For Manatee County School Board District 5, we recommend Chantal Wilford

The non-partisan Manatee County School Board District 5 race features three very interesting candidates with very different backgrounds, each of whom brings an interesting resume to the race.

In our review of the candidates, we believe that Chantal Wilford is the best choice. Wilford's background is in language and linguistics, having completed her undergraduate education in Europe before pursuing postgraduate training in translation and interpreting at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

Wilford has spent most of her career as a Dutch-to-English translator. She has three children who were educated in Manatee County public schools (two graduates and one current student) after beginning their education via homeschooling.

Wilford was active in the district before running for this seat in 2022. She has spent the four years since even more engaged, including oversight of the district as a member of the League of Women Voters Education Issues Action Team. She also runs a Facebook group called Education Matters in Manatee County, where she seeks to inform and engage parents and stakeholders on education issues affecting Manatee County.

Wilford displays an outstanding command of school district issues and a keen understanding of the board's role in the legislative process. Combined with her long-term, steadfast commitment to improving local education, her candidacy gives us the greatest confidence that voters would be electing a powerful voice for students, parents, and teachers in the district.

We found Jonathan Mullis to be an outstanding candidate who we would have excitedly endorsed had Wilford not been in the race. We feel that Mullis, a physical therapist who followed his parents to Manatee County after selling his Boston practice in 2017, would also make for a fine board member.

Mullis is the child of two teachers and currently serves as President of the Bradenton Kiwanis Club, where he has demonstrated an admirable commitment to service in our community. Mullis also demonstrated an impressive command of district issues, suggesting he could hit the ground running if elected.

Cam Bedinghaus is a 23-year-old Manatee County native and district alum who impressed us with his detailed platform and passionate advocacy. While Bedinghaus' public persona is a bit more political than most school board candidates—he proudly proclaims himself a Christian conservative—we were also impressed by his stated commitment to keeping politics out of public policy.

We feel that there are not enough young people in our community engaged with local government and applaud Bedinghaus' effort to enter the difficult world of elected politics at such a young age. We also think there would be value in having a recent graduate of our public school system on the dais.

That said, we feel Bedinghaus simply does not bring the level of experience, maturity, and command of the issues that the two other highly qualified candidates in this race do.  We hope to see him continue his engagement with public education and other civic matters locally and perhaps appear on a ballot in the future.

Even though they are non-partisan, Manatee County School Board seats appear on the August primary ballot. If no candidate receives a simple majority of votes (50% plus 1), the top two vote earners move on to a runoff on the November ballot.

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