Lauren Book’s bid for re-election wins teacher’s union endorsement

Lauren Book is at the top of EMILY'S List.

Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book scored another testament to her Democratic bona fides Wednesday: the endorsement of the state’s largest teacher’s union.

The Florida Education Association (FEA) lays claim to 150,000 members, making it the largest professional union in the state and the largest labor union in the Southeast. And Wednesday, the union announced they are throwing their weight behind her re-election campaign in Broward County’s Senate District 35.

Book is currently facing a Primary challenge from former Broward County Commissioner Barbara Sharief. It’s the first time Book has faced opposition on the ballot.

Andrew Spar, president of the FEA, hailed Book’s work elevating the teaching profession and making schools safer with her advocacy for the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act and Alyssa’s Law, named for one of the students who died at MSD.

“As a former classroom educator, Lauren knows what teachers are up against,” Spar said. “She’s fought to fully fund public schools and for educators to be treated like the professionals they are, while working to make schools safer.”

The law, named in memory of Florida’s worst school shooting, addressed myriad issues like school accountability, student mental health and prohibiting the sale of assault rifles to those younger than 21. Alyssa’s Law, named for Alyssa Alhadeff, installed panic alarms in schools.

Book says her experience as a classroom teacher and a mother to 5-year-old twins puts the FEA’s cause close to her own.

“The fight to fully fund public education and keep our schools safe is a fight that’s personal to me,” Book said in a prepared statement. “I will continue to fight for educators to be paid and treated as the professionals they are, and for Florida’s schoolchildren to have every opportunity to live up to their full potential in the classroom and in life.”

Book has also been endorsed by 11 of her 15 Democratic Senate colleagues, as well as Broward County Commissioners Steve Geller, Jared Moskowitz and Nan Rich, and former Sen. Perry Thurston. The Broward County Police Benevolent Association and the Fraternal Order of Police, District 5, also endorsed Book, as has Ruth’s List Florida, an organization committed to backing Democratic women candidates who support abortion rights. She also won the nod of Equality Florida, the state’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization.

Book recently moved to Senate District 35 because of the results of redistricting. Her former district, Senate District 32, included newly elected Democratic Sen. Rosalind Osgood.

SD 35 covers a chunk of unincorporated Broward County south of Interstate 595 and west of Florida’s Turnpike. Pembroke Pines and Miramar account for most of it, but it also includes all or parts of Cooper City, Davie, Fort Lauderdale, Southwest Ranches, Sunrise and Weston.