Will Hickman

Will Hickman

Republican Party

Texas State Board of Education District 6

Tenure

2021 - Present

Term ends

2027

Years in position

4

Predecessor

Donna Bahorich

Elections and appointments

Last elected

November 8, 2022

Education

Bachelor's

University of Houston

Law

University of Houston

Personal

Profession

Lawyer

Contact

Official website

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Personal Facebook

Personal LinkedIn

Will Hickman (Republican Party) is a member of the Texas State Board of Education, representing District 6. He assumed office on January 1, 2021. His current term ends on January 1, 2027.

Hickman (Republican Party) ran for re-election to the Texas State Board of Education to represent District 6. He won in the general election on November 8, 2022.

Hickman completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Will Hickman earned bachelor's degrees in mechanical engineering and industrial distribution from Texas A&M University, a bachelor's degree in Spanish from the University of Houston, a master of laws degree, and a J.D. from the University of Houston. Hickman's career experience includes working as a lawyer and as an in-house counsel with Shell Oil Company.

Political career

Texas State Board of Education (2021-present)

Hickman was elected to the board in November 2020 and assumed office in January 2021.

Elections

2022

See also: Texas State Board of Education election, 2022

General election

General election for Texas State Board of Education District 6

Incumbent Will Hickman defeated Michelle Palmer and Rebekah Plourde in the general election for Texas State Board of Education District 6 on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Will Hickman (R)	60.3	364,447
		Michelle Palmer (D)	39.7	240,384
		Rebekah Plourde (Independent) (Write-in)	0.0	59

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 604,890
= 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.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Texas State Board of Education District 6

Michelle Palmer advanced from the Democratic primary for Texas State Board of Education District 6 on March 1, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Michelle Palmer	100.0	53,055

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 53,055
= 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.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Texas State Board of Education District 6

Incumbent Will Hickman defeated Mike Wolfe in the Republican primary for Texas State Board of Education District 6 on March 1, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Will Hickman	64.9	81,302
		Mike Wolfe	35.1	43,944

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 125,246
= 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

To view Hickman's endorsements in the 2022 election, please click here.

2020

See also: Texas State Board of Education election, 2020

General election

General election for Texas State Board of Education District 6

Will Hickman defeated Michelle Palmer and Whitney Bilyeu in the general election for Texas State Board of Education District 6 on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Will Hickman (R)	49.8	371,958
		Michelle Palmer (D)	47.4	354,179
		Whitney Bilyeu (L)	2.9	21,414

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 747,551
= 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.

Democratic primary runoff election

Democratic primary runoff for Texas State Board of Education District 6

Michelle Palmer defeated Kimberly McLeod in the Democratic primary runoff for Texas State Board of Education District 6 on July 14, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Michelle Palmer	64.2	39,757
		Kimberly McLeod	35.8	22,139

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 61,896
= 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.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Texas State Board of Education District 6

Michelle Palmer and Kimberly McLeod advanced to a runoff. They defeated Debra Kerner in the Democratic primary for Texas State Board of Education District 6 on March 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Michelle Palmer	46.7	51,778
✔		Kimberly McLeod	34.7	38,439
		Debra Kerner	18.7	20,712

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 110,929
= 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.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Texas State Board of Education District 6

Will Hickman advanced from the Republican primary for Texas State Board of Education District 6 on March 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Will Hickman	100.0	88,900

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 88,900
= 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.

Libertarian convention

Libertarian convention for Texas State Board of Education District 6

Whitney Bilyeu advanced from the Libertarian convention for Texas State Board of Education District 6 on March 21, 2020.

		Candidate
✔		Whitney Bilyeu (L)

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source
= 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.

Campaign themes

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Will Hickman completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Hickman'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.

Will Hickman, a Republican from Houston, serves as the current member of the Texas State Board of Education representing District 6. He won the 2020 Republican Primary and General Elections and was sworn into office on January 2, 2021. Hickman earned two bachelor’s degrees from Texas A&M University, one in Mechanical Engineering and another in Industrial Distribution. He later attended the University of Houston Law Center and graduated with a Juris Doctorate (JD) degree. He continued to advance his career and pursued a Master of Laws (LLM) degree specializing in Intellectual Property. He recently returned to the University of Houston and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish. Hickman has been a lawyer since 2001 and an in-house counsel for a major energy company since 2004. He and his wife are actively involved in the Texas public school system with children in high school and middle school. He actively supports the parents, teachers, and students through having served in many roles such as the PTA legislative liaison for elementary and middle schools and being a member of Dad’s Club and Watch Dog programs. Hickman is an active member of Tallowood Baptist Church where he serves as a deacon and served as a 7th grade Sunday school teacher. He and his wife of 24 years, Jennifer Hickman, have three children in Texas public schools.

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?

• He is a parent with three kids in public schools. He brings a parent’s perspective to the SBOE and is in favor of full parental access to their kid’s classrooms. He is in favor of parents choosing the best educational options for their kids. He is against school closures, virtual learning, vaccine mandates, and mask mandates.
• Empower families to choose a high-quality education that meets their child’s unique needs, which includes allowing access to educational choice and charter schools.
• He has positive and compelling vision where every student will have a customized “Flight Plan” to achieve their own American Dream. One of the metrics Texas uses to measure the success of our educational system is “Career, College and Military Readiness.” In other words, are Texas students prepared for upon graduation to enroll in technical certification programs, military training programs, or college? Unfortunately, Texas currently has an “F”, with only 54% of our graduating students being prepared for career, college, or military, while 46% are not.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Will Hickman is chairing the ad-hoc Flight Plan Committee with SBOE colleagues from North, East, and West Texas. This committee is looking around the state for how different ISD’s implement the requirements of TEC 28.016, for college and career exploration in middle school, and deciding what the best options are for the existing SBOE career and college classes. The goal for this committee is to develop a new class that will include a process for students to learn about many different career options, to be tested to identify their interests and aptitudes, and then to work with their counselors to build a personalized, customized individual high school plan that positions each student to achieve his or her dreams. Many ISD’s are already doing parts of this, and best practices across the state can be utilized and incorporated into a state-wide SBOE option.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

2020

Will Hickman completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2019. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Hickman'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.

Will Hickman has been working as an attorney at Shell for over 15 years, first in the area of intellectual property, and now supporting LNG transactions in Latin America and the Caribbean. Will has been involved for many years as a precinct chair in Bellaire and West Houston, served 6 years on the Bellaire City Council, was elected to represent CD7 in the 2016 Electoral College, and now serves as the General Counsel for the Harris County Republican Party. Will and Dr. Jennifer Hickman have been married 21 years, and have 3 kids in high, middle, and elementary schools in Spring Branch ISD. Will has been active at their schools as a frequent volunteer, Dad's Club, Watch Dog, and PTA legislative liaison for at the elementary and middle schools. Will is also active in the community coaching basketball for SBMSA and Kingdom, working for the International Committee at the HLSR, and serving as a deacon and Sunday school teacher at Tallowood Baptist Church.

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?

• Apply over 20 years of business, finance, and investment experience to oversee the $44 billion Permanent School Fund investments and distributions for the 5.4 million students of Texas
• Leverage educational, public service and professional learnings and experiences to build a consensus of parents, educators, subject matter experts, and other board members to develop and approve curriculum standards and approve instructional materials that will best prepare our children for college, career, or military upon graduation
• Expanding the process to include feedback from students about creation of courses that are more relevant and meaningful to prepare for a 21st century workforce

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Creating and shaping Texas educational policy that enables each student to realize their own version of the American dream: creating a path for each student to be ready to start a career, enter the military, or enroll in a college or university after graduating high school.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

See also

2022 Elections

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Candidate

Texas State Board of Education District 6

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Texas State Board of Education District 6

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Footnotes

Political offices
Preceded by Donna Bahorich (R)	Texas State Board of Education District 6 2021-Present	Succeeded by -