Sonja Shaw, who is currently a school board president in San Bernadino County, emerged on top in the June 2 primary to advance to the General Election, which is Nov. 2.
Not only did Shaw advance to the General Election, she led the 10-person statewide ballot to win the largest percentage of votes, 25%, despite being a target of Democrats and the state teachers’ union, the California Teachers Association.
The second-place finisher, who also advanced to the General Election, is Richard Barrera. He is a liberal, CTA-endorsed candidate who is also a school board president. Barrera trailed Shaw by approximately 252,000 votes to finish at 19%.
Shaw, a Republican, is currently president of the Chino Valley Unified School District, which serves approximately 32,000 students in more than 30 schools.
Barrera, president of the San Diego Unified School District, appears to be the polar opposite of his opponent. A complimentary story about him on the education website EdSource says he has steered the district’s “progressive, union-aligned agenda.”
The EdSource article also points out Barrera got the “coveted” endorsement of the California Teachers’ Association, which is vital to win the statewide superintendent post according to the article.
After emerging on top after the Tuesday primary, Shaw told American Family News the election results felt “surreal” when she realized she was leading at a watch party with her family and friends.
“I'm so humbled that I get to fight this good fight for California families,” she told AFN.
Chino Valley kicked off legal battle
Shaw’s reference to fighting for California families refers to a political and legal battle that began three years ago this summer at a school board meeting and ended up in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Pushing back against the teachers' union-endorsed transgender ideology, Chino Valley’s school board approved a policy that requires school staff to inform parents if their child's gender identify changes, such as their name or pronouns.
That school district policy, which might seem like common sense to many parents, infuriated Democrats across the state. Rob Bonta, California’s attorney general, immediately ordered a “civil rights investigation” into Chino Valley and sued the school district to challenge the parental notification policy.
Chino Valley’s policy “threatens the safety and well-being of LGBTQ+ students vulnerable to harassment and potential abuse from peers and family members unaccepting of their gender identity,” Bonta said at the time.
California’s liberal-dominated legislature attacked Chino Valley next. Legislators passed a new state law in 2024, The Safety Act, that overruled the parental rights policy in Chino Valley and a few other rebellious school districts.
Then came a federal lawsuit, filed by two middle school teachers, to challenge The Safety Act. In a federal ruling last year, U.S. District Court Judge Roger T. Benitez took the side of parents, and Shaw and Chino Valley, and he also ripped the state’s liberal Democrats.
In his ruling, which rejected Bonta’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, Judge Benitez wrote that a parent’s right to make decisions for their children “is one of the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests that Americans enjoy.”
After the federal judge granted a statewide injunction to stop The Safety Act, an appeal by the State of California ended up before the U.S. Supreme Court. That majority ruling, announced just three months ago, sided with California parents. It said the state law, which was passed to counter Chino Valley, violates a parent's fundamental rights to "direct the upbringing and education of their children.”
Shaw told AFN the "education establishment" spent millions on the superintendent election to protect the "status quo" in California.
"California voters had other ideas," she said. "Now we take this momentum into November and continue building a coalition that reaches every family that wants a brighter future for our children."
