More candidates filed per seat for Texas school board races in 2019 than in 2016


In 2019, Ballotpedia is covering elections across 63 Texas school districts for 184 school board seats. Fifty-five of the districts held elections in May, and eight districts are holding elections on November 5, 2019. The districts holding elections in November have a combined 26 out of their 58 school board seats up for election.
 
Nine seats up for election in November are uncontested (34.6%), while the May elections had 64 uncontested races (40.5%). Across all Texas school boards covered by Ballotpedia in 2019, 73 of the races (39.7%) are uncontested. Five of the eight districts holding elections in November have at least one unopposed candidate. In 2019, 43 of the 63 school board districts had or will have at least one race with an unopposed candidate.
 
Sixty-four candidates filed for the November elections, which is approximately 2.46 candidates per seat. The May elections had 314 candidates file, roughly 1.99 candidates per seat. In all, 378 candidates filed across 184 seats, so roughly 2.05 candidates filed per seat in the Texas school board elections. These figures are all higher than the 2016 Texas average of 1.79 school board candidates per seat and the 2016 national average of 1.90 school board candidates per seat.
 
Twenty incumbents (76.9%) filed for re-election in the November races. In May, 117 incumbents (74.1%) filed for re-election, meaning that 137 incumbents (74.5%) ran or are running for re-election in 2019.
 
The eight school districts holding elections in November served a combined total of 578,401 students during the 2016-2017 school year.
 
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