- June 25, 2026
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For Camden Bedinghaus, a phrase he hears quite often is “you’re too young” in regards to him running for the Manatee County District 5 school board seat.
He said he wanted to be involved on the school board because his generation (Gen Z) is “the most anxious, confused and suicidal generation in American history.”
“Regardless of your age, you need to have that thing called common sense to do something with these systems and I said, ‘Why not?’ Bedinghaus said. “Instead of watching this, why don't I get involved with the very systems that shape the next generation?
"I just went through it and that's my answer to being young. I just went through the system, I know the ins and outs. I've seen what students are struggling with.”
Bedinghaus said he has friends who can’t do basic math at a cash register and he refuses to watch it all happen. He wants to stand up and be part of the solution.
Bedinghaus was a youth coordinator at Bayside Community Church for three years and was on the campus council at the University of South Florida, where he just graduated from with a degree in economics, where he was also able to engage with teachers, students and staff. He is currently the director of Turning Point USA Manatee County.
“As director of the Club America Hub of Manatee County, my work has centered on civic engagement, leadership development and encouraging young people to understand the principles and founding documents that shape our country,” Bedinghaus said. “Those experiences have strengthened my belief that schools should equip students with knowledge and critical-thinking skills rather than promote any particular political viewpoint.”
Bedinghaus said “running for public office is inherently political, but educating children should not be.”
“I believe schools should focus on their primary mission — providing students with a high-quality education and preparing them for success in life,” Bedinghaus said. “No child should be subjected to political activism or ideological agendas in the classroom, regardless of where those ideas fall on the political spectrum.”
For his campaign, Bedinghaus created the “CAM plan.” The C stands for common sense academics, the A is accountability and transparency and the M is for mastery of real world skills.
Bedinghaus said he wants to prioritize reading, writing and arithmetic. He said if he is elected, he will declare a reading emergency on his first day in order to create urgency around a problem that is prevalent in the level of success a student might achieve.
“Reading proficiency affects every subject area,” Bedinghaus said. “If students struggle to read, they struggle to learn. Addressing that challenge must be one of the district's highest priorities.”
Bedinghaus said he was the only candidate to qualify by petition, which provided a lot of socialization and insight into the idea that many parents feel they are “shut out of the conversation with what their children are learning in school.”
He wants to create a “transparency dashboard” that would show what is in the instructional programs being taught, what supplemental programs are being used, how instructional time is being allocated and what curriculum content is actually being taught to children. The goal would be that parents can access this information from their phones or computers.
“This is about building trust between families and schools,” Bedinghaus said. “When parents are informed and engaged, they are better equipped to support their children's learning at home and they can raise serious questions when something seems off.”
Bedinghaus said he taught himself the financial knowledge he has and didn’t get it from school.
“I want to change that for future generations, because my generation is drowning in debt,” Bedinghaus said. “I believe one of the major problems is we were never given a proper financial education in school. For so long school has been all about the test — teaching how to pass the test. We've gotten too far away from teaching real world skills that students need for when they graduate, how they'll get a job, what skills they'll need to get a job, and succeed in their future.”
Bedinghaus said he believes the board is lacking a drive to do better and said the current board has “become okay with being average.” He further clarified he is not running to replace the board as there is a lot of business experience present. There are still positive things happening in Manatee schools, but he wants to bring a fresh perspective.
“We can keep doing the same things and nothing will change, or we can try something new,” Bedinghaus said. “I’m someone who's actually been through the modern system of what students are going through right now. We should have the students' best interests at heart and that's what I plan on doing by being a board member from the next generation.”
