A former Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction whose office weathered the COVID-19 pandemic is running for the state’s lone U.S. House of Representatives seat, which incumbent Rep. Harriet Hageman is departing to run for U.S. Senate.
Jillian Balow served as Wyoming’s top education official, an elected position, from 2014 to early 2022. She won her first election with ease in 2014 and ran unopposed in 2018.
She resigned near the end of her second term to accept an appointment as Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction under Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
Balow resigned from the Virginia post about 14 months later in 2023, and went to work in the private sector as a client relations officer for MetaMetrics, a Durham, North Carolina-based education technology firm that June.
She kept receiving settlement payments from Virginia to total an ultimate payout of $266,213, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported at the time.
Wyoming schools shuttered in March 2020 due to COVID-19, but reopened quickly compared to many other states.
Balow’s office released reopening guidance July 1, 2020, and required each of the state’s public school districts to submit its reopening plan to the state by Aug. 3 of that year.
The Email …
Balow is a fifth-generation Wyoming native seeking to defend education freedom, energy independence “and the Wyoming way of life,” says a fundraising email Cowboy State Daily has obtained, sent last week via Washington, D.C.-based Fundraising Inc.
“Jillian brings deep, firsthand understanding of energy and agriculture from growing up in Gillette and as a supportive (FFA) mom, along with a strong record supporting school choice and lower taxes,” the email says, adding that she is a “serious candidate.”
The email says Balow believes parents should have meaningful choices in how their children are educated, and is an advocate for private secondary education and private colleges.
“She has long supported school vouchers, lower taxes, and reduced government spending, with a consistent focus on empowering parents rather than bureaucracies,” the email says.
Balow’s announcement emerged early Tuesday via Fox News.
Balow did not respond Friday to a Cowboy State Daily voicemail request for comment, an email, or a message relayed via the fundraising firm that has been orchestrating giving campaigns on her behalf.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
