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Memphis-Shelby County school board candidates will face partisan primaries for the first time next year, though some sitting members say they plan to run as independents to avoid party labels.
Voters will head to the polls on May 5 to choose their candidates on a Democratic or Republican ticket. In a Democratic stronghold like Shelby County, some races could effectively be decided in the primary. Running without a party backing could put candidates at a disadvantage on a partisan ballot.
This change adds another layer to an already unusual school board election, given a recent county commission decision to put all nine seats on the ballot at the same time in 2026.
Towanna Murphy, a current MSCS board member, told Chalkbeat that she likely won’t align with a party to run for re-election, even though she identifies as a Democrat, because it could be confusing for voters. Sable Otey, another current board member, said partisan elections “risk dividing our community even further.”
“Our focus as a board should be on education, not on party politics,” she said.
Tennessee lawmakers gave local counties the option to put school board seats on a partisan ticket in 2021. More than half of the state’s districts made the switch that first year, most of them Republican-controlled. But Shelby County held out until now.
The Shelby County Republican Party voted to sponsor school board candidates back in May, hoping to seize on a moment when some parents are demanding more accountability from a vexed Memphis-Shelby County Schools system. Democrats followed suit in August to counter that push. Those two votes put the partisan election into effect.
That happened just before the Shelby County Commission passed an election cycle reset for the school board in late September after months of debate. The decision cut short five board members’ terms in the process, a move critics say is unconstitutional.
“It’s part of a collective effort to undo the democratic process,” said Telisa Franklin, secretary for the Shelby County Democrats. “If we give up too much of our control, we’re compromising not just our future but our now.”
Local Republicans argue that there needs to be more accountability for what they see as a failing Memphis-Shelby County school system. Those calls grew louder from the GOP and some MSCS parents after the school board voted to fire former Superintendent Marie Feagins in January.
Luke Cymbal, vice chairman of the Shelby County Republicans, said the local GOP backed calls for change after the Feagins ouster, including realigning the election cycle. That made parents take notice, he said.
“We had a lot of people say, ‘Oh my gosh, the local Republican Party is helping us and the Democrats are not,’” he said. “It’s starting to be a little bit of a wake-up call.”
Cymbal said he thinks the local GOP could win at least two MSCS school board seats in 2026. But he said the main motivation for partisan elections is showing the strong Republican presence in the six neighboring suburban districts.
“We want to show the difference between the really well-run suburban districts and the failing Memphis-Shelby County school district,” he said.
Franklin said Democratic candidates will need to be strong public school advocates and against private expansion. The local party will also focus on raising awareness about what school board members are supposed to do, she said, including hiring and firing superintendents.
What do calls for a ‘state takeover’ of MSCS have to do with this?
Cymbal said local Republicans also support proposals from Tennessee lawmakers to establish a state-controlled “board of directors” to oversee the district. Mark White, one of the sponsoring legislators, said even with all the MSCS board election changes, he is still pushing for that goal.
“With the amount of bureaucracy that’s in the system,” White said, “having a highly qualified board election, as well as a board of managers that can move in and intervene, would be helpful to all.”
Murphy, one of the MSCS board members who voted to fire Feagins and is now facing a shortened term, said the partisan election change is “just another step closer to them trying to take over.”
“If Republicans are elected, let’s say the whole board is Republican, then the takeover is going to be effective immediately,” she told Chalkbeat. “It’s up to Democrats to stand up for the rights of the people.”
Otey said she plans on fighting the 2026 election reset. Some MSCS board members, including Otey and Murphy, have expressed support for filing a lawsuit against the commission’s decision. But it’s unclear who will file that lawsuit or when.
Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.
