Team,
Unfortunately, we are not going to win this election. Although there are still probably
about 1.5 million votes to be counted in our race, we are currently down by over
150,000 votes and there is nothing in our analysis of the remaining votes that would
indicate that we can come back and win this election. I just spoke with
Assemblymember Thurmond and congratulated him on his victory. I offered to help him
be successful and wished him the best in his new role. Given it has become clear that
we are not going to win this campaign, I felt it was in the best interest of California’s
children for me to concede now so that Assemblymember Thurmond has as much time
as possible to plan to take over as State Superintendent (all votes will still be counted
but conceding allows candidates to move forward). We will do more analysis in the
coming weeks about what happened in this race and we will provide you all with an
update after Thanksgiving. I am so grateful for all you have done for our campaign and
want to share some thoughts with you about how I am feeling and where we go next.
Disappointed, Grateful, Determined and Optimistic. Those are the range of emotions I
have experienced over the last several days at different times with different levels of
intensity. As you can imagine, the disappointment has crept in there in a pretty big way
more recently as it was becoming clear to me that I wasn’t going to get a job that I
wanted and that I thought I would be really good at. I ran for State Superintendent in
2014 and again in 2018 because I believe so deeply in our children and I know that it is
possible to give all children access to a quality public school. Even for the son of Mary
Ann Tuck it is hard not to feel some disappointment (my mom is a big don’t wallow in
self pity, get back up, and be grateful for what you have person and that is how she
raised us). I think the disappointment is natural. I am disappointed that I worked so hard
at something and didn’t achieve it. I am disappointed because I believe I could have
made a real difference for our kids as State Superintendent. I am disappointed that so
many people put so much time and energy into our campaign and we didn’t win.
The good news is that the disappointment isn’t the dominant emotion I am experiencing.
It is certainly not as strong as the emotion of gratitude I feel for all of you stepping up in
such a big way for our kids and our campaign. It is special as a candidate to be able to
experience people taking action in so many different ways to help other people. Helping
others and being a part of positive change is one of the most special experiences we
have as human beings and I am filled with gratitude and energy thinking about all of the
work you did over the last 20 months. We had a very lean team that literally worked 7
days a week and very long hours because they know we can do better for our kids. We
had volunteers who worked unpaid for months and months to help this campaign. We
had hundreds of people host fundraising events, mostly for the first time, and beg their
friends to donate politically, even though that isn’t the most comfortable thing to do. We

 had my wife who took on a ton of sacrifice and stress for this effort. We had thousands
of donors to this campaign from all parties and all different walks of life because they
collectively believe that our children’s futures are dependent on quality public schools.
Almost one thousand people sent emails out to their networks to encourage others to
support our campaign and be a part of change for our kids. Many elected officials and
key organizations took big political risks by endorsing this campaign in spite of the very
real blowback they received (and will continue to receive) because of their
endorsements. It has been wonderful and inspiring to be able to see how many people
stepped up in so many different ways to support our campaign and the children of
California. I am deeply grateful for all that you have done and my emotions of gratitude
outweigh my feelings of disappointment.
My feelings of optimism also outweigh my feelings of sadness and disappointment. It is
hard to feel optimistic immediately after a tough loss but, ultimately, when I take a deep
breath and reflect, optimism about what is possible is still my most dominant emotion.
We lift up our society when we all do more to help other people, and in this campaign I
was so consistently inspired by how much you all did because you cared about other
people’s children. Sure, there were some things to be pessimistic about in this election:
a lot of lies and manipulated information spread about me, our campaign, and many of
you; far too little time spent focused on our schools in an election that is supposed to be
about education; far too much focus on party politics for a position that is supposed to
be non-partisan; and, ultimately, the fact that we lost in spite of our effort. But we can’t
let these issues and the pessimism dominate our emotions. They can’t outweigh all the
love, hope and optimism that we all have for our kids. Optimism has to be the takeaway
because of all the work you did to help others. Life is about the journey. Outcomes are
highly variable and sometimes out of our control but the journey - how we conduct
ourselves, do we go out of our way to help others, do we take stands for things we
believe in, do we lead with integrity, hope, empathy and resilience - the journey is in our
control. I am filled with optimism for the future because you all stepped up in such a big
way on this journey to try and win this position and take a big step forward for our kids.
I am also feeling quite determined. I recognize that change is very hard and politics,
particularly when you lose, can be disheartening. I remind myself that winning the
election isn’t the end goal. The end goal is that all children in this state and country,
regardless of background, get access to quality public schools. Reaching that goal is
going to take a lot of work and absolutely requires us to get over this loss quickly. We
must continue to be extremely determined to do our part to help our children. We
certainly need to learn from this campaign. We need to analyze the decisions we made
and the dynamics in the race that led to us losing in spite of all the effort we put in. We
will learn from this experience, continue to get better, and find more effective
approaches that help us get to the change our kids deserve faster.
Kids are in school Monday morning. And millions of children, mostly low income children
of color, are not being given a chance at a bright future because our state isn’t serving
them well in our public schools. We must all remain determined to help them. I am very
determined to do my part. I thought the best way I could serve our children was as State

 Superintendent. I didn’t get that job so I am now determined to find another path that will
allow me to best support our children and our public schools (it will likely take me a little
time to figure that path out). I hope you will remain determined to stay engaged in the
work to improve our public schools. Stay involved in the politics of public education and
support candidates that you believe will drive real change in our schools; when you talk
to existing elected officials, prioritize public education in those conversations; connect
with your local public school, school district or non-profit supporting our schools and
help them be successful. Be determined to stay involved and if we all keep pushing, we
will eventually get to the endpoint that we believe is possible: a state and country where
all children have a chance at a better future because they have access to quality public
schools.
Thank you for all you have done for this effort. It was truly inspiring and I am filled with
deep gratitude. It is natural for us to feel disappointment but ultimately optimism and
determination are the paths forward. I told my wife Mae that I have worked full time for
about 22 years and I plan for at least 35 more so while this feels heavy right now, there
is a lot of great work ahead. I look forward to collaborating with you for a very long time
on the work to give all children the education they deserve.
Our campaign will be back in touch after Thanksgiving with a little more analysis on
what we think happened in this race, what we learned, and- most importantly- with ideas
for how you all can stay engaged in the work to give all children the education they
deserve.
Thank you.
Marshall