Manatee County School Board, District 5
School board members set the district budget and school-tax rate, hire the superintendent (where appointed), approve school boundaries, curriculum policy and construction, and set district policies. Nonpartisan. 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
Candidate list taken from the Florida Division of Elections, 2026 general election candidate list on 2026-09-18 ; both candidates are marked Qualified, which for a nonpartisan seat means the August vote did not produce a majority winner (or the seat is decided only in November). Check the county Supervisor of Elections sample ballot.
Debates and forums
- 2026-10-01 — Held · League of Women Voters of Manatee County candidate forum (moderator Alice Nulan); recording posted Oct. 7 on the League's YouTube channel. Both candidates took part.
Camden T. Bedinghaus and Jonathan Mullis (listed by LWV)
Candidates
Report an error ↗Camden "Cam" Bedinghaus
Bedinghaus, 23, is a Manatee County native and district graduate who finished an economics degree at the University of South Florida in May 2026, where he served on a campus council that allocated budgets. He directs the Turning Point USA hub in Manatee County and writes for a conservative local news outlet. He was th…
Jonathan Mullis
Mullis holds a doctorate in physical therapy from Simmons University and ran a practice in Massachusetts before moving to Manatee County in 2017, where he founded Physical Therapy Doctors of Florida. The son of two teachers, he has two daughters in Manatee schools, is president of the Bradenton Kiwanis Club and sits o…
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 | Camden "Cam" Bedinghaus Nonpartisan | Jonathan Mullis Nonpartisan |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes & spendingCutting taxes should be a top priority, even if it means less government spending on services. | Leans disagree· stated position At the Oct. 1 League forum Bedinghaus said he supported the 2024 one-mill school property tax and expects some level of renewal, while first putting returned tax money toward teacher bonuses and cutting programs that are not producing results. | Leans disagree· stated position At the Oct. 1 League forum Mullis said he supported the 2024 one-mill school property tax and expects to support renewing some level of it in 2028 to keep paying teachers, while sizing it to what the district needs. His campaign site also calls for responsible budgeting. |
| 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). | Leans agree· stated position At the Oct. 1 League forum Bedinghaus said parents have the ultimate right to choose where their children go to school and called Florida's school choice a gift, while saying the district must make its public schools the best choice so families come back. | Mixed / neutral· stated position Mixed. Mullis calls himself a strong supporter of school choice and lists it on his campaign site, but at the Oct. 1 League forum he said he does not agree with the Legislature's removal of the scholarship income limits, which sends checks to families already paying for private or home school, and wants the program modified. |
| 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. | Leans agree· stated position At the Oct. 1 League forum Bedinghaus said sexually explicit or otherwise age-inappropriate material should be removed, noting parents can still buy such books themselves. His campaign site says parents and teachers, rather than bureaucrats or activists, should decide what happens in the classroom. | Mixed / neutral· stated position At the Oct. 1 League forum Mullis said he is not in favor of removing books entirely but wants library books to be age-appropriate, possibly restricting some to older grades, and that the district should follow its review policy promptly. He has also said the district should follow its existing policies. |
| 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 Bedinghaus proposes teacher bonuses tied to student progress, to be paid by redirecting money from district programs that are not producing results and, he said at the Oct. 1 League forum, from about $2.4 million the county returned to the district. | No public position found |
| School safety approachCampus safety depends more on police officers and firm discipline than on counselors and mental-health staff. | No public position found | Leans agree· stated position His site says he supports strong safety measures including school resource officers and clear discipline policies to maintain order and respect; it does not mention counselors or mental-health staffing. |
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.
Jonathan MullisHow 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Camden "Cam" Bedinghaus | not enough data | not enough data |
| Jonathan Mullis | not enough data | 0.33 (3 statements) |
Other issues the candidates have raised
Priorities each candidate has brought up on their own, beyond the major-issue list above.
Camden "Cam" Bedinghaus
- Political advocacy in schools — Asked about his political work, Bedinghaus said his personal beliefs are conservative but described his reasons for running as apolitical.
- Real-world skills — His platform calls for teaching personal finance, basic economics, budgeting and practical life skills, and for a parent portal with performance and school information.Sources: Cam for School Board (2026-09)
- Reading and literacy — Bedinghaus says nearly half of district students cannot read at grade level and that on his first day he would ask the board to declare a reading emergency, expand early intervention and adopt practices from higher-performing districts.
- Financial and life skills — Bedinghaus says schools should teach personal finance, basic economics, budgeting and other practical life skills so graduates can manage money and build stability.
Jonathan Mullis
- School volunteers — Mullis proposes recruiting large numbers of community volunteers and mentors into schools, comparing it to how hospitals rely on volunteers.