Diane Douglas is an American politician who served as
Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction
The Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction is an elected state executive position in the Arizona state government. The superintendent oversees the state of Arizona's public school system and directs the state's Department of Education.
Th ...
from 2015 to 2019. She was elected on November 4, 2014, edging out her Democratic opponent,
David Garcia, by one percentage point.
Douglas succeeded
John Huppenthal, whom she defeated for the party's nomination in the Republican primary on August 26, 2014. Immediately after her election, Douglas faced a recall effort by voters who claimed that she was not qualified for the position.
Early career and education
Born in
Plainfield, New Jersey
Plainfield is a city in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, known by its nickname as "The Queen City." , Douglas earned an
Associate degree
An associate degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of qualification above a high school diploma, GED, or matriculation, and below a bachelor's degree.
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in business from
Somerset County College and a Bachelor of Arts in business and marketing from
Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...
.
Career
Prior to serving as Superintendent of Public Instruction, Douglas worked in accounting and financial analysis for several firms. She has also spoken at conferences sponsored by AZ Right to Life and
Americans for Prosperity
Americans for Prosperity (AFP), founded in 2004, is a libertarian conservative political advocacy group in the United States funded by Charles Koch and formerly his brother David. As the Koch brothers' primary political advocacy group, it is one ...
.
Douglas was the subject of a recall effort while serving on the
Peoria Unified School District
Peoria Unified School District #11 (PUSD) is a school district headquartered in the District Administration Center (DAC) in Glendale, Arizona. It provides both primary and secondary education for most of Peoria, some areas of Glendale and Young ...
board in 2010 due to a conflict of interest. Douglas was also serving as the treasurer of the axthetax.com coalition, which was opposed to a temporary one cent Arizona sales tax to fund education. Douglas lost to Gary Sherwood in 2012 for the Sahuaro District of the
Glendale, Arizona
Glendale () is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, located approximately northwest of Downtown Phoenix. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 248,325.
History
In the late 1800s the area that is now Glendale was all dese ...
City Council by 330 votes.
Superintendent of Public Instruction
Douglas was elected as the Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2014. She was subsequently sworn into office on January 5, 2015, succeeding
John Huppenthal, who lost in the Republican primary on August 26, 2014.
In her first year in office, a recall effort failed to gather enough signatures to make the ballot. However, as of August 2016, Douglas's approval rating was just 16 percent.
In
the 2018 elections, Douglas lost her re-election bid in the Republican party primary despite being the incumbent, finishing third in a closely contested race in which the top four candidates all received approximately 20% to 22% of the vote.
She was eventually succeeded by
Democrat Kathy Hoffman.
Electoral history
References
External links
Official website Superintendent of Public Instruction
{{DEFAULTSORT:Douglas, Diane
Arizona Republicans
Educators from New Jersey
American women educators
Living people
Politicians from Plainfield, New Jersey
Rutgers University alumni
School board members in Arizona
Superintendents of Public Instruction of Arizona
Women in Arizona politics
Women state constitutional officers of Arizona
Year of birth missing (living people)
21st-century American women