Early voting is underway for the May 7 election, and three Places on the Highland Park Independent School District Board of Trustees will soon be decided. Bryce Benson is running unopposed for Place 3, while the other two races are contested: Place 4 between Tyler Beeson and Jae Ellis, and Place 5 between Ellen Lee and Spencer Siino.
While school board races in HPISD are non-partisan, The Dallas Express analyzed partisan support for candidates. Reporters surveyed hundreds of addresses within the district, comparing yard signs displayed by residents to historical participation in recent partisan primary elections by registered voters at each address.
Overall, Democratic primary voters strongly favor Jae Ellis and Ellen Lee in their respective races, while Tyler Beeson and Spencer Siino have garnered support from primarily Republicans.
Ellis, who has personally voted in every Democratic primary election since 2010, is receiving the strongest support from Democratic primary voters in either race. Of all analyzed ballots cast in Democratic primaries, a staggering 90.5% came from residences currently displaying a yard sign for Ellis.
Ellen Lee is also receiving outsized support from Democrats in the Place 5 race. Of all residences that accounted for at least one Democratic primary ballot in recent years and display a yard sign for a Place 5 candidate, 88.9% support Lee over her opponent, Spencer Siino.
On the flip side, Beeson and Siino are both receiving overwhelming support from Republicans. Among households analyzed that voted in four or more Republican primaries in recent years, Beeson yard signs outnumbered those for Ellis approximately three-to-one in the Place 4 race. By the same measure, Siino’s advantage was even larger in the Place 5 race, with his signs appearing nearly four times as often as those for Lee.
It looks like Democrats will be voting for Jae Ellis and Ellen Lee with most Republicans voting for Spencer Siino and Tyler Beeson.
Early voting concludes next Tuesday, May 3, with Election Day following on Saturday, May 7. Voting locations and additional information can be found at dallascountyvotes.org.
That doesn’t bode well when Republicans far outnumber Democratic voters.
It’s disappointing that you are framing the HPISD school board elections as a democratic vs republican issue. As a republican, this race is about who is most qualified. One candidate has never had children go through HPISD schools. There is another candidate who claims homestead exemptions outside of HPISD, including other false claims, ie being a CPA when that’s not accurate. For the betterment of local schools, it just makes sense to have school board members who have committed their time to being a part of the school experience with a motivation to make the school district better from that lens.
No candidate has “never” had children In HPISD schools. They all currently have or have had children In HPISD. Also, someone in Tyler Beeson’s campaign accidentally said he is a CPA, when actually he is a certified financial planner. It was an honest mistake that Tyler corrected immediately.
Claiming to be a CPA when your a certified financial planner is like someone claiming to be a MD when in fact they’re an orderly. It’s not an innocent mistake, it is clearly misleading and represents corruption. Dismissing things like this as “honest mistakes” is why we have the corrupt government we have.