• February 17th, 2025
  • Monday, 02:20:36 PM

Working Families Party Condemns Incoming SBOE Chair McClellan for Siding With Trump Republicans Over Fellow Democrats


 

 McClellan Self-Serving Throws Other Dems on SBOE Under the Bus At Behest of Wall Street

Denver, CO – This morning, CD6 “Democratic” State Board of Education (SBOE) member Rebecca McClellan became Chair of the body by cutting a deal with extremist Republicans on the Board. As part of this deal, all four of the GOP members of the SBOE backed McClellan for Chair, with this unholy alliance also electing CD8 Republican Yazmin Navarro, an extremist aligned with Moms for Liberty, as Vice Chair.

“Today, Rebecca McClellan outed herself as Colorado’s Joe Manchin — a turncoat willing to throw her own party under the bus and align with both Trump Republicans and corporate campaign donors to advance her own political ambitions,” said Wynn Howell, State Director for Colorado Working Families Party. “McClellan should be ashamed of herself, and we are calling for her to immediately renege on this deal cut with extremist Republicans and to support her district and her party by stepping down as Chair and endorsing a Democratic colleague as her successor. We further call for her to publicly commit to supporting a Democratic colleague for Vice Chair — especially over someone whose extremist Trumpian policy ideas are harmful to our communities, our schools, and our kids.”

There is currently a one-seat (5-4) Democratic majority on the State Board of Education, including the Democrat In Name Only (DINO) McClellan. McClellan’s candidacy for Chair was nominated by Navarro and seconded by CD4 Republican Kristi Burton Brown – the well-known Trump supporter and former Chair of the Colorado Republican Party.  Additionally, as part of the backhanded deal, McClellan supported Navarro for Vice Chair. In contrast, At-Large Democrat Kathy Plomer nominated CD7 Democrat Karla Esser for Chair, and all Democratic members of the State Board of Ed other than the turncoat McClellan voted for Esser for Chair. McClellan is also currently the only Democrat on the State Board of Education backed by Wall-Street funded education privatization special interests (more on that here).

“We wish it were a huge surprise that McClellan would turn on her own party”, continued Howell. “Unfortunately, we’ve seen the same Wall Street education privatizers who dumped a cool $million into the 2024 SBOE CD2 Democratic primary also celebrating incumbent Democrat Rhonda Solis’ loss in CD8 and claiming that they still held a 5-4 majority for school privatization interests because of their CD8 ‘win’ plus one remaining aligned Democrat on the Board. So, this is unfortunately just that ‘one Democrat’ proving publicly and unequivocally that she cares more about what Wall Street campaign donors want than standing with her own constituents and party.”

 

The Working Families Party is a progressive grassroots political party building a multiracial, multigenerational, and feminist movement of working people to transform America. Since launching a state chapter in Colorado in 2017, WFP has played a key role in putting more progressives on the Denver City Council, winning paid family leave and a ban on predatory payday lending, has helped to flip the majority of the CU Board of Regents and has worked to successfully elect dozens of bold progressives to state & local offices across the Centennial State.