John Flora

Background

About John Flora

For more than two decades, John has been educating and mentoring students and teachers in his hometown of Jersey City, N.J. In the roles of music teacher, teacher trainer, youth advocate, and athletic coach, he has worked with children of all ages and abilities in a multitude of educational and extracurricular settings. Today, John is especially proud of his decision to remain in the classroom. Keenly aware of the diminished occupational prestige often associated with classroom teaching, he also knows that exiting the classroom will not aid an ongoing national teacher shortage. Midway through his career as a teacher, it became clear to John that decisions related to school funding and policy are made by lawmakers with little to no professional classroom working experience. This prompted him to study electoral politics as a graduate student at the George Washington University. From there, he further explored the relationship between politics and education at Teachers College, Columbia University. His time as a graduate student was spent examining issues like school funding in his rapidly developing hometown, the financial practices of teacher unions, and the uniquely unfair ballot design found in NJ. His capstone project was a secondary analysis of enrollment trends across Traditional Public, Charter, and County-Vocational schools across New Jersey. Eventually in 2020, John ran for elective office at the federal level of government under the slogan “United by Our Future”. His platform focused on climate change, campaign finance, and universal pre-K. Though the challenge he and his team mounted against an incumbent family proved unsuccessful, a large percentage of small campaign donations and the registration of hundreds of voters in a chronically-disengaged congressional district were two of the campaign’s primary victories. After the sudden passing of Congressman Donald Payne Jr. in April of 2024, John sought to continue the work he began on 2020. He submitted ample signatures to get his name on the Special Election ballot and knocked nearly 10k doors in the NJ-10 District to get voters engaged. He proudly had the endorsement of Kennedy, Lincoln, and Grant (his 3 children) and intentionally chose not to fundraise out of awareness of his constituents financial struggles in a post-Covid inflation-saddled economy. With a budget of grit, John was able to place 2nd out of 11 candidates in 3/17 municipalities and 3rd place in 4/17 municipalities, a testament to the impact of in-person voter engagement on front porches.