Sonja Shaw to Run for State Supt. of Public Instruction

Chino Valley Unified School Board President Sonja Shaw announced her 2026 candidacy for State Superintendent of Public Instruction on Wednesday.

Shaw, who would have been up for re-election in School Board Trustee Area 3 in 2026, appeared on Fox News to discuss her candidacy to become the top elected education official in California. Shaw, who did not attend college, famously threw current State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond out of a July 2024 school board meeting in one of her frequent outbursts about “woke politics” and the “cartel in Sacramento.” Thurmond had spoken out against the board’s proposed “forced outing” policy at the meeting because it targeted transgender students. As he walked away from the podium, Shaw began berating him for “perverting our children,” and when he sought to answer her accusations, she had security guards escort him out.

“I don’t mind being thrown out of a board meeting by extremists; I can take the heat, it’s part of the job,” Thurmond said at the time. “What I can’t accept is the mistreatment of vulnerable students whose privacy is being taken away.”

Shaw has been in the spotlight since she first was elected in November 2022. Her campaign was centered on rallying parents against school closures, mask requirements and mandatory vaccinations during the COVID-19 epidemic. She won that race by just over 300 votes.

Since then, she has led the charge to advocate for policies that have repeatedly been found by courts to discriminate against transgender students. She has been elected as board president each year since she took office. During that time, district legal fees have soared.

Another candidate who entered the race is state Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, D-Los Angeles. He has said he wants to defend students from the Trump administration attacks on public education.