Slade Mead
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Slade Mead is a former Arizona state senator and is Republican turned Democrat who is challenging Tom Horne to be the next Superintendent of Public Instruction, which is the head of the state's education department.
Family Life
Mead was born on September 6, 1961 in Torrington, Connecticut. Both of his partents were teachers, and later on his two siblings would become teachers as well. He studied at Yale, and, for a year in between his undergraduate and law school education, taught high school as well.
In 1996, he and his wife, Alison, moved to Arizona with their two children from Virginia. His eldest daughter, Lindsey, is a special needs child with a rare form of epilepsy, a severe seizure disorder. It is his daughter that eventually drove Slade into the political arena.
Early Political Career
As a result of his daughter's disorder, Slade slowly became involved in her school, which then evolved into a seat on his local site council and finally a seat on the Kyrene School Board. While on the Kyrene School Board, Mead became "frustrated and dismayed" by the state's funding of their public schools. He then became frustrated with his State Senator, who seemed "indifferent to the situation". He decided to run against her.