LANCASTER, Ky. (AP) - The Latest on teachers showing strength as candidates in Kentucky elections (all times local):
5 p.m.
Teachers across the country have left their classrooms this spring to protest at state Capitols, closing schools to win pay raises and better funding in mostly Republican-controlled states.
But their most disruptive act of defiance arguably came Tuesday night in Kentucky, when a high school math teacher who has never run for public office defeated the state House majority leader in a Republican primary. The results portend a potentially tumultuous November general election, where at least 34 teachers in Kentucky alone will be on the ballot challenging Republican incumbents.
Lawmakers across the country could be facing more pressure this fall. In Arizona, teachers are pushing for a ballot initiative that would raise taxes on higher earners to pay for public education. In Oklahoma, dozens of public school teachers filed for state House and Senate seats.
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4:25 p.m.
A Kentucky teacher has schooled a leading politician, defeating him in the GOP primary for a state House seat.
Republican voters in central Kentucky ousted state House Majority Floor Leader Jonathan Shell, a key figure in the legislative moves that prompted weeks of protests at the state Capitol, in favor of Travis Brenda, a high school math teacher who had never run for public office.
Brenda’s victory on Tuesday sent perhaps the loudest signal in Kentucky of a potentially raucous election year.
The mandate was clearer in Shell’s race. Voters appeared to turn on him because he co-authored a bill that made changes to the state’s public pension systems covering hundreds of thousands of teachers and state workers.
Brenda is a fourth-generation farmer and 20-year teaching veteran. As the GOP nominee, he’ll face Democrat Mary Renfro in November.
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