School Choice Moms Help DeSantis Win Governor’s Race

The biggest takeaway from the Florida governor’s race was how much Andrew Gillum underestimated the power of the Mom vote, specifically school choice moms.

Named by Condoleezza Rice as the civil rights issue of our time, school choice proved to be the decisive factor in the Florida governor’s race which ultimately was decided by less than 40,000 votes.

Like many campaign issues, Ron DeSantis and Andrew Gillum found themselves on the opposite end of the spectrum when it came to the issue of school choice. Andrew Gillum wanted to bring the voucher program to “a conclusion,” claiming proponents are “siphoning off public money into privately run schools” that are “unaccountable, for-profit charter schools who want to use public dollars to enrich their executives.”

Meanwhile, DeSantis wants to expand the private school voucher program and increase funding for the programs by an annual growth rate of 25 percent. In order to accomplish this and grow the school choice program, DeSantis wants to increase the cap for the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, which parents with eligible incomes may use to put their children in private schools.

DeSantis has unwavering support for school choice and his goal is to require 80 percent of education funding to be spent in the classroom, This caught the attention of Florida moms and here’s why.

In Florida, more than 100,000 low-income students participate in the Step Up for Students program, and while they cannot vote, their moms can. Step Up for Students is a tax-credit scholarship program funded by corporate tax credits, for low-income families, and gives students the ability to attend private schools. Out of the more than 100,000 students, roughly 70 percent of participants are minorities whose mothers are registered Democrat.

Known as school choice moms, these moms are hawkish on education and have been known to tip the scales for a candidate on Election Day. In 2014 Governor Rick Scott won reelection due to a spike in support from school choice moms, and 2018 was no different. On November 6th, these school choice moms opted to choose a governor who would support and protect their right to choose where their child goes to school.

Polling conducted for the American Federation for Children has shown a majority of Republican, Democratic, and independent voters support school choice, particularly among Latinos and African Americans. With regards to Florida, a CNN exit poll showed of the the roughly 650,000 black women who voted in Florida, 18 percent chose DeSantis over Gillum. Therefore, it is highly likely to conclude African American voters whose children are enrolled in the Step Up for School program or in charter schools helped tip the scales in Republican Ron DeSantis’s favor.

The deviation from voting party lines and casting an issue-centric vote is something of which both parties should take note, especially when the issue is education. If less 100,000 voters can determine the outcome of an election in a state as big as Florida imagine what a nation full of voting moms can accomplish in 2020.

The role school choice played in Florida should signal to Republicans that education as a campaign issue is one key to courting the minority vote, and should be moved to the top of the stump for any candidate thinking about a 2020 run. Policy over party shows promise as a battle cry for minority voters, specifically, those who are Moms, and Moms usually know best.