“Defeating the Establishment: Mike Pedalino & the Jefferson Parish School Board”
The BEC's Guests Welcomes Back Nathan Koenig
By: Nathan Koenig
Greater New Orleans has lacked a true “Grassroots Conservative” presence for a long time. For many local Jefferson Parish elections, the local GOP Establishment recruits, endorses, and supports status-quo candidates who won’t “rock the boat” as elected officials. This political process gatekeeps authentic grassroots conservatives from becoming elected officeholders in the Greater New Orleans area.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Conservative grassroots candidates have the potential to reshape Louisiana into a truly conservative bastion in the coming years. However, we need Grassroots Conservatives to answer the call and run for public office—from the School Board to the State Legislature.
In 2022, one local Jefferson Parish School Board campaign showed the entire parish that Grassroots Conservatives can defeat the local GOP Establishment.
Last year, my friend Mike Pedalino stepped up to run for the Jefferson Parish School Board. For those who don’t know him, Mike was the quintessential grassroots conservative candidate for the District 6 School Board election (Jefferson Parish).
Mike faced long odds in this highly competitive School Board election. His three opponents were the incumbent School Board member, a Far-Left Teacher’s Union-backed candidate, and a well-funded Establishment GOP candidate. Talk about stiff competition.
A lot of people did not think Mike had a shot to win this election.
Then on Election Day last November, Mike Pedalino completely shocked the local Political Establishment. He finished first-place in a highly-competitive, four-way jungle primary. Below are the results of this election:
Every single vote counted in this election: only ten votes separated the second and third-place candidates.
Since no candidate finished with over 50% of the vote, the top-two vote getters advanced to a run-off election on Saturday, December 3rd. This outcome meant that the Establishment GOP Candidate barely missed the run-off by receiving ten less votes than the Far-Left Democrat in the election.
For the December run-off election, Mike Pedalino faced his Far-left Democrat opponent for the opportunity to represent District 6 on the Jefferson Parish School Board. Fortunately and fittingly, this election was not a nail-biter.
The results: Mike Pedalino won in an absolute landslide. The margin of victory: 44%.
This landslide election result reveals the voters’ trust in Mike to lead and represent the citizens of District 6.
I voted for Mike Pedalino in both the November primary and the December run-off in 2022, and I am honored to now call him my School Board District Member.
At the beginning of 2022, Mike started out as a political outsider. Just one year later, Mike is now a School Board member of the largest public school system in Louisiana. Let that fact sink in. It’s an amazing victory!
A conservative parent decided to run for School Board and defeated an incumbent, an Establishment Republican, and a Far-Left Democrat.
On a broader note, Mike’s successful School Board election shows us that Grassroots candidates can win! We don’t have to allow Establishment Republicans or Far-Left Democrats run our local government, our School Board, or our State Legislature.
The road to victory for grassroots conservatives is quite simple. We need grassroots conservative candidates who are willing to out-work Establishment candidates—specifically when it comes to door-knocking. Mike Pedalino’s main means of victory was knocking on doors, and Mike started doorknocking months before his opponents did, and he knocked almost every day in the months preceding the November primary election. Fortunately, this effort paid off in the end!
From the moment I met Mike in early 2022, I decided to help in any way that I could in his campaign for School Board. Overall, I am grateful to have worked on Mike’s campaign this past year, and I look forward to his Conservative leadership on the Jefferson Parish School Board.
May God Bless Mike Pedalino and his family in his time as a public official!
Addendum:
At about the same time as Nathan Koenig wrote the above piece, The BEC spoke with Mr Pedalino, and we’d like to share with you more of Mike’s driving vision and guiding principles.
About his installation to the School Board:
“Very humbling experience. First time running for anything, but with God’s Grace and hard work we pulled it off.”
About Mike’s goals and how he’d define success:
“This is a game of inches. One of the things I’ve learned is, this is going to be a long game. It’s not my role on the school board to set curriculum or micro-manage the superintendent, but I will be vocal and point out some of the things… we have a major problem with the indoctrination in the schools, which is why I ran in the first place.”
About Mike’s role and what’s needed from the community overall:
“This is going to be driven by the constituents and the voters need to get engaged. I’m only one vote, one voice on there, a big voice, but… I need support on my end to make any viable changes.”
On how the conservative movement can be effective:
“Face to face is where it’s at.” Personal connections “are what we need to get back to. Trying to build bridges and common ground, we need to keep moving the ball forward. We can’t give up… there’s a lot of people in the other party I’m going to have to get to know.”
“We need to build a parish and state coalition, and, man we can do great things!”
A few other points:
The budget for Jefferson Parish schools is the largest in the state, more than $600 million annually. Mike’s term is four years, and he is a successful business owner, suppling concrete tools for the construction industry as well as consulting with businesses on human relations issues and work force development, which Mike credits as an additional motivation to run for the school board.
The BEC extends our gratitude to Mr. Mike Pedalino and Mr. Nathan Koenig