Shell, in the Republican primary. In Oklahoma, three Democrats won special elections in state legislative districts in which President Donald Trump enjoyed huge margins. And in West Virginia, the local teachers union helped defeat Robert Karnes, one of its main antagonists in the state Senate, and voted in Continue reading: ‘Educator spring’ spawns wave of teacher candidates - POLITICO