Tuesday’s state superintendent primary election, pitting incumbent Jill Underly against challengers Brittany Kinser and Jeff Wright, saw the highest statewide voter turnout for a superintendent primary in Wisconsin history.
Wisconsin voters cast more than 467,000 votes across the state, according to The Associated Press. That’s 90,000 more than in the 2017 primary, the previous record-holder. It’s also over 141,000 more votes than were cast for all candidates statewide in the 2021 primary during Underly’s first race to lead the Department of Public Instruction, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
On Tuesday, 66,000 residents in Dane County voted in the primary. This was the second-highest turnout in the county for a superintendent primary, just shy of the 67,000 votes cast here in the 2017 primary, when Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, the former head of the Department of Public Instruction, was running in his final superintendent reelection campaign, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
Underly and Kinser reacted to their victories in campaign statements shortly after The Associated Press called the race.
“I am inspired and humbled by the level of support my campaign has received in just a few short months. From now until April 1, I will continue to travel the state and share my plan to bring a clean slate, a fresh start, and a fundamentally new approach to DPI,” Kinser said in a statement.
“I am deeply grateful to the voters of Wisconsin for their support in this primary election. We have a shared commitment to Wisconsin’s public schools, educators, and most importantly, our kids,” Underly said in a statement.
Underly has served as the Wisconsin State Superintendent of Public Instruction since 2021.
Underly more than doubled her personal primary vote total, going from 88,000 in 2021 to 177,397 this year. Kinser received 161,585 votes, while Wright, who received 128,253 votes, was eliminated from the general election on April 1, according to The Associated Press.
As the state’s top education official, the superintendent is in charge of proposing the education budget, implementing education policies, reviewing teaching standards, ensuring special education and disability programs are provided, overseeing charter schools and monitoring overall student welfare, according to the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin.
The state superintendent is a nonpartisan position with a four-year term with no term limits, according to the Village of Ellsworth.
Underly and Kinser will continue to campaign in a political environment where there is a heightened national focus on education because of the Trump administration’s criticism of the federal Department of Education.
President Donald Trump has stated on multiple occasions that he wants to cut funding for education and close the department. After he nominated Linda McMahon to be the education secretary, he told White House reporters he hopes McMahon puts herself out of a job, according to C-SPAN.
Trump has indicated that his goals for education are to cut federal funding for schools teaching critical race theory and gender ideology, certify teachers who embrace patriotic values, reduce the number of school administrators, adopt teacher merit pay and create a federal parental right to universal school choice.
Kinser’s stated objectives do not perfectly align with the Trump administration’s national goals. When asked in an interview with the Wisconsin Examiner about the potential elimination of the Department of Education, Kinser said she wasn’t sure if it would actually happen and that her priority was to make sure Wisconsin continued to receive federal funding for education.
Kinser has not opposed DEI programs as strongly as some national Republicans. She told the Wisconsin Examiner she believes local school boards and parents should determine their own policies on cultural issues, not state officials in Madison.
“I don’t think you can have someone from Madison telling all different school districts what to do with each of their cultures,” Kinser told the Examiner.
However, if she is elected, Kinser’s commitment to supporting local school policies could be tested; earlier this week, Trump threatened to withhold all federal funding to public schools and universities that do not eliminate their DEI programs.
In the same interview, Kinser made clear she is the only school choice candidate in the race and praised a policy called open enrollment, which allows students to attend a public school outside of their residential school district.
“Parents should have choices for their children,” Kinser told the Wisconsin Examiner.
Underly has positioned herself as a champion for public schools and has attacked Kinser for focusing too much on charter school vouchers, which, she says, endanger the viability of public schools, according to The Associated Press.
“We have to stop taking money out of our public schools through privatization schemes like school vouchers,” Underly said in a January interview.
The 2023-2025 state funding education package, agreed upon by Evers and Republican legislative leaders, featured an increase in funding for the private school choice voucher program, according to PBS Wisconsin.
While the superintendent position is technically a nonpartisan position, Kinser has received $200,000 from GOP donors and the state’s Republican Party, according to The Associated Press. Underly reported receiving $56,118 from the state’s Democratic Party, according to WisPolitics.
The race for state superintendent will be decided at the ballot box on April 1, when Wisconsin voters will also choose a new state Supreme Court justice.
