Early voting starts May 20 for GOP primary runoff for State Board of Education seat

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R), Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) and Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) all have weighed in on the Texas State Board of Education District 12 GOP primary runoff for which Collin County voters can start voting as early as May 20.

Those Republican statewide officeholders all have endorsed challenger Jamie Kohlmann (R), who will face incumbent Pam Little in the Republican runoff. 

“Liberal ideologies have invaded Texas classrooms, endangering the freedoms we hold dear,” said Cruz in an online video endorsing Kohlmann. “We must fight against this radical indoctrination at every level.”

“That’s why I’m proud to endorse Jamie Kohlmann for Texas State Board of Education, District 12,” said Cruz.

Election Day for the runoff is officially May 28, but early voting runs from May 20 through 24. 

Kohlman and Little advanced to the runoff after finishing top 2 in the March 5 Republican primary, with neither receiving 50% of the vote.

Voters who voted in the March 5 Republican primary can only vote in the Republican primary runoff, while voters who didn’t vote in the March 5 primary can vote in either party’s runoff election.

The winner of the runoff will advance to the General Election on November 5.

The SBOE is the governmental body responsible for overseeing the state's public education system. It consists of 15 elected members who serve staggered four-year terms. The board sets curriculum standards, adopts textbooks, and establishes graduation requirements for Texas public schools. 

District 12 of the SBOE consists of all or parts of 12 Texas counties, of which Collin has the most students. The district also contains a portion of Dallas County, as well as all or part of the additional counties: Bowie, Cooke, Delta, Denton, Fannie, Grayson, Hopkins, Hunt, Lamar, and Red River.

A native of the Bryan-College Station area, Little was first elected to the SBOE in the 2018 and is currently the board’s vice chair. She attended Texas A&M and the University of Houston, and previously was a member of the Fairview Town Council. Little and her husband, Larry, are founders of Ace Fence Company and have two children and four grandchildren.

Little has been endorsed by the Dallas Morning News, several members of the SBOE, and GOP U.S. Reps. Keith Self and Pete Sessions, among others. 

A native of Forth Worth, Kohlmann is a former Miss Texas who is currently a real estate agent. She formerly worked as an education policy analyst at the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation. She and her husband, Ben, a former Navy fighter pilot, have three young children. 

Two main issues in the race thus far have included the candidates’ positions on school choice, and the SBOE’s handling of the rewrite of Texas social studies standards.

Little voted in November 2022 to approve SBOE legislative recommendations that included opposition to school choice. She later voted to rescind those recommendations and now says she supports school choice.

Kohlmann, the former executive director of school choice group Texas Families First, said approving more charter schools is a top priority. She is supported by Texans for Educational Freedom and has been endorsed by the Texas Homes School Coalition.

In 2021, the SBOE allowed the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to develop a proposal for new social studies standards that were supposed to be ratified in 2022. Proposals for the standards included teaching of “critical race theory,” George Floyd, and “LGBTQ Pride.”

After pushback, the SBOE, of which Little is a member, delayed the standards until 2025. Kohlmann told Dallas Express the “process should never have gotten that out of hand like it did.”

The winner of the Republican primary runoff will face Democrat George King in the November 5 general election.. A native of Fort Worth, King is a teacher and school principal, who attended Stephen F. Austin university and the University of North Texas. King ran unopposed in the March 5 Democrat primary. 

Collin County is considered a Republican-voting county, with Abbott receiving 54% of the vote in the 2022 general election and former President Donald Trump receiving 51.4% of the vote in 2020.