James Harnett

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

James Harnett

Nonpartisan

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 3, 2020

Personal

Birthplace

New York, NY

Religion

Agnostic

Contact

Campaign website

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James Harnett ran for election to the District of Columbia State Board of Education to represent Ward 2. He lost in the general election on November 3, 2020.

Harnett completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Harnett was born on March 23, 1998, in New York, New York. He has attended classes at George Washington University. Harnett has been affiliated with a local Advisory Neighborhood Commission in Washington, D.C. as chairperson.

Elections

2020

See also: District of Columbia State Board of Education election, 2020

General election

General election for District of Columbia State Board of Education Ward 2

Allister Chang defeated Sarah Mehrotra, James Harnett, and Christopher Etesse in the general election for District of Columbia State Board of Education Ward 2 on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Allister Chang (Nonpartisan)	48.3	11,296
	Submit photo	Sarah Mehrotra (Nonpartisan)	33.9	7,938
		James Harnett (Nonpartisan)	11.6	2,704
	Submit photo	Christopher Etesse (Nonpartisan)	5.2	1,211
		Other/Write-in votes	1.0	236

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 23,385
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Campaign themes

2020

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

James Harnett completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Harnett's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

James Harnett is running to represent Ward 2 on the D.C. State Board of Education. James is fighting to lift up the voices of students and young people, more funding for our at-risk students, to put equity and science at the center of our coronavirus response, and build strong and diverse classrooms across Ward 2 and the District.

James is participating in D.C.'s public financing program, refusing PAC and corporate contributions, and only taking donations from individuals up to $20. Contributions from D.C. residents are matched 5-1, meaning he isn't bought by anyone.

James is fighting for transformative change in a system that does not prioritize young people and teacher's voices. That means fighting to end punitive discipline practices that enable the school-to-prison pipeline, fighting to make sure young people are heard and their stories are valued.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Pursuing transformative change to deliver accountability and transparency
• Uplifting the voices of students and young people in our policymaking
• Putting equity and science at the center of our coronavirus response

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I am currently an ANC Commissioner representing a district in Foggy Bottom of about 2,000 college students. It's one of the few districts in the city entirely made up of young people. After getting elected in March 2018, I've been organizing to elevate student's and young people's voices into government ever since.

Building safe streets has been one of the most exciting things I've taken on. I've proposed and approved plans for more than 3 miles of protected bike lanes-the very first our neighborhood has ever seen-that are going to keep people alive and promote sustainable transit. I fought for city-wide access to Capital Bikeshare for our students and delivered. Eighty thousand people now have unlimited transit access-all for just $25 a year. I didn't accomplish this alone. It took organizing in communities in my backyard and around our city. It's the same energy I'll take to any opportunity to serve our students on the State Board of Education.

I'm now the youngest person to ever serve as chair of an ANC in the history of the District of Columbia. We're shifting the balance of what's possible so we can all live better, more just lives. Elevating young voices to the table is an excellent place to start.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Pursuing accountability and transparency in government is not enough. Elected officials must be accountable and transparent to the people who elected them. As a Commissioner representing the Foggy Bottom neighborhood, I made my communication a centerpiece of that effort. I've shared the facts as I know them, always making sure that my constituents are in the loop about where projects are at. Whether that's building two miles of new protected bike lanes, publicly holding government leaders accountable, -I've been talking about it.

All the projects and initiatives I advanced as a Commissioner can be tracked on my website. I go into the weeds about where things stand, why they might be delayed, and when my constituents can expect action. It also holds me accountable to the goals I set at the start of my term. I may not finish every single thing I set out to, but I will stop at nothing to make sure that everyone is as informed as I am.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

I was nine during the global financial recession. Both of my parents lost their jobs, and our family eventually lost our home. Being a nine-year-old and not being able to do anything about the precarious financial situation my family was in made me ever more conscious of the challenges working-class families across the country were going through. I could see the pain of not being able to provide for your family on my parent's faces. You could work as hard as you can-and it would still not be enough.

That struggle led me to commit my life to supporting others. As an engineering and policy student in college, I've made it my mission to do all I could to make government work for people-the people that are too often left out and left behind.

If you could be any fictional character, who would you want to be?

As a teenager, I was hooked on Doctor Who. Exploring the universe in a time-traveling space ship, saving civilizations, and helping people in need-I was enamored. It overlapped quite a bit with my enduring dream I still have to this day, of being a NASA astronaut.

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

Since I was a teenager, I've been in rooms that are often full of people that don't take me seriously because of my age. As a public high school student advocating for a one-to-one student-to-device ratio, I was dismissed out-of-hand. Now amid this pandemic, the mad rush to provide students with devices and WiFi hotspots-often leaving some of our most vulnerable students and families behind-we can see how students suffer when our policymakers don't listen.

As the youngest person to ever work at the U.S. Department of Education, under President Obama, I had to work harder and think outside the box more than all of my-often much older co-workers-to be taken seriously.

I think those experiences make me a better advocate. I know what it's going to take to get people to act for what's right. But it requires having people at the table who are going to stand up for the little guys. I'm running for the D.C. State Board of Education-and would be its youngest member ever-because the experiences of our young people demand to be heard. On providing school-based mental health support, building safe and supportive environments for our students, and investing in everyone's future is going to take more young people at the table, with a voice-and critically-a vote.

What is the primary job of a school board member in your view?

I believe in an independent State Board of Education that has the power to hold leaders accountable and serve as a tool to amplify students, teachers, and parent's voices. I'm running to help build it.

While many D.C. voters go to the polls to cast a vote for their member of the D.C. State Board of Education, most would reasonably expect that body to have some level of authority or control over public schools. In truth, the Mayor runs D.C. public schools. She appoints the Chancellor of Schools, the Deputy Mayor for Education, and the State Superintendent of Education-all without the input or consent of the elected members of the State Board of Education. Beyond some limited powers around high school graduation and social studies requirements, members of the State Board of Education are excluded from decisions the Mayor makes about how much we're going to invest in our students and what schools need additional funding.

On re-opening schools amid this pandemic, making sure our students can be safe in our schools, and making sure every student has a device and WiFi hotspot by default-we need an independent State Board of Education with the power to make these urgent necessities a reality.

What principles drive your policies for safety in schools?

I was nine years old when 33 people were killed at Virginia Tech. I was in ninth grade when a gunman killed 26 students and teachers in Sandy Hook. I was a sophomore in college for Marjory Stoneman Douglas. I am a member of the mass school shooting generation-growing up with code reds and lockdowns every year of my life. But I can tell you this: police and private security in our schools do not make us safer.

By perpetuating violence and the school-to-prison pipeline against our BIPOC peers in our schools, we are all less safe. At the U.S. Department of Education under President Obama, my team used public school data from around America to prove this. When you introduce armed security officers in schools, students become less safe and more anxious about the environment supposed to promote their learning and growth.

In June 2020, the D.C. Council took a positive first step by ending the Metropolitan Police Department contact for public school security, but we need to do more. Students are demanding safe routes to school and a learning environment that supports them. Police and private security in our classrooms make our schools less safe.

What role do you imagine technology playing in (and outside) the classroom in the future? How would you prepare the district for this?

Under President Obama, I worked in the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education. I wrote federal guidance for states and localities-and contributed to research-on how to effectively implement technology in the classroom, especially for our youngest students. Access to the right technology, especially amid this pandemic, is critical to our students' success.

Right now, D.C. public schools are not providing technology and WiFi hotspots to all those who need it. Thousands of students have fallen through the cracks and haven't re-enrolled in school this academic year. If elected, I will fight every day to make it our city's policy that every student is guaranteed a computer and WiFi hotspot.

What's most disappointing about this moment is that we could have been ready. Four years ago, students organized and demanded a one-to-one device-to-student ratio. But our policymakers didn't listen. And now our students are suffering. Having graduated from high school just four years ago, I know the challenges our students face first-hand. The only way we make sure this sort of thing doesn't happen again is to elect young people and students who will fight for what's right-for what students need.

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See also

• Washington, D.C.
• District of Columbia State Board of Education election, 2020

External links

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