From collection Candidates
In 1906 May Simons was an unsuccessful Socialist Party candidate for Illinois State Superintendent of Public Instruction. In 1904 she had failed to win a seat as a trustee of the University of Illinois, receiving only 1.96% of the votes (62,975). She was a Socialist activist of some note. May Wood married Socialist activist, journalist, and editor Algie Martin Simons in 1897. They had gone to school together.