Detroit’s school board race is crucial: Voters are choosing the first empowered board in decades, as the district struggles to leave behind the academic and financial turmoil of recent years.
It’s also potentially totally overwhelming: There are 63 candidates, most of whom have gotten no endorsements or funding to introduce themselves to voters.
So we’ve collected details about the 21 candidates who have racked up those key indicators of public support.
Read our previous coverage to understand the election’s stakes and where candidates are getting their money and support, and don’t forget to click on candidates’ names to read more about their backgrounds and priorities. (Their official questionnaires are here.)
Then take this guide — organized by number of endorsements — to the ballot box with you on Tuesday.
Leslie Andrews
Director of community relations and corporate giving at Quicken Loans and Rock Ventures
Endorsed by: Free Press, News, Chronicle, Chamber, FLH, Declare (6 total)
Campaign funds: $14,114
Sonya Mays
CEO of real estate and housing development nonprofit
Endorsed by: News, Chronicle, Chamber, Black Slate, 13th District, Declare (6)
Campaign funds: $23,792
Angelique Peterson-Maybury
UAW-Ford community relations director
Endorsed by: Free Press, Chronicle, DFT, Black Slate, FLH, 13th District (6)
Campaign funds: $57,980
Independent spending to support campaign: $69,500
Misha Stallworth
Advocacy coordinator for Detroit Area Agency on Aging
Endorsed by: Free Press, Chronicle, Chamber, DFT, FLH, 13th District (6)
Independent spending to support campaign: nearly $12,000
Iris Taylor
Retired former CEO of Detroit Receiving Hospital
Endorsed by: Chamber, DFT, Black Slate, FLH, 13th District (5)
Campaign funds: $10,725
Independent spending to support campaign: nearly $12,000
Penny Bailer
Retired former head of Detroit nonprofits
Endorsed by: Free Press, News, Chamber, Chronicle (4)
Campaign funds: $17,539
Kevin Turman
Pastor of the Second Baptist Church of Detroit
Endorsed by: Free Press, News, Chamber, Chronicle (4)
Campaign funds: $5,967
Ryan Mack
President, financial literacy non profit
Endorsed by: Free Press, News, Chronicle, FLH (4)
Mary Kovari
Former Detroit high school principal
Endorsed by: News, Chamber, Declare (3)
Campaign funds: $14,383
Deborah Hunter-Harvill
Head of an education consulting firm
Endorsed by: DFT, FLH, 13th District (3)
Campaign funds: $3,810
Independent spending to support campaign: nearly $12,000
Keith Whitney
Pastor, Sanctuary Fellowship Church
Endorsed by: DFT, FLH, 13th District (3)
Independent spending to support: nearly $12,000
Wanda Redmond
Community activist, former school board member
Endorsed by: Black Slate, 13th District (2)
Phillip Caldwell II
Education consultant and former teacher and administrator
Endorsed by: Free Press
Campaign funds: $2,915, mostly from small individual donors.
Brandon Brice
Nonprofit consultant
Endorsed by: News
LaMar Lemmons
Policy analyst for state Rep. Sherry Gay-Dagnogo
Endorsed by: Black Slate
Tawanna Simpson
Member, old DPS school board
Endorsed by: Black Slate
Campaign funds: $1,200
Ida Carol Short
College professor, vice president of the old DPS school board
Endorsed by: Black Slate
Campaign funds: $975
John Telford
Radio host and retired school superintendent
Campaign funds: $31,000
Herman Davis
Retired personal banking, head of old DPS school board
Campaign funds: $2,141
Ben Washburn
Retired Wayne County Commission lawyer
Campaign funds: $1,202
Markita Meeks
Clinical lab scientist
Campaign funds: $100
The endorsement lists came from three newspapers (The Free Press, the News and Michigan Chronicle) and six community and political groups: the Detroit Federation of Teachers, the Greater Detroit Chamber of Commerce, the Fannie Lou Hamer (FLH) political action committee, Declare Detroit, the Black Slate and the 13th Congressional District Democrats.