It is no mystery Westside High School has a history of politics. Governor Pete Ricketts is an alumni, as well as Representative Brad Ashford. Ashford’s predecessor, Lee Terry, had a successful campaign manager from the political hotspot of District 66, with no other than social studies teacher, David Bywater.

Bywater had been a teacher at Westside for years before he became Terry’s campaign manger. He had been running candidates for elections since the mid 1990s.

“I did 14 years of volunteer work for the Republican Party,” Bywater said. “I ran campaigns for many candidates since the Clinton years.”

Bywater also petitioned for a mayor candidate of Bellevue and supported Chuck Hagel in his 12 years as a Nebraska senator.

Bywater also has three kids who go to Christ the King as well as a wife who supports his political work.

“My wife is a firm believer in pursuing what you want to do,” Bywater said.

His kids, who are all boys ages three to eight, will be attending Westside’s rival school when there are older, Creighton Prep.

As of right now, it has been six years since Bywater has been involved in political management and volunteering. The work for him was harder than what it is today. The Internet was a fairly new phenomenon and PDF documents weren’t readily available.

“Once you are out of the political world, it’s hard to get back in,” Bywater said. “I’m content here at Westside and I enjoy teaching social studies class.”

When not teaching his classes, Bywater can likely be found the school’s Social Studies IMC.