Hillsborough County School Board, District 6 (countywide runoff)
School board members set the district budget and school millage, hire and evaluate the superintendent, approve curriculum materials, and set district policy. Term: 4 years.
Partly verified. Either the November opponent could not be confirmed from available sources, or only a few positions are documented. Confirm the full candidate list on your county sample ballot; unknown positions are shown as such.
How we verified who is on the ballot
Confirmed Oct. 18, 2026 from county sources (the state's candidate list is incomplete for county offices): Official Aug. 18 results: Perez 93,616 (48.27%), Gay 52,808 (27.23%) and Sally Harris Williamson 47,517 (24.50%). Nobody won a majority, so Perez and Gay go to a Nov. 3 runoff. The SOE's general-election results page lists only Gay and Perez, and the SOE candidate list marks both 'Runoff' and Williamson 'Defeated'. The ballot spells his name Kenneth "Ken" Gay.
Candidates
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Karen Perez
Perez was first elected to the countywide District 6 seat in 2018. She is a licensed clinical social worker and small-business owner who has worked in mental health, family services, veterans' care and juvenile justice probation. She led the Aug. 18, 2026 primary with about 48% and faces Kenneth Gay in the Nov. 3 runo…
Kenneth "Ken" Gay
Gay retired in 2022 after 39 years with Hillsborough County Public Schools as a teacher, instructional leader and assistant principal, and holds a doctorate in child and youth studies. He ran unsuccessfully for the District 5 seat in 2024 and took about 27% in the Aug. 18, 2026 District 6 primary, advancing to the Nov…
Side-by-side on the major issues
Each row is a statement. The chips show how each candidate's stated positions or record relate to that statement. Expand a row to read the evidence and sources. "No public position found" means we could not find a statement or record on the topic, not that the candidate has none.
| Issue | Karen Perez Nonpartisan | Kenneth "Ken" Gay Nonpartisan |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes & spendingCutting taxes should be a top priority, even if it means less government spending on services. | No public position found | Mixed / neutral· stated position At a July 2026 forum Gay said the district should 'fund the basics' rather than add new programs and should find places to cut and recycle money; he did not call for cutting taxes or the school millage. |
| Property taxesFlorida should eliminate or sharply reduce homestead property taxes, even if local governments must cut services or find other revenue. | No public position found | No public position found |
| Education & school choicePublic money should follow students to private, charter or home schools (universal school vouchers). | No public position found | No public position found |
| Gender identity lawsFlorida's laws restricting gender-affirming care for minors and classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity should remain in place. | No public position found | No public position found |
| Library and classroom materialsParents' objections should be enough to pull a book or lesson from a school, even when other families want it kept. | Strongly disagrees· stated position In a Keep Florida Reading questionnaire, Perez said parents have a right to be involved in what their own child reads but that one parent's preference should not determine what is available to every family. She said challenged materials should be judged as a whole by qualified educators under district policy and state law, and opposed automatically posting every challenge with only a title and author. | Leans disagree· stated position In a Keep Florida Reading questionnaire, Gay said parents should have the primary role in guiding what their own children read and offered a personal 'litmus test' about age-appropriateness, but said removal decisions should run through Hillsborough's structured review process under Florida Statute 1006.28 and be posted publicly, not driven by individual preference. |
| Teacher and staff payRaising teacher and staff pay should be the district's top budget priority, even if other spending has to be cut. | Leans agree· stated position Perez's campaign site says she has worked to keep limited resources in the classroom and pushed for budget shortfalls to be absorbed first at the administrative level rather than by teachers and support staff, criticizing spending on software and top executive payroll. | No public position found |
| School safety approachCampus safety depends more on police officers and firm discipline than on counselors and mental-health staff. | Leans disagree· stated position At a July 2026 candidate forum Perez, a clinical social worker, said student behavior problems should be looked at differently and stressed meeting students' mental-health needs before situations escalate. | Leans agree· stated position Gay has pointed to what he calls a lack of consistent enforcement of student behavior rules and says classrooms need consistent consequences; his campaign site says schools should maintain discipline and clear expectations. He has not proposed adding police officers. |
Where they sit on the map
Each candidate is placed by the average of their documented stances. It is a summary of the table above, not an extra judgment.
Karen PerezKenneth "Ken" GayHow the axes are computed
Each axis is the average of a candidate's coded stances (+2 to −2) on a fixed set of statements, so it comes straight from the documented positions and nothing else. A candidate needs at least three documented statements on an axis to be placed.
Economic issues (toward "Smaller government (lower taxes, less spending)"): Taxes & spending (agree), Property taxes (agree), Health care (disagree), Housing affordability (disagree), Property insurance (disagree), Energy & utilities (disagree), Social Security & Medicare (disagree), Teacher and staff pay (disagree).
Social & legal issues (toward "Conservative side of the statements"): Immigration (agree), Abortion (disagree), Guns (disagree), Education & school choice (agree), Elections & voting (disagree), Crime & policing (agree), Gender identity laws (agree), Marijuana (disagree), Environment & water (disagree), Trump administration (agree), Library and classroom materials (agree), School safety approach (agree).
| Candidate | Economic issues | Social & legal issues |
|---|---|---|
| Karen Perez | not enough data | not enough data |
| Kenneth "Ken" Gay | not enough data | not enough data |
Other issues the candidates have raised
Priorities each candidate has brought up on their own, beyond the major-issue list above.
Karen Perez
No additional issues found in public statements as of the last data review.
Kenneth "Ken" Gay
- Teacher support — His campaign site says strong schools start with educators who feel supported and respected and that teachers and staff should have what they need in the classroom, without naming pay as a top budget priority.Sources: Vote Kenneth Gay (2026-09)