{"id":96,"date":"2026-05-15T14:35:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T14:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\/?p=96"},"modified":"2026-05-15T14:35:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T14:35:14","slug":"horne-yee-fight-over-who-hates-dei-more-at-gop-superintendent-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\/?p=96","title":{"rendered":"Horne, Yee fight over who hates DEI more at GOP superintendent debate"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Thursday night, the two GOP candidates for Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction contorted themselves in an effort to make it seem like they don\u2019t share the exact same beliefs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more GOP rival takes aim at U.S. House hopeful Jay Feely, gets real racist<\/a><\/p>\n

Tom Horne, the incumbent on whose watch the state\u2019s school voucher program has careened out of control, claimed that challenger and current state treasurer Kimberly Yee would allow parents to use state money to buy Rolex watches. Both said teachers need to be paid more. Both advocated for phonics-based reading instruction. Both advocated for securing more school funding from the state land trust by asking voters to renew Proposition 123.<\/p>\n

All that made for Thursday night\u2019s Arizona Clean Elections Commission debate between the two rivals rather wonky and dull. That is, until the subject of DEI arose. Then, the candidates devolved into personal sniping and even prop comedy as each tried to prove their anti-DEI credentials over the other.<\/p>\n

In the second Trump presidency, DEI \u2014 that is, diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives meant to correct historic biases and give people from underrepresented communities a fair shake \u2014 has become a dirty word. Trump campaigned to rid it from government in favor of a system built on pure \u201cmerit,\u201d an effort that\u2019s resulted in the whitewashing of historic monuments and the firing of minorities, including top military officers.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a legit Republican, you detest DEI. And no one\u2019s doubting the GOP bona fides of Yee and Horne. Or so one might assume.<\/p>\n

In his opening statement Thursday, Horne renewed a recent line of attack on Yee, whom he has claimed once chaired a DEI committee for the National Association of State Treasurers. The current schools czar began by slamming \u201cleft-wing\u201d policies he\u2019s tackled, including DEI, and then quickly turned his aim to Yee. Then he ran out of time and got cut off by the moderator, Danielle Lerner.<\/p>\n

DEI received little mention again until the end of the debate, when Lerner asked a question about social-emotional learning. Yee pivoted to DEI and a defense of her anti-DEI track record. Horne had been spreading lies about her, she said. It\u2019s a bit of slander that Yee seems to take quite seriously. Prior to the debate, she\u2019d sent Horne a cease-and-desist letter demanding that he stop \u201cpublishing, republishing or otherwise disseminating false and defamatory statements concerning Treasurer Yee.\u201d The notice, which she shared on social media, included a letter from NAST\u2019s chief operating officer, confirming that she\u2019s never served on a DEI committee.<\/p>\n

Horne responded by quoting-tweeting Yee\u2019s post with an archived link from the NAST website that showed a \u201cDiversity Equity and Inclusion Committee\u201d under Yee\u2019s profile.<\/p>\n

Read more Phoenix fires off-duty cop who tried to bait student protesters<\/a><\/p>\n

At the debate, Horne and Yee attempted to recreate that online tiff. Defending herself from Horne\u2019s earlier allegation \u2014 which she called \u201ctruly false,\u201d if you enjoy a good oxymoron \u2014Yee pulled out the letter from NAST to show viewers that she\u2019s never served on a DEI committee and has \u201cfought, in fact, against these types of issues that distract from real representation on merit.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

As she spoke, Horne began frantically digging in his pocket, eventually pulling out a folded piece of paper with a black-and-white printout of Yee\u2019s page on the NAST site. Before he could explain what it was, though, Lerner cut him off, warning both candidates that \u201cwe\u2019re not supposed to have props today.\u201d Instead, she pivoted Horne to a question about what current DEI classroom programs he\u2019s concerned about. Before answering, Horne told viewers to go to TheRealKimYee.com, a website the campaign created to label Yee as a \u201cDEI Champion & Liberal Spender.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once Horne finished answering the actual question \u2014 claiming that DEI would cause the U.S. to \u201cbecome a mediocre country and the Chinese would be calling the shots\u201d \u2014 Yee bristled about not being given a chance to answer it herself. She\u2019d apparently forgotten that it was she who had broached the subject mere minutes earlier, when she\u2019d chosen to launch into a defense of her anti-DEI resume instead.<\/p>\n

Finally deciding to answer the question, Yee claimed that as treasurer, she\u2019d told companies with DEI policies that they would be less effective as businesses, leading the state to divest from them. Then, mercifully, everyone moved on from the subject.<\/p>\n

But DEI came up again during post-debate press interviews. Finally able to make use of his printout, Horne immediately passed out his sheet of paper to reporters and launched into a tirade about Yee\u2019s alleged DEI-affiliation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

Later, Phoenix New Times asked Yee about why she sent a cease-and-desist letter to Horne, which clearly hadn\u2019t worked. She said she decided on the move because Horne has a \u201clong record of lying.\u201d She then chronicled Horne\u2019s long and varied list of scandals, including his past issues with the Securities Exchange Commission, his speeding tickets, the alleged misuse of state money during his previous run for attorney general and, of course, the hit-and-run he committed while under FBI surveillance as he tried to drive away from meeting his then-mistress, a woman who has since become his wife.<\/p>\n

In the end, both Horne and Yee made passionate pitches for why ideals like diversity are in fact poisonous concepts. Ironically, given this was a debate to oversee Arizona schools, we all got a little bit dumber as a result.<\/p>\n

Read more Phoenix cop shooting video raises questions: \u2018Why\u2019d you shoot her?\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arizona schools superintendent Tom Horne and challenger Kimberly Yee agree on much, except for who’s lying about being anti-DEI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education"],"yoast_head":"\nHorne, Yee fight over who hates DEI more at GOP superintendent debate - Phoenix Relocation News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\/?p=96\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Horne, Yee fight over who hates DEI more at GOP superintendent debate - Phoenix Relocation News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Arizona schools superintendent Tom Horne and challenger Kimberly Yee agree on much, except for who's lying about being anti-DEI.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\/?p=96\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Phoenix Relocation News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-15T14:35:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/8055a381012a4f87be8247971997e84c.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1188\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"668\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=96#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=96\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b18a6d477e57bdeec7b4b61a70eace7b\"},\"headline\":\"Horne, Yee fight over who hates DEI more at GOP superintendent debate\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-15T14:35:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=96\"},\"wordCount\":949,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=96#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/8055a381012a4f87be8247971997e84c.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Education\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=96#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=96\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=96\",\"name\":\"Horne, Yee fight over who hates DEI more at GOP superintendent debate - 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