Your feedback ensures we stay focused on the facts that matter to you most—take our survey.
Newark Public Schools, New Jersey, elections (2019)
 |
State House • Special state legislative • State ballot measures • Local ballot measures • School boards • Municipal • How to run for office |
 |
2020 →
← 2018 |
|---|
 |
|
|
| Enrollment ('16-'17) |
|
|
Three seats on the Newark Public Schools school board in New Jersey were up for general election on April 16, 2019. The filing deadline for this election was February 25, 2019.[1]
Two incumbents, Leah Owens and Tave Padilla, ran for re-election. Incumbent Deborah Kim Thompson-Gaddy did not file for re-election. All three incumbents were first elected to the board in 2016, and they ran together as the Newark Unity slate and were endorsed by Mayor Ras J. Baraka. The eight consecutive elections prior to 2019 also saw members of slates endorsed by the mayor win election to the board.
Incumbent Tave Padilla, A'Dorian Murray-Thomas, and Shayvonne Anderson ran together on the mayor’s Moving Newark Schools Forward slate. They won the 2019 election and were the only candidates to receive double-digit percentages of the vote. Incumbent Leah Owens, Denise Cole, and Saafir Jenkins ran together on the Children Over Politics team. The other candidates in the race—Maggie Freeman, Priscilla Garces, Arlene Ramsey, Yolanda Johnson, and Denise Ann Crawford—ran as independents.[2]
The 2019 election was the second since local control was returned to the district by the New Jersey State Board of Education on September 13, 2017. The state originally took over the district in 1995.[3]
Elections
Click on the tabs below to show more information about those topics.
Candidates and results
General election
General election for Newark Public Schools Board of Education (3 seats)
The following candidates ran in the general election for Newark Public Schools Board of Education on April 16, 2019.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | A'Dorian Murray-Thomas (Nonpartisan) | 25.3 | 4,935 |
| ✔ | Shayvonne Anderson (Nonpartisan) | 23.3 | 4,542 | |
| ✔ |  | Tave Padilla (Nonpartisan) | 22.7 | 4,420 |
 | Leah Owens (Nonpartisan) | 7.5 | 1,466 | |
| Saafir Jenkins (Nonpartisan) | 6.3 | 1,223 | ||
 | Denise Cole (Nonpartisan) | 6.0 | 1,165 | |
 | Yolanda Johnson (Nonpartisan) | 3.0 | 592 | |
 | Maggie Freeman (Nonpartisan) | 1.8 | 360 | |
 | Priscilla Garces (Nonpartisan) | 1.5 | 295 | |
| Denise Ann Crawford (Nonpartisan) | 1.4 | 274 | ||
| Arlene Ramsey (Nonpartisan) | 0.9 | 180 | ||
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 25 | ||
| Total votes: 19,477 | |||
 = 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. | ||||
Endorsements
Do you know of an official or organization that endorsed a candidate in this race? Let Ballotpedia know by email at editor@ballotpedia.org.
Additional elections on the ballot
- See also: New Jersey elections, 2019
What was at stake?
Report a story for this election
Ballotpedia researches issues in school board elections across the United States, but information availability is a challenge for us in many school districts. Please contact us about the issues that impact your local school district. Note that not all submissions may meet Ballotpedia's coverage requirements for inclusion.
Candidate survey
|
|
Ballotpedia invites school board candidates to participate in its annual survey. |
About the district
- See also: Newark Public Schools, New Jersey
Newark Public Schools is located in Essex County, New Jersey. The district served 40,514 students during the 2016-2017 school year.[4]
State profile
- See also: New Jersey and New Jersey elections, 2019
Partisan data
The information in this section was current as of May 7, 2019
Presidential voting pattern
- New Jersey voted for the Democratic candidate in all seven presidential elections between 2000 and 2024.
Congressional delegation
- Following the 2018 elections, both U.S. senators from New Jersey were Democrats.
- Eleven of New Jersey's 12 U.S. representatives were Democrats and one was a Republican.
State executives
- Democrats held four of New Jersey's 11 state executive offices. The other seven offices were nonpartisan.
- New Jersey's governor was Democrat Phil Murphy.
State legislature
- Democrats controlled the New Jersey State Senate with a 26-14 majority.
- Democrats controlled the New Jersey General Assembly with a 54-26 majority.
New Jersey Party Control: 1992-2025
Fourteen years of Democratic trifectas • Eight years of 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 | D | D | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D |
| Senate | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | S | S | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D |
| Assembly | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | 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 |
|
|
| Demographic data for New Jersey | ||
|---|---|---|
| New Jersey | U.S. | |
| Total population: | 8,935,421 | 316,515,021 |
| Land area (sq mi): | 7,354 | 3,531,905 |
| Race and ethnicity** | ||
| White: | 68.3% | 73.6% |
| Black/African American: | 13.5% | 12.6% |
| Asian: | 9% | 5.1% |
| Native American: | 0.2% | 0.8% |
| Pacific Islander: | 0% | 0.2% |
| Two or more: | 2.5% | 3% |
| Hispanic/Latino: | 19% | 17.1% |
| Education | ||
| High school graduation rate: | 88.6% | 86.7% |
| College graduation rate: | 36.8% | 29.8% |
| Income | ||
| Median household income: | $72,093 | $53,889 |
| Persons below poverty level: | 12.7% | 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 New Jersey. **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. | ||
Pivot Counties
- See also: Pivot Counties by state
Two of 21 New Jersey counties—9.5 percent—are Pivot Counties. Pivot Counties are counties that voted for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012 and for Donald Trump (R) in 2016. Altogether, the nation had 206 Pivot Counties, with most being concentrated in upper midwestern and northeastern states.
| Counties won by Trump in 2016 and Obama in 2012 and 2008 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| County | Trump margin of victory in 2016 | Obama margin of victory in 2012 | Obama margin of victory in 2008 | ||||
| Gloucester County, New Jersey | 0.48% | 10.77% | 12.16% | ||||
| Salem County, New Jersey | 15.00% | 1.31% | 3.92% | ||||
In the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton (D) won New Jersey with 55.5 percent of the vote. Donald Trump (R) received 41.4 percent. In presidential elections between 1900 and 2016, New Jersey voted Democratic 46.67 percent of the time and Republican 53.33 percent of the time. In the five presidential elections between 2000 and 2016, New Jersey voted Democratic all five times.
See also
| Newark Public Schools | New Jersey | School Boards |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
|
|
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Abbey Smith, “Email communication with Nancy J. Deering, Director of Office of Board Relations," February 28, 2019
- ↑ TAP into Newark, "Mayor-Endorsed School Board Slate Sweeps Election," April 16, 2019
- ↑ PIX 11, "Newark residents elect school board members with full governing power for 1st time in two decades," April 16, 2019
- ↑ National Center for Education Statistics, "Local Education Agency (School District) Universe Survey Data," accessed February 4, 2019
 |
State of New Jersey Trenton (capital) |
|---|---|
| Elections |
What's on my ballot? | Elections in 2025 | How to vote | How to run for office | Ballot measures |
| Government |
Who represents me? | U.S. President | U.S. Congress | Federal courts | State executives | State legislature | State and local courts | Counties | Cities | School districts | Public policy |
