Serial donor to liberal/far-left candidates, including:
· Harris Victory Fund – $500 - 10/11/2024.
· Pete [Buttigieg] for America – 8 donations totaling $200 in the 2020 cycle.
· Jon Ossoff for Congress – 2 donations totaling $75 in the 2017 special election.
(Source)
As OpenSecrets notes, "Only a tiny fraction of Americans actually give campaign contributions to political candidates, parties or PACs. Just 0.97% of the United States population contributed more than two hundred dollars to federal candidates, PACs, parties and outside groups [last cycle]" This is the reason campaign contributions are such an instructive tool in analyzing civil servants, because only the most avid partisans - less than one percent - write a check to a candidate.
U.S. Department of Education – September 2016 – Present.
Office of the Maryland Public Defender – March 2013 - September 2016.
(Source)
John Stephenson has made a number of donations to left-wing political figures, all of which suggest he holds a worldview that would be out of place in a conservative administration.
Of particular note is Pete Buttigieg, to whom Mr. Stephenson was a serial donor in the 2020 presidential election cycle, donating 8 times totaling $200 in the 2020 cycle. (Source)
While Mr. Buttigieg holds views outside the mainstream on many issues, in this context his views on education warrant special scrutiny.
Pete Buttigieg’s pre-K-12education plan calls for raising teacher pay, addressing school segregation, and banning for-profit charter schools.
If those ideas sound familiar, that’s because they echo many of the proposals of his top Democratic rivals, who have also released education plans. The mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Buttigieg has risen from obscurity to be a top contender, particularly in early primary states, alongside former Vice President Joe Biden and Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.
“My plan will empower teachers,” said Buttigieg, whose husband, Chasten, is a junior high teacher on leave from a private school in Indiana. “I’ve seen up close the incredible challenges that educators across the country face, from late nights grading papers to emptying their own bank accounts to pay for school supplies.”
Buttigieg’s plan highlights how the leading Democratic candidates have converged on many key education policies….
…as well as the American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, who praised the plan in a release Saturday.
(Source)
Randi Weingarten has become a lightning rod in recent years due to her support for COVID-era school closings and various far-left initiatives. For Mr. Stephenson to have been a serial donor to a political campaign that was praised by Ms. Weingarten illustrates the degree to which his views are out of the mainstream.
