One of three conservatives will soon fill the Utah State Board of Education’s lone open seat.
The three finalists were nominated by the Utah GOP State Central Committee this week. All three “solid conservatives” also saw support in a Facebook post from Natalie Cline, a controversial far-right former USBE member who was ousted from her seat last year.
The finalists — Kris Kimball, Erin Longacre and Glen Burton — were settled on by the committee on June 21 after three rounds of voting. Their names will now be submitted to Gov. Spencer Cox, who will choose the new board member.
The seat on the state school board opened up when board member Molly Hart was appointed state superintendent last month. In November, Hart secured a second term representing District 7 — which covers the southeast portion of Salt Lake County — after she defeated Democratic challenger John Arthur with 52% of the vote.
When there’s an early USBE vacancy, Utah law requires the governor to pick a replacement from a list of three nominees chosen by the State Central Committee of the outgoing member’s political party.
Whoever Gov. Cox selects will serve through 2026, when voters in the next general election will determine who will serve out the remainder of Hart’s term, which runs through 2028.
The Salt Lake Tribune reached out to all three nominees, along with Utah Republican Party Chair Rob Axson and GOP spokesperson Stafford Palmieri Sievert for more information. Axson did not respond and Sievert directed The Tribune to the candidates. Kimball responded to The Tribune’s email, but did not provide her biography by the time of publication.
However, each answered a survey conducted by Coalition Utah, a group of “constitutionally minded” Utahns from “conservative associations statewide,” according to its website.
Those associations include Higher Ground, a conservative group run by Cline that pushes for “faith, family and freedom.”
The survey asked the nominees their views on social-emotional learning (SEL), which helps students manage emotions, build relationships and develop care and concern for others; diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI); banning “sensitive materials” from schools; and more.
Who are the nominees?
Kimball was Hart’s GOP opponent during the 2024 Republican primaries. Kimball secured the Republican Party nomination, and Hart gathered enough signatures to make it onto the ticket. She defeated Kimball with 55% of the vote.
At the time, Kimball called Hart an “illegitimate” Republican candidate and refused to participate in a debate hosted by the Utah Education Debate Coalition. She alleged organizers tried to “bully” her into participating; debate organizers denied that.
Kimball unsuccessfully ran for public office two other times, vying for a seat in the Utah House of Representatives in 2010 and 2016. She has referred to herself as a “MAGA Republican” who opposes SEL, DEI and critical race theory.
In response to the Coalition Utah survey, Kimball wrote that “anything that promotes SEL should be eliminated. I would work to make those changes at state and local levels.”
Kimball also told Coalition Utah that she does not support school-based health or teen centers.
“While I understand the intention behind providing accessible services to students, I believe parents should be the primary decision-makers in their children’s health care — not schools,” Kimball wrote.
Longacre previously ran for a seat on the Canyons School District board in 2022 but lost to incumbent Amanda Oaks, who won with 69% of the vote.
She works as a substitute teacher, according to a previous campaign Instagram post and profile of her from the Gladiolus Group, which features “individuals who champion protecting children’s minds, hearts, and bodies.”
She also works as a Parent Teacher Student Association student leadership coordinator and a crossing guard, the profile notes.
Longacre opposes SEL and DEI, she told Coalition Utah, arguing that “it is not appropriate for schools to evaluate student’s non-academic competencies.”
She explained that she decided to run for a seat on the Canyons School Board because they were introducing a program called “Second Step,” a social emotional learning program for grades K-5
“Parents send their kids for reading, writing, and arithmetic,” Longacre wrote in Coalition Utah’s survey. “It is very important that schools stay in their lane when it comes to education.”
The third nominee, Burton, told Coalition Utah that he believes that parents’ rights supersede local or state education policies. He noted that during the pandemic, he attended protests against vaccine mandates.
Like Kimball and Longacre, Burton also said he opposes SEL and DEI.
“All vestiges of [DEI] should be removed,” Burton wrote. “Not just the labels but all of the tentacles that exist in Utah schools. … If we care about children, we need to care about all children, not only those in minority situations."
Utah has already outlawed DEI practices in government organizations, including public schools. This includes any practices that say an individual, by virtue of their “personal identity characteristics,” is “inherently privileged, oppressed, racist, sexist, oppressive, or a victim, whether consciously or unconsciously,” according to Utah law.
Party convention picks vs. primary voters’ choices
During the 2024 primaries, some Republican Party nominees for state school board proved unpopular with voters.
Of the five USBE candidates backed by the state GOP, 2024 primary voters prevented three of them — including Kimball — from advancing to the November general election.
Additionally, some incumbents who performed poorly among delegates went on to primary wins. For example, incumbent Randy Boothe, of District 13 (part of Utah County), was knocked out in the first round at the convention with just 25% of the vote, though he gathered enough signatures to make it onto the Republican primary ballot.
His far-right challenger, Cari Bartholomew, got 51% votes in the second round at the convention. In the primary, however, Boothe secured a victory over Bartholomew by about 5 percentage points. With no Democratic challenger in the general election, Boothe retained his seat.
Similarly, longtime Monica Wilbur, who works with Cline managing Higher Ground, challenged incumbent Matt Hymas for District 10, which covers a majority of Tooele County. Wilbur secured 52.1% of the vote at the convention, while Hymas received 47.8%.
In the primary, though, Wilbur fell short, capturing 48.05% of the vote. Hymas went on to defeat Democrat Deborah Gatrell in the general election with 68.14% of the vote.
Two state board incumbents did see losses, though. Brent Strate was defeated by challenger Rod Hall in District 3 (encompassing Layton, Clearfield, and nearby cities); and Kristan Norton lost by a significant margin — 30 percentage points — to Joann Brinton in District 15, which spans Utah’s southern-most counties.
The District 15 race was decided in the primary, but Hall faced off against Utah Forward candidate Laura Johnson in the general election, defeating her with 69.93% of the vote.
Correction • An earlier version of this story, using information from USBE’s website, incorrectly stated that the appointed replacement would serve through 2028.
