Teen’s school board election turns heads in Pearland
Victory reflects rising competitiveness, diversity in suburbs
Mike Floyd wasn’t surprised when the Dawson High School principal called him into the front office Monday. The 18-year-old senior had just been elected to Pearland ISD’s Board of Trustees Saturday night, upsetting 6-year incumbent Rusty DeBorde. Floyd figured school leaders would want to go over details for the three days before graduation during which he would be both a high school student and a sworn-in trustee.
What he didn’t expect was for the principal and a room full of assistant principals to break into applause as he walked in.
“That was pretty unusual,” Floyd said, laughing before talking about the task at hand. “I think I’m up for the job, I can do it. I ran because I think I am qualified, and now’s my chance to prove it.”
Floyd’s stunning victory made national headlines. While school boards have had student representatives for decades, Floyd is the youngest person in recent memory elected to a school board in Texas.
His candidacy also reflects the increasing competitiveness of school board races in Houston’s suburbs as the districts become more diverse, as well as the rising political engagement
of millennials since Donald Trump’s election in November.
“It is kind of funny to think about it — an 18-year-old just got a spot on the school board,” Floyd said. “I think people are excited to see a change here in Pearland.”
Much of Floyd’s platform focused on making Pearland ISD’s school board more transparent by live-streaming meetings and scheduling public-comment periods after traditional work hours. He also staked out a strong position on transgender issues, insisting that such students be able to use the restroom of their gender identify. That put him at odds with Superintendent John Kelly, who has been outspoken in arguing that students use the restroom that corresponds to their birth certificates.
Floyd described himself as someone who could better represent students’ and teachers’ interests because he had seen firsthand how district-level decisions affect local classrooms.
Nervous election night
He still lives with his parents, which is where he awaited election results Saturday night along with his girlfriend, supporters and family members.
“I really started getting nervous. I had a build-up in my stomach — just tons of butterflies,” Floyd said, adding that he was shocked by his victory, 54 percent to 45 percent. “It was a life-changing moment for me.”
That night, Floyd also accepted his admissions offer to the University of Houston’s Honors College.
DeBorde, who’d found himself embroiled in the campaign’s closing days by a Facebook post he made about a Muslim candidate for the Pearland City Council, could not be reached for comment Monday.
For his part, Floyd was bombarded with congratulatory greetings at Dawson High School, he said. Dozens of students also aired grievances about the suburban district and asked his opinion on controversial issues. He said he didn’t
hear many jokes about his victory.
Floyd, who like other school members in Texas won’t draw a salary, said he’s still deciding whether to rent an apartment of his own in Pearland or to continue living with his parents. But he’s already making plans to meet with other trustees before he’s sworn in May 23 and will work to prove he’s qualified for the job.
He does have a big decision to make — should he sit with other trustees or with his fellow students at Dawson High’s graduation?
“I have to think about it,” Floyd said. “I’ve been with some of these same people for the past 13 years and want to graduate with them, but I want to show them this is what you can do: You can win public office.”
Deep dimples add to his youthful appearance, but Floyd speaks with the maturity of someone older, gesturing to emphasize nuances in the district’s 2016 bond package or Texas’ reviled school funding formula. Both of his parents are attorneys, his mother with the Department of Veterans Affairs and his father with his own firm. He has four siblings.
He said he ran in an effort to close the gap between district policies and classroom realities. He was also upset by Kelly’s stance on transgender issues. Kelly was unavailable for comment, and a district spokeswoman said it does not comment on school board election results.
Pearland ISD, by most measures, is a prototypical Texas suburban school district. It serves about 22,000 students between Beltway 8 and the yet-tobe-completed Grand Parkway, about a 30-minute drive south of Houston’s downtown.
Voting trends shifting
While it used to be a Republican stronghold, voting trends are beginning to shift, particularly on its east side.
Pearland ISD has gone from a predominately white, semirural area to an ethnically and economically diverse suburb on the edge of an ever-expanding urban core.
Jay Aiyer, an assistant professor of public policy at Texas Southern University, said the area’s changing population has brought a fundamental shift to the left in Brazoria County, and in Pearland specifically.
“Often we think of that profile as an urban phenomenon,” Aiyer said. “But now we’re seeing places like Fort Bend County — and now in Brazoria County — with an increased diversity that has led to profound political changes.”
Those changing attitudes and demographic shifts apparently helped lift Floyd, a selfdescribed liberal, to victory.
His election also comes as the divide between young and older voters has become the largest in decades, according to Pew Research Center data.
There was a 21 percentage-point difference between younger voters and those older than 65 years of age in support for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. And although younger voters often felt uninspired by the 2016 major-party presidential nominees, Trump’s win has ignited activism among liberal-leaning young adults, Aiyer said.
“From an issue-alignment perspective, younger voters tend to be more progressive and lessaccepting of some of the rhetorical elements of the Trump campaign,” Aiyer said. “That combined with immediate activism post-election has a tendency to feed on itself.”
Seeking youthful candidates
Run for Something, a candidate-recruitment group created to encourage liberal-leaning candidates younger than 35 to run for public office, has seen a surge of interest since it was launched on Inauguration Day 2017.
Ross Morales Rocketto, cofounder and campaign director of Run for Something, said he and the group’s co-founders expected about 100 people to sign up to run in its first year. But four months in, the group has seen more than 9,000 people express interest in running for office.
“It’s been a really incredible thing to see how energized people are right now,” said Morales Rocketto, who has worked in national politics for 15 years. “I’ve never seen anything quite like this before.”
While younger candidates may give some voters pause, Aiyer said those worries faded among some in Pearland as people heard the young man speak.
“I’ve never met an 18-year-old who is as articulate as this guy,” Aiyer said. “He’s something special — he seems far older than he is.”
“It is kind of funny to think about it — an 18-year-old just got a spot on the school board. I think people are excited to see a change here in Pearland.” Mike Floyd