Voucher oversight fight tilts GOP superintendent primary toward Kimberly Yee over Tom Horne

Kimberly Yee is maintaining a large lead in the GOP nomination for public schools chief, a victory that would see her unseat GOP incumbent Tom Horne, who is in his second stint as the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Late Tuesday evening, Yee led Horne with 54% of the vote, a difference of more than 32,000 votes. The winner will face off in November against Democrat and former Glendale Community College President Teresa Leyba Ruiz in the November midterms. Ruiz trounced her opponent, Brett Matthew Newby, in the Democratic primary, capturing nearly 80% of the vote.

Yee was elected state treasurer in 2018 and was reelected in 2022. Last year, she launched a bid to unseat Horne, focusing on casting the 81-year-old longtime politician as out of touch. Before that, she spent eight years as a state legislator.

The race between Yee and Horne centered around who would be a better arbiter of the state’s universal school voucher system, known formally as Empowerment Scholarship Accounts. The program, which costs taxpayers $1 billion a year, is at the heart of the GOP’s school choice agenda, and Republicans have resisted regulating it even as it has drawn criticism for resulting in purchases like diamond rings and luxury clothing.

The Arizona Department of Education, which the state superintendent heads, is charged with overseeing and approving reimbursal requests. Yee positioned herself as the candidate who would best protect against fraud in the program, accusing Horne of failing to keep disallowed purchases in check.

Horne’s time as the top public school official was characterized by a focus on culture war issues. The Republican backed the state’s trans athletic ban in court, criticized the teaching of “critical race theory” in schools and launched a legal challenge aimed at making it more difficult for English Language Learner students to be taught in their native language.

One of Horne’s first actions after he took office was to set up a hotline for parents to phone in tips about teachers who discussed “social or emotional learning” or critical race theory, catch-all terms wielded by Republican politicians that have come to encompass any discussion of diversity or race.

Yee has largely shied away from overtly referencing culture war issues, aiming to frame her candidacy as a return to basics, though the language she uses still serves as a nod to the controversial topics.

“Arizona children, families and teachers deserve an education leader who will deliver real results, someone who will fight to protect their educational freedom, get back to the basics like phonics and U.S. History, and protect parental rights — I’m that candidate,” Yee said in a post on social media site X.

Republicans frequently frame efforts to chip away at LGBTQ visibility in the classroom as an effort to preserve “parental rights.”