42 Facts About Tom Horne

Thomas Charles Horne was born on March 28,1945 and is an American politician, attorney, businessman, and activist who has served as the Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction since 2023 and previously from 2003 to 2011.

Tom Horne ran for reelection as Attorney General but lost to Mark Brnovich in the 2014 Republican primary.

Tom Horne returned to the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2023, having been elected to that office in the 2022 election.

Tom Horne was raised in New York, and became a naturalized US citizen in 1954.

Tom Horne graduated from Mamaroneck High School in the early 1960s.

Tom Horne graduated from Harvard College in 1967 and Harvard Law School in 1970.

Tom Horne served as a teacher of Legal Writing at Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law and wrote a text on construction law published by the State Bar of Arizona.

From 1997 to 2002, Tom Horne failed to disclose the bankruptcy in corporate filings to the Arizona Corporation Commission on at least four occasions.

Tom Horne was first elected to public office in 1979, when he was elected to the Paradise Valley Unified School District board.

Tom Horne served on the board for the next 24 years, and was board chair for ten of those years.

Tom Horne was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in 1996, and served from 1997 to 2001.

In 2000, Tom Horne ran for the Arizona Senate for District 24, but lost the Republican primary to Dean Martin.

In 2003, Tom Horne was elected Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction; he served two terms, ending in 2011.

Tom Horne was an advocate for full-day kindergarten, citing research that showed that such programs reduce the achievement gap between students from poor households and those from more affluent homes.

Tom Horne pushed for nutritional standards that removed junk food vending machines from elementary schools and created incentives for secondary schools to do so on a voluntary basis.

Tom Horne continued to implement the Arizona Instrument to Measure Success standardized test; performance on the AIMS test determines graduating high school students' qualification for a "high honors" diploma, which guarantees free tuition at Arizona's three public universities.

Tom Horne implemented policies that discouraged bilingual education and sought to shut down the Tucson Unified School District's controversial Mexican American Studies Department Programs.

In July 2017, Tom Horne testified in the litigation; in his testimony, he defended the law and asserted that the Tucson program was led by radical teachers.

On November 2,2010, Tom Horne defeated Felecia Rotellini in the race for Arizona Attorney General in the 2010 elections.

Shortly after winning the 2010 election, Tom Horne announced an intent to pursuing violations of the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act and other consumer protections violation.

In 2013 Tom Horne wrote an opinion that defended the state preemption of regulation of firearms; he found that Tucson's city gun laws were unenforceable.

In 2012 Tom Horne proposed that a principal or a designee be trained and armed in each school.

Tom Horne threatened to sue the city of Bisbee, Arizona, over its 2013 ordinance recognizing same-sex couples.

Tom Horne withdrew the threat several days later when Bisbee agreed to rewrite the ordinance, removing rights reserved for married couples under Arizona law.

In 2013, Tom Horne sued Maricopa County Community College District and Pima Community College, seeking to compel the community colleges to end their policy of providing in-state tuition for "dreamers".

Tom Horne argued that these students were disqualified from in-state tuition by state law, even if the federal government had approved them to remain and work in the US under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Several students held protests at Tom Horne's office, leading to some being arrested.

Tom Horne denied being anti-immigrant, saying he was one himself, being born in Canada.

In 2014, Horne criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement for sending undocumented immigrants from Texas to Arizona.

Tom Horne criticized the Colorado City police force, saying it acted as an arm of the FLDS Church instead of the law.

In 2012 Tom Horne allocated $420,000 to the Mohave County Sheriff's Office to patrol Colorado City.

In 2012, Tom Horne renewed an effort to persuade the state legislature to abolish Colorado City's six-member police department, and assign the Mohave County Sheriff's Office to carry out law enforcement functions in the city.

In 2012, after an FBI investigation, Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery concluded that Tom Horne coordinated with an independent expenditure committee run by Kathleen Winn during his 2010 general election campaign for attorney general, thus violating campaign finance laws.

In July 2014, the Arizona Secretary of State's Office found probable cause that Tom Horne violated several campaign-finance laws by having employees do campaign work for his campaign on state time, at the AG's office.

Tom Horne was denounced by several fellow Arizona Republicans, including congressmen Jeff Flake and Matt Salmon and Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery.

In 2017, Tom Horne joined with Terry Goddard, the Democratic former mayor of Phoenix and Arizona Attorney General, to promote the Outlaw Dirty Money Act, a ballot measure to combat "dark money" by requiring the public disclosure of all major donors to efforts to oppose or support candidates or ballot measures.

Goddard and Tom Horne criticized spending by various dark-money operators, including the Koch network.

In 2021, Tom Horne announced his campaign for a third term as Arizona superintendent of public instruction, challenging Democratic incumbent Kathy Hoffman.

In 2023, Tom Horne sued the governor, attorney general, and an Arizona school district over a dispute on how English-language learner students in Arizona should be taught.

In January 2024, Tom Horne announced that the state would cooperate with PragerU, urging schools to adopt as part of their curriculum.

Tom Horne was married to his wife, Martha, for 47 years.

In October 2007, while State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Horne was cited for criminal speeding in Scottsdale, Arizona.