A Chino Valley school board member known for advancing conservative policies plans to run for statewide office in 2026.

Sonja Shaw, president of the Chino Valley Unified School District board, on Friday, March 14 launched her campaign for California state superintendent of public instruction, a nonpartisan office overseeing public schools in the nation’s most populous state.

In a text to the Southern California News Group, Shaw wrote: “California schools used to be the envy of the entire nation — yet today, despite a $130 billion budget, more than half of our kids fail to read and write at grade level.”

“I’m running for California State Superintendent to put parents back in charge of our children’s education, not the Sacramento politicians who created this mess. Enough is enough; our schools must refocus on preparing our kids for success, not pushing radical ideologies.”

Shaw was elected to the Chino Valley Unified School Board in 2022, she became board president in 2023 and remains in that role after the board changed its rotation policy last year.

She describes herself as a “soccer mom” spurred to action by COVID-19 policies that closed schools and required masks and vaccinations in the classroom.

“It started small — scribbling notes on index cards and commenting at school board meetings,” Shaw wrote on Facebook. “Then as I observed problem after problem, it grew into a fight against the radical ideologies forced on our kids over parents’ objections.”

Since taking office, Shaw spearheaded several efforts that made national news and landed the district in court, including a policy requiring schools to inform parents within three days if their child identifies as transgender.

Other Shaw-led policies include a ban on all non-U.S. or non-military flags in classrooms; LGBTQ+ advocates say it’s an indirect ban on pride flags. She also supported making it easier to take books with sexually explicit content off library shelves.

If elected to a four-year term, Shaw would replace Tony Thurmond, who has held the job since 2018 and is running as a Democrat for governor in 2026.

Shaw ejected Thurmond from a heated July 2023 school board meeting in which the board approved the transgender notification policy.

After that vote, other school districts, including Temecula, Murrieta and Orange, passed similar policies. The Chino Valley district is suing to block a 2024 state law that bans school districts from having transgender notification policies.

Shaw, who has appeared on GOP-friendly Fox News, faces an uphill battle in her quest for higher office. California, a blue state, hasn’t elected a Republican to statewide office since Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006.

While the GOP has made inroads in California in recent years, Democrats continue to dominate state politics, holding a supermajority in the state legislature and 43 of 52 House of Representatives seats.

At least 10 other candidates have filed papers declaring their intent to run for state superintendent of public instruction, including former Inland Democratic state Sen. Connie Leyva.

California’s primary is June 2, 2026. The primary’s top two vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, advance to the November election.