California Superintendent of Public Instruction election, 2018

	2022 → ← 2014
California Superintendent of Public Instruction
Election details
	Filing deadline: March 9, 2018
	Primary: June 5, 2018; General: November 6, 2018; Pre-election incumbent(s):; Tom Torlakson
How to vote
	Poll times: 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Voting in California
Ballotpedia analysis
	Federal and state primary competitiveness; State executive elections in 2018; Impact of term limits in 2018; State government trifectas; State government triplexes; Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2018
California; executive elections
	Governor; Lieutenant governor; Attorney general; Secretary of state; Treasurer; Controller; Insurance commissioner; Superintendent of public instruction; State board of equalization

California held an election for superintendent of public instruction on November 6, 2018. The candidate filing deadline was March 9, 2018.

Candidates and election results

General election

General election for California Superintendent of Public Instruction

Tony Thurmond defeated Marshall Tuck in the general election for California Superintendent of Public Instruction on November 6, 2018.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Tony Thurmond (Nonpartisan)	50.9	5,385,912
	Marshall Tuck (Nonpartisan)	49.1	5,198,738

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 10,584,650 (100.00% precincts reporting)
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for California Superintendent of Public Instruction

Marshall Tuck and Tony Thurmond defeated Lily Ploski and Steven Ireland in the primary for California Superintendent of Public Instruction on June 5, 2018.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Marshall Tuck (Nonpartisan)	37.0	2,223,784
✔	Tony Thurmond (Nonpartisan)	35.6	2,136,919
	Lily Ploski (Nonpartisan)	16.4	984,932
	Steven Ireland (Nonpartisan)	11.0	658,786

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified.	Total votes: 6,004,421
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Context of the 2018 election

Endorsements

Note: Prior to the signature filing deadline, endorsements will be added as Ballotpedia writers come across them. If you see that an endorsement is missing, please email us and we will add that endorsement. As the election draws closer, more information will be added to this page.

Tony Thurmond

U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.)
California Teachers Association
The Los Angeles Times^[1]
The Sacramento Bee^[2]
Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Calif.)
Congressman Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.)
Congresswoman Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.)
Congressman Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.)
Congressman Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.)
Congresswoman Judy Chu (D-Calif.)
Congresswoman Karen Bass (D-Calif.)
Congressman Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.)
Congressman Mark Takano (D-Calif.)
Congressman Mike Thompson (D-Calif.)
Congresswoman Norma Torres (D-Calif.)
Congressman Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.)
Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.)

Click here for full list of Thurmond's supporters.

Marshall Tuck

Former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (D)
Former Congressman George Miller (D-Calif.)
Former California Superintendent of Public Instruction Bill Honig
Former California Controller Steve Westley
State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-11)
State Sen. Steve Glazer (D-7)
State Sen. Bill Dodd (D-3)
State Assembly member Shirley Weber (D-79)
State Assembly member Blanca Rubio (D-48)
State Assembly member Marc Berman (D-24)
State Assembly member Kevin Kiley (R-6)
Former State Assembly member Juan Arambula (I)
Former State Assembly member Gary Hart (D)
The San Francisco Chronicle
The Mercury News
The East Bay Times
The Santa Cruz Sentinel
The Association of California School Administrators^[3]

Click here for full list of Tuck's supporters.

State overview

Partisan control

This section details the partisan control of federal and state positions in California heading into the 2018 elections.

Congressional delegation

Following the 2016 elections, Democrats held both U.S. Senate seats in California.
Democrats held 39 of 53 U.S. House seats in California.

State executives

As of May 2018, Democrats held seven of 10 state executive positions and the remaining three positions were officially nonpartisan.
The governor of California was Democrat Jerry Brown.

State legislature

Democrats controlled both chambers of the California State Legislature. They had a 55-25 majority in the state Assembly and a 27-13 majority in the state Senate.

Trifecta status

California was a state government trifecta, meaning that Democrats held the governorship and majorities in the state house and state senate.

2018 elections

See also: California elections, 2018

California held elections for the following positions in 2018:

Demographics

Demographic data for California
	California	U.S.
Total population:	38,993,940	316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):	155,779	3,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White:	61.8%	73.6%
Black/African American:	5.9%	12.6%
Asian:	13.7%	5.1%
Native American:	0.7%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	0.4%	0.2%
Two or more:	4.5%	3%
Hispanic/Latino:	38.4%	17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:	81.8%	86.7%
College graduation rate:	31.4%	29.8%
Income
Median household income:	$61,818	$53,889
Persons below poverty level:	18.2%	11.3%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in California. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

As of July 2016, California had a population of approximately 39,000,000 people, with its three largest cities being Los Angeles (pop. est. 4.0 million), San Diego (pop. est. 1.4 million), and San Jose (pop. est. 1 million).^[4]^[5]

State election history

This section provides an overview of federal and state elections in California from 2000 to 2016. All data comes from the California Secretary of State.

Historical elections

Presidential elections, 2000-2016

This chart shows the results of the presidential election in California every year from 2000 to 2016.

Election results (President of the United States), California 2000-2016
Year	First-place candidate	First-place candidate votes (%)	Second-place candidate	Second-place candidate votes (%)	Margin of victory (%)
2016	Hillary Clinton	61.7%	Donald Trump	31.6%	30.1%
2012	Barack Obama	60.2%	Mitt Romney	37.1%	23.1%
2008	Barack Obama	61.1%	John McCain	37%	24.1%
2004	John Kerry	54.4%	George W. Bush	44.4%	10%
2000	Al Gore	53.5%	George W. Bush	41.7%	11.8%

U.S. Senate elections, 2000-2016

This chart shows the results of U.S. Senate races in California from 2000 to 2016. Every state has two Senate seats, and each seat goes up for election every six years. The terms of the seats are staggered so that roughly one-third of the seats are up every two years.

Election results (U.S. Senator), California 2000-2016
Year	First-place candidate	First-place candidate votes (%)	Second-place candidate	Second-place candidate votes (%)	Margin of victory (%)
2016	Kamala Harris	61.6%	Loretta Sanchez	38.4%	23.2%
2012	Dianne Feinstein	62.5%	Elizabeth Emken	37.5%	25%
2010	Barbara Boxer	52.2%	Carly Fiorina	42.2%	10%
2006	Dianne Feinstein	59.5%	Richard Mountjoy	35.1%	24.4%
2004	Barbara Boxer	57.8%	Bill Jones	37.8%	20%
2000	Dianne Feinstein	55.9%	Tom Campbell	36.6%	19.3%

Gubernatorial elections, 2000-2016

This chart shows the results of the four gubernatorial elections held between 2000 and 2016. Gubernatorial elections are held every four years in California.

Election results (Governor), California 2000-2016
Year	First-place candidate	First-place candidate votes (%)	Second-place candidate	Second-place candidate votes (%)	Margin of victory (%)
2014	Jerry Brown	60%	Neel Kashkari	40%	20%
2010	Jerry Brown	53.8%	Meg Whitman	40.9%	12.9%
2006	Arnold Schwarzenegger	55.9%	Phil Angelides	39.0%	16.9%
2002	Gray Davis	47.3%	Bill Simon	42.4%	4.9%

Congressional delegation, 2000-2016

This chart shows the number of Democrats and Republicans who were elected to represent California in the U.S. House from 2000 to 2016. Elections for U.S. House seats are held every two years.

Congressional delegation, California 2000-2016
Year	Democrats	Democrats (%)	Republicans	Republicans (%)	Balance of power
2016	39	73.5%	14	26.4%	D+25
2014	39	73.5%	14	26.4%	D+25
2012	38	71.7%	15	28.3%	D+23
2010	34	64.1%	19	35.8%	D+15
2008	34	64.1%	19	35.8%	D+15
2006	34	64.1%	19	35.8%	D+15
2004	33	62.3%	20	37.7%	D+13
2002	33	62.3%	20	37.7%	D+13
2000	32	61.5%	20	38.5%	D+12

Trifectas, 1992-2017

A state government trifecta occurs when one party controls both chambers of the state legislature and the governor's office.

California Party Control: 1992-2025
Twenty years with Democratic trifectas • No Republican trifectas
Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.

Year	92	93	94	95	96	97	98	99	00	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25
Governor	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	D	D	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D
Senate	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D
Assembly	D	D	D	S	R	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms California superintendent of public instruction election 2018. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

California Superintendent of Public Instruction election, 2018 - Google News

External links

Suggest a link

California superintendent of public instruction official website

Footnotes

[1] The Los Angeles Times, "For his unwavering commitment to at-risk students, Tony Thurmond for superintendent of public instruction," April 23, 2018

[2] The Sacramento Bee, "It’s Thurmond for superintendent of public instruction, as California politics shift," April 29, 2018

[3] Marshall Tuck for State Superintendent of Public Instruction, "Supporters," accessed May 15, 2018

[4] California Demographics, "California Cities by Population," accessed April 2, 2018

[5] U.S. Census Bureau, "Quickfacts California," accessed April 2, 2018

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