Ryan Nicol
Lori Alhadeff, who lost her daughter in the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, will seek a second term representing District 4 on the Broward County School Board.
Alhadeff ran for and won that seat in 2018, just months after the attack claimed the life of her daughter, Alyssa. With the 2022 election on the horizon, Alhadeff is formally announcing her decision to run for reelection.
“Over the course of the past three years, we have come a long way toward making schools safer and improving the overall quality of our public education system,” Alhadeff said in a Tuesday statement.
“I intend to keep us moving in the right direction by always putting the needs of students first and ensuring that teachers have the resources they require to succeed.”
During her School Board tenure, Alhadeff was among the voices working to push out Superintendent Robert Runcie, arguing the district did not do enough to keep students safe ahead of and during the 2018 attack.
A 2019 vote to oust Runcie, backed in part by Alhadeff, failed. But earlier this year, Runcie announced his decision to step aside as Superintendent after facing charges of lying to a grand jury investigating school safety issues throughout the state. Runcie said his decision was in part influenced by families who lost loved ones in the Stoneman Douglas shooting.
“I will step aside so you can have the peace that you are looking for,” Runcie said.
Alhadeff has also taken an active role in state and local politics outside her role as a school board member. In addition to voicing support for candidates in and around Broward County, Alhadeff has also traveled to Tallahassee to lobby for legislation to reduce the threat of violence in schools.
That work culminated with a 2020 bill creating Alyssa’s Alert system, named after Alhadeff’s daughter. The state approved $8 million in funding to help schools set up mobile panic alert systems, which can be used during a crisis event.
With more than a year until Election Day, no other candidates have emerged to challenge Alhadeff. She’s likely to be the favorite in the race. Alhadeff raised plenty of cash and pulled in a bevy of endorsements during her 2018 run and is likely to do so once again with the benefit of incumbency.
