Woke goes to die over education at the ballot box

Midterm election voters rewarded incumbent candidates who fought for parental rights and education freedom.

Paul Zimmerman is Policy Counsel for The Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies.

Conservative gubernatorial candidates with a track record of promoting policies putting parents at the center of decisions about their children’s education capitalized on this momentum in 2022's midterm elections. They successfully touted their victories over the woke education agenda of Weingarten and other public school union bosses and sold their agenda for reform to promote parental rights and education freedom to voters tired of the status quo.

In August, 15 Republican Governors issued a statement "reaffirming" their "commitment to parents and students," pledging to "ensur[e] our students experience no disruption to their education and parents have the choice for any option they believe is best for their child," and asserting that education funding "should be student-centered." Of the 15, the ten Governors who ran for reelection in 2022 won their races. Seven of those ten candidates won a higher share of the vote in 2022 than they received in the previous election. (One additional signer, Governor Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, extended his margin of victory from his performance in 2018—the latest midterm election in which he competed prior to 2022.)