Republican Who Ran on Banning CRT, Empowering Parents Flips Arizona Education Seat Red
Amid the overall frustrating election results for Republicans in Arizona, there was one very bright spot.
On Thursday, KTAR-FM reported that Republican Tom Horne had defeated Democrat incumbent Kathy Hoffmann for the position of Arizona’s education superintendent.
While this may not initially seem like a big win, this is actually a huge win for Republicans. Not only would Horne be one of the few Republicans elected to statewide office in Arizona, but he has run a campaign that focused on banning leftist critical race theory and empowering the rights of parents to be involved in their children’s education, according to KNXV-TV.
In a tweet from Election Day, Horne said that one of his priorities, if elected, would be to “EMPOWER PARENTS by Ensuring Full Transparency to their Child’s Education.”
✅? Empower Parents = Tom Horne #Arizona #Education pic.twitter.com/fXWczv5k9C
— Tom Horne Republican for AZ Supt. Instruction (@electtomhorne) November 8, 2022
Horne has also been an outspoken opponent of leftist indoctrination in schools, especially concerning things such as CRT and transgender indoctrination.
✅ Tom Horne, candidate for Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction
?️ Vote for the qualified #Republican candidate #AZSPI #Education #Arizona pic.twitter.com/VUxdAy5auh— Tom Horne Republican for AZ Supt. Instruction (@electtomhorne) July 28, 2022
Horne’s message is really quite simple: Stop the indoctrination, and get back to real learning.
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His victory shows that parents agree with his message. They are sick and tired of their children’s education being neglected in favor of woke social engineering, and they are sick of being shouted down and demonized when they speak up about it.
Horne’s victory in Arizona is only the latest example of a nationwide trend of parents rejecting woke education. Last year, Republican Glenn Youngkin won the governor’s race in deep blue Virginia after running on a platform that was in favor of parental rights.
In Florida, meanwhile, Gov. Ron DeSantis passed the Parental Rights in Education Act earlier this year, derided by its opponents as the “don’t say ‘gay'” bill. The law forbids education on sexuality in Florida public schools to young students. DeSantis even went so far as the strip Disney of its tax-exempt status when it voiced opposition to the bill.
Despite the media’s portrayal of DeSantis as a “dangerous authoritarian” as a result of this bill, he was returned to the governorship last week in a landslide, thanks in part, no doubt, for his concern for parental rights in education.
This shows that all over the country, even in deep blue states, parents are sick and tired of woke education and support bills that allow them to have a say in their children’s upbringing.
Education is supposed to enlighten the mind and form children to be intelligent and upstanding members of society. It is supposed to encourage children to pursue truth, goodness and beauty.
Instead, over the last few years, education, from preschool to graduate school, has become one long exercise in leftist indoctrination.
It is no surprise, therefore, that parents have decided to take matters into their own hands. Many have shown up at school board meetings to protest this insanity.
Others have taken to homeschooling their children instead, a decision that has been demonized by leftist tyrants, terrified that their powerful grasp over children will slip.
Now it is no surprise that parents are throwing their support behind candidates who believe in the value of real education and who believe in parental rights.
Tom Horne now joins the illustrious ranks of politicians such as Youngkin and DeSantis who are fighting for the rights of both children and parents.
CORRECTION, Nov. 18, 2022: An earlier version of this article said Tom Horne might be the only Arizona Republican elected to statewide office. However, at the time of publication, several Republicans had either won outright (i.e., Paul Marsh, who was unopposed in the race for state mine inspector) or held a large enough to be declared the winner (state Treasurer Kimberly Yee).
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
CORRECTION, Nov. 18, 2022: An earlier version of this article said Tom Horne might be the only Arizona Republican elected to statewide office. However, at the time of publication, several Republicans had either won outright (i.e., Paul Marsh, who was unopposed in the race for state mine inspector) or held a large enough to be declared the winner (state Treasurer Kimberly Yee).
