Superintendent at second Texas school district faces electioneering allegations after audio revealed

The superintendent for another Texas school district faces allegations of electioneering in the Republican primary, after a school reform activist released audio of the alleged incident.

The Lion previously reported on claims that officials at the Denton Independent School District (ISD) engaged in illegal electioneering.

The fresh electioneering allegations concern Huffman ISD and Superintendent Dr. Christopher B. Soileau, also known as Benny Soileau.

By law, school district officials cannot use public resources to advocate for or against any particular political candidates or groups of political candidates, says the Texas attorney general’s website. Those who violate the provision are guilty of electioneering.

Noted school reform activist Corey DeAngelis, a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institute and a senior fellow at the American Federation for Children, released audio and transcripts on X (formerly Twitter) in which Soileau allegedly told school employees for whom to vote.

In the audio, a voice DeAngelis identifies as Soileau notes there are 16 Republican representatives on the ballot who he has marked as supporting public education.

“And if we don’t support those 16 representatives in the upcoming election, we roll into the next session almost assured that we’re going to face a universal voucher bill that will change the face of public education for years,” says the person in the audio.  

The comments allegedly came at a Feb. 7 meeting at Willie J. Hargrave High School in Huffman. Soileau is allegedly speaking in the high school’s cafeteria to assembled faculty and staff. He warns that if six of the 16 representatives get beaten in the election, “new money” won’t be flowing into the school district.  

One skeptical staff member then asks, “Is this just your way of telling us that there will be no raises this year?” 

“If you didn’t hear that, he asked about raises, what are the possibilities of raises. And the fact of the matter is, raises are not going to happen this year,” said the voice identified as Soileau. 

He also promises to send the staff a list of the 16 approved legislators for whom they are supposed to vote.  

“We’ll get those for you. Mandy (Amanda Fortenberry Huffman ISD director of communications), can you help us with that?“ said the man’s voice. “Get those 16 individuals, the Sweet 16, those names out to our staff.” 

The list referred to was compiled by Texans for Public Education, which has a color-coded database of legislators marked either “friendly” (green), “unfriendly” (red), or “neutral” (grey).    

Texans for Public Education founder Troy Reynolds “tells people to vote in the Republican primaries,” said DeAngelis. “He blocked me on Facebook.”  

Reynolds’ LinkedIn profile includes his preferred pronouns and says he is director of federal programs and compliance at Splendora ISD.  

While there is no indication Reynolds is complicit in electioneering, the guides he created at Texans for Public Education were also mentioned in the Denton ISD electioneering case.  

Those found guilty of electioneering in Texas are guilty of a Class A misdemeanor and are subject to as much as one year in jail and a fine of up to $4,000, or both.