Vice President Kamala Harris holds a lead among educators nationally, according to a recent EdWeek Research Center survey, but third-party candidates appear to hold some appeal with this voting bloc. Former President Donald Trump, however, holds an edge with younger educators.
Fifty percent of educators said they would vote for Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, in the 2024 election, compared with 39 percent who said they would support Trump and running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance, according to the nationally representative survey, which was conducted online Sept. 26-Oct. 8 and included responses from 1,135 educators—236 district leaders, 168 school leaders, and 731 teachers. The survey was conducted after the Sept. 12 debate between Harris and Trump, during which neither candidate mentioned education, and the Oct. 1 vice presidential debate between Walz and Vance took place during the survey period.
That leaves 11 percent of educators who said they would vote for a third-party candidate.
As a voting bloc, educators have long been more Democratic- than Republican-leaning, and the unions that represent teachers have been major players in Democratic politics. The American Federation of Teachers was the first union to endorse Harris after she announced her campaign in July, and the National Education Association followed with its endorsement of Harris days later.
But that doesn’t mean students will be hearing about how their teachers plan to vote—or much at all about the 2024 election at school.
Most teachers in an EdWeek Research Center survey earlier this year said they didn’t plan to address the 2024 election in their classrooms. Most of those who didn’t plan to discuss the election said it was unrelated to their subject matter, but sizable portions said talking about the election could lead to parent complaints (22 percent) and that they didn’t believe their students could talk to each other about the election respectfully (19 percent). Ten percent said they were unsure how to address the topic with their students.
In the October EdWeek Research Center survey, a slight majority of educators, 51 percent, said they had a “favorable” view of Harris while a minority, 37 percent, said the same of Trump.
Even more educators, 56 percent, said they viewed Walz, a former social studies teacher, favorably. Vance was viewed favorably by 39 percent of respondents.
Educators view Harris more favorably than the man she replaced as Democratic nominee: 41 percent of educators said in the October survey that they viewed President Joe Biden favorably.
Younger educators are more likely to support Trump
While Harris might have the support of major teachers’ unions, Trump has won over younger educators.
Forty-nine percent of respondents who labeled themselves as “millennial or younger” said they would vote for Trump and Vance if the election were held the day they took the survey. Thirty-five percent said they would vote for Harris.
A significant portion of the age group—16 percent—said they would vote for a third party.
Among older educators, the results are flipped. Forty-one percent of Gen X educators said they would vote for Trump and Vance while 48 percent said they would vote for Harris and 11 percent said they would vote for a third party.
Meanwhile, 60 percent of Boomer or older educators said they would vote for Harris while 31 percent said they would vote for Trump and 9 percent said they would vote for a third party.
The trends actually go against what polling for the general population of voters has shown. National polls this election season have tended to show Harris holding an edge with younger voters and Trump holding a more modest edge with older voters.
Urban and suburban educators are more likely to support Harris
The survey results also showed divides based on the types of communities where educators work.
Sixty percent of educators in urban school districts said they would vote for Harris while 30 percent said they would vote for Trump and 10 percent said they would vote for a third party.
Harris also has more support in suburban districts, where 54 percent of educators said they would vote for the vice president and 35 percent said they would vote for Trump, with 11 percent saying they would vote for a third party.
The results were more evenly split in rural districts, where 45 percent of educators said they would vote for Trump and 44 percent said they would vote for Harris. Twelve percent of educators from rural areas said they would vote for a third party.
K-12 educators are more evenly divided than higher ed faculty
The EdWeek Research Center survey shows that K-12 educators have a more mixed view of the 2024 election than higher education faculty.
Seventy-eight percent of university and college faculty said they support Harris and Walz in a survey of over 1,100 faculty members from post-secondary institutions across the United States conducted by Inside Higher Ed and Hanover Research from Sep. 16-Oct. 4. Only 8 percent of those respondents said they support Trump and Vance, according to Inside Higher Ed.
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