Some of the more “under-the-radar” elections this fall involve the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary education (BESE). With the Governor’s race in full heat, most people have heard little to nothing about BESE elections this fall.

If you want to a good overview of this Fall’s BESE Board elections, then go check out Jeff Sadow’s Hayride column from last week. However, today’s article is going to dive into one specific BESE District election.

For those who don’t know BESE sets the policy agenda for public education in Louisiana. This 11 member Board consists of 8 elected representatives and 3 appointees by the Governor. Of the 8 current elected BESE members, 6 are Republicans and 2 are Democrats. When you add in Governor Edwards’s three appointees, one can generally assume that the BESE board is at 6 Republican-5 Democrat split.

Now, most of the BESE elections this fall are either in solid-Republican or solid-Democrat districts. So, only 2 of the 8 BESE seats up for election have both a Republican and Democrat opponent–with one of them being BESE District 1.

BESE District 1 is made up of all St Tammany Parish and a vast majority of Jefferson Parish. The current incumbent of BESE District (James Garvey) 1 is term-limited. Thus, two candidates decided to run for this open seat.

The first candidate is Paul Hollis–a State Representative from St Tammany (House District 104). Rep. Hollis is not really a solid Conservative candidate. Last legislative session, he essentially backstabbed Conservative constituents in the Greater New Orleans area. Hollis changed his Election recall bill (HB 212) by upping the percentage threshold to recall an elected official originally from 20% (in areas with over 100k voters) and then to 50%–making the bill completely toothless. In the end, HB212 didn’t even make it out of the Senate committee.

While Hollis his weak spots, his opponent for BESE District 1 is an absolute Leftist Loon.

The second candidate for BESE District 1 is none other Far-Left radical activist, Teacher’s Union shill, and teacher Lauren Jewett.

Last year, Jewett ran for Jefferson Parish School Board District 6. She made the run-off in this tight primary election (November 2022), but Conservative businessman Mike Pedalino soundly defeated her in the runoff election (December 2022). Here are the results:

Even though Jefferson Parish voters rejected Jewett, she nevertheless persisted and chose to run for BESE District 1.

On a personal note, I am unfortunately well acquainted with Lauren Jewett as a I am a resident of Jefferson Parish School Board District 6. I made sure to help Mike Pedalino defeat this Far-Left radical from ruining Jefferson Parish Schools with her feminist, pro-LGBT indoctrination, pro-CRT (i.e. anti-white) ideology.

The interesting part is that Jewett does not hide her Radical beliefs. You can just look at her Facebook page. Here are several posts from her publicly viewable personal and campaign Facebook pages:

 

Unsurprisingly, Jewett publicly stated her disapproval of HB466 from this past Legislative session. Here is part of the Resume Digest of HB 466 (which Governor Edwards vetoed unfortunately):

Proposed law would have prohibited a public school teacher, employee, or other presenter
at a school from doing any of the following in grades kindergarten through 12:
(1) Incorporating into classroom instruction or discussion topics of sexual orientation or
gender identity in a manner that deviated from state content standards or curricula
developed or approved by the public school governing authority.
(2) Covering the topics of sexual orientation or gender identity during any extracurricular
activity.
(3) Discussing his personal sexual orientation or gender identity.

 

Just remember, this woman is currently a school teacher and wants to set public policy for the entire state. That’s a scary thought for any Conservative in Louisiana.

For this current election cycle, Jewett holds endorsements from several Far-Left organizations–including the AFL-CIO union, the pro-LGBT group Forum for Equality, the pro-COVID-19 vax mandate group SAFE Communities Coalition, and many more.

Overall, Jewett has little-to-no chance of actually winning this election. The voters of BESE District 1 are quite Conservative. In fact, no Democrat Candidate has even ran in District 1 in the past 16 years since Jim Garvey first ran unopposed in 2007. Nevertheless, nothing should be left for chance. This state cannot afford a Leftist radical like Lauren Jewett from holding political power in BESE.