Anti-Woke Candidates Come Up Short in School Board Races
The small minds seeking to have students believe the South won the Civil War and Teletubbies are part of the Gay Conspiracy fell short of their goals to disrupt education by redirecting school boards.
Here in San Diego, the effort was a bit more subtle, but the intended effect was the same. Apparently voters weren’t buying what they were selling.
Negative reactions to health-related restrictions on the public due to the pandemic proved to be a gold mine for right wing activists nationwide, who turned their attention to down ballot races.
Nowhere was this more obvious than school board elections. Anti-mask sentiment quickly became linked to other cultural concerns expressed by conservatives, especially gender identity and critical race theory.
Wannabe Rasputin Steve Bannon has called school board fights about Critical Race Theory “the Tea Party to the 10th power. GOP strategists hoped that school board fights would galvanize turnout in vulnerable districts for executive and legislative seats.
Nationally, three organizations emerged as driving forces aiming to place true believers on school boards: the Independent Women’s Network (described by the Washington Post as “built on the scaffolding of the Koch fortune and the largesse of other GOP megadonors,” Moms-for Liberty (Initially funded by Jan 6 insurrection donor Publix heiress Julie Fancelli) and the 1776 Project Political Action Committee (backed by GOP megadonor and billionaire Richard Uihlein), which has raised $3 million to advocate for conservative school board candidates nationally this year.
From the Associated Press:
Conservative groups that sought to get hundreds of “parents’ rights” activists elected to local school boards largely fell short in last week’s midterm elections, notching notable wins in some Republican strongholds but failing to gain a groundswell of support among moderate voters.
Traditionally nonpartisan, local school boards have become fiercely political amid entrenched battles over the teaching of race, history and sexuality. Candidates opposing what they see as “woke” ideology in public schools have sought to gain control of school boards across the U.S. and overturn policies deemed too liberal.
The push has been boosted by Republican groups including the 1776 Project PAC, which steered millions of dollars into local school races this year amid predictions of a red wave. But on Tuesday, just a third of its roughly 50 candidates won
Statewide, the Republican Party made school boards a focus, according to Ed Source:
Parental angst over Covid school closures and protocols didn’t seem to be enough to flip California school board seats in more liberal areas of California, despite the efforts of the state Republican Party and other conservative groups.
The state GOP Parent Revolt program and other conservative organizations spent more than a year recruiting, training and endorsing an army of candidates in an effort to win what are generally considered nonpartisan seats. Their goal: Flip school boards to promote conservative issues including fighting educational policies on gender identity and racial equity.
Locally, some of the heavy lifting was handled by RMNNT, a conservative voter and candidate education organization birthed by conspiracy-laden and right-wing Awaken Church. Five school board candidates underwent training by the group, which also endorsed 60 identifiably conservative candidates in east and north county contests, traditionally dominated by Republican voters..
From Voice of San Diego:
Four of the five school board candidates that attended The RMNNT trainings, a conservative voter and candidate education organization that operates out of conspiracy-laden and right-wing Awaken Church seem to have been soundly defeated. They included Jesse Vigil and Keren Dominguez who ran for the Chula Vista Elementary School District, Andre Johnson in the Encinitas Union School District and Rebekah Naputi in the Sweetwater Union High School District.
Though trailing in the latest numbers, the fifth The RMNNT trained candidate, Lisa Meglioli, who ran in the Coronado Unified School District board still has a path to the board. Overall, in Coronado, where two years of roiling school board politics inspired a tense, contentious school board race centered on pandemic politics like masking and vaccination and culture war issues, conservative candidates saw more success. Scot Youngblood, who’s expressed anti-COVID vaccine views received the most votes of any candidate running for the four-year board position, and looks poised to earn a spot on the board.
Three high profile school board (Awaken endorsed, but not trained) races all resulted in defeats for the right.
Former San Francisco Giants star Aubrey Huff, infamous for being a right-wing troll since retiring from his career in professional baseball, got crushed in Solana Beach by incumbent Debra Schade 80.6% to 19.4%.
In Carlsbad, Sharon McKeeman, founder of the Let Them Breathe anti-masker group, did better in the contest for Carlsbad Unified School District Trustee, losing to Michele Tsutagawa Ward 57.16% to 42.84%. Her lawyer in the same contest, Scott Davidson, also lost.
Becca Williams lost to Cody Petterson, 56.09% to 43.91% in a contest where the conservative Community Leadership Coalition dropped more than $110,000 trying to make it a referendum of the teacher’s union. Hold my beer, said the SDEA, which in turn dropped $147,000 into the race.
Neither Jesse Vigil or Keren Diminguez broke 40% in the quest to serve on the Chula Vista Elementary School Board; Andre Johnson got 16.66% in a six-way contest in Encinitas.
Public schools have long been of interest to the right, in part because they’d like to privatize them. Now that theocrats have made schools a battleground for their culture war, we can expect to hear more noise about education. As a parent who attended lots of school board meetings, I know from experience that it only takes a small cadre to derail a meeting; even if a complaint is ridiculous on its face, time is taken away from consideration of more serious matters.
Email me at: WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com