Teachers whose protests have spread across the country scored one of their first major electoral victories on Tuesday night, when Travis Brenda, a teacher at Rockcastle County High School in Mount Vernon, Kentucky, defeated the state’s House majority leader in a Republican primary. Brenda ousted GOP state Rep. Jonathan Shell by 123 votes in Kentucky’s 71st House District to win a primary less than two months after educators blanketed the state capitol in protests over pension and budget cuts. As the Republican House majority’s floor leader, Shell helped craft and pass a slate of controversial changes to the state’s public pension system that drew the ire of teachers and other state employees in late March and early April. Brenda opposed the pension cuts and was one of at least 40 teachers seeking public office in Kentucky during the 2018 cycle. Matt Bevin (R) and Republican leaders “for what they did on the pension bill.”

Source: Huffington Post May 23, 2018 02:58 UTC