• Fifth-generation Wyomingite left the state in 2022 to become state superintendent in Virginia.

By Jasmine Hall
Jackson Hole News&Guide
Via- Wyoming News Exchange

JACKSON — Former State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow will run for Wyoming’s sole seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, making her the third Republican candidate so far to announce their candidacy.

The seat is currently held by Rep. Harriet Hageman, a Republican who launched her campaign for the U.S. Senate shortly after Sen. Cynthia Lummis said that she will not seek reelection. In the weeks that followed, Secretary of State Chuck Gray and Reid Rasner, a former candidate for U.S. Sen. John Barrasso’s seat, declared their bids for U.S. House.

Balow is no stranger to Wyoming politics. She is a fifth-generation Wyomingite who grew up in Gillette and was elected state superintendent of public instruction in 2014 and 2018.

“Wyoming has a history of sending warriors to Washington, and we need one now,” she said in a press release. “I am a relentless fighter and fierce champion for Wyoming. I am running to defend Wyoming’s energy economy, protect our constitutional freedoms, and make sure the voices of every Wyoming community are heard loud and clear in Washington.”

Balow said her campaign is focused on “conservative leadership, Wyoming values and a commitment to putting families, energy workers and local communities first.” 

She said she was guided by the same conservative principles as Wyoming’s recent federal leadership and expressed support for “President Donald Trump’s America First agenda.”

Although Balow spent nearly her entire life in the Equality State, she left in 2022 to serve as Virginia’s superintendent of public instruction. Former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, also a Republican, selected her when he took office and said at the time that she would work to ensure schools remained safely open during the COVID-19 pandemic, ban critical race theory and political agendas from classrooms and rebuild crumbling schools.

Balow said in Tuesday’s press release that she focused on “parents’ rights, accountability and returning decision-making to families and local communities.”

But she resigned from the position in March 2023 and remained a consultant for the administration. 

The Virginia Mercury reported that she didn’t provide an explanation for her resignation, but that the Virginia Department of Education was “rocked by controversies” during her tenure like revising transgender student policies; excluding influential figures and events, such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Juneteenth, from the elementary history and social science standards; and an aid calculation tool error that left school divisions short $201 million in state funding.

Balow’s spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday as to when Balow returned to Wyoming, and where she lives now.

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