Haven’t we seen this game of Caddo Parish School Board Clue before: the Democrats did it in District 8 with Jeri Bowen?
Recently, this space mused whether the Board’s six Democrats would duplicate what they did in 2020 when a Republican member of the Board resigned to give Democrats a temporary one vote majority, which was then used to appoint a Democrat in the solidly Republican District 8 – 49 percent GOP registration then, 57 percent now – which hadn’t elected a Democrat (who later would switch to the GOP) in 30 years. The situation replicated when Republican Christine Tharpe resigned her seat as she moved out of the district.
At the special meeting this week, the Board considered three volunteers to serve until an election next spring. The only Republican was Cheyenna Newman, who hadn’t lived in the district long and hadn’t involved herself much in local education but who said her background in legal issues would commend her service to the Board. But, she mentioned an interest in promoting social emotional learning – a thinly-evidenced, faddish approach to learning reeking of wokeness expressly repudiated by the state’s board of education the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education that would make any conservative Republican blanche at supporting her. As it turned out, none did, although being in the minority it wouldn’t have made any difference.
There was a Democrat alternative: Emma Shepard, erstwhile 2023 BESE candidate, who had plenty of experience as a teacher in schools but who also, as her previous candidacy made clear, was on the wrong side of almost every major issue confronting schools today – against greater choice, greater accountability, and higher standards. Absent another choice, Democrats might have given her the job, except another more diluted and stealthier option presented itself.
In 2020, the Board picked Democrat Bowen over, among others, Tharpe for the temporary gig. Bowen then went for the permanent slot in that fall’s elections contested by Tharpe in a campaign that drew support from the usual revanchist forces, and a Republican here or there, with Bowen running as an independent. Tharpe was backed by reformist elements and, despite being outspent a few times over, smashed Bowen by over 20 points.
Fast forward to 2025, where, just like in 2020, Bowen, whose party affiliation very much is in the minority in the district, the temporary Democrat majority picks her, joined by Republicans (one from each party was absent). It was a less egregious move in some respects as she no longer claims Democrat affiliation even as her views on education still align more with the left’s and at least in her favor is her previous interim experience, but more egregious in that district voters decisively rejected her five years ago.
While Board Democrats could have out the more overt supporter of their views Shepard in there, setting up fellow traveler Bowen to take another shot at flipping a seat Democrats have no business keeping out of GOP hands maximizes that chance. However, if she runs again, she almost certainly would have to run as a Republican-in-Name-Only to have any chance of winning.
Caddo Republicans need to come up with a quality candidate to forestall this meddling in an electoral environment where already they stand at a disadvantage in keeping parity, which a GOP win in the special election would restore. Otherwise, after next year’s Board elections they may find themselves at a permanent disadvantage for some time to come.
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