Culture war faces backlash from voters
Voters reject candidates for school boards backed by Moms for Liberty
First came the classroom culture wars.
Now, the backlash.
Voters in multiple states rejected local school board candidates backed by groups such as Moms for Liberty, choosing moderate or liberal candidates instead.
For the last year-plus, the GOP has sought to strengthen its grip on local elections by targeting school board seats across the country. New rightleaning political action committees began pouring money into those races – a trend that is expected to continue in 2024 – aiming to not only flip control of who governs schools but change education on a national scale.
But Tuesday’s results deal a major blow to a movement that has advocated for book bans and restrictions on classroom discussion of gender and race.
Moms for Liberty, a Florida-based nonprofit, has been at the center of many curriculum battles. This Tuesday, only one-third of its school board candidates won – 50 of 139. The group’s track record for the entire year is only slightly better: Overall, the group said 44% of the candidates it backed this year won their races.
In Pennsylvania, Democrats seized control of the Central Bucks school board by defeating candidates recommended by Moms for Liberty.
In Loudoun County, Virginia, a target of conservative activists, Democratic-endorsed candidates won or were leading in six of nine school board races. Three of the four candidates backed by Moms for Liberty were defeated.
Ohio voters reject many M4L candidates
Local school boards in Ohio have become a culture war battleground. But voters signaled Tuesday they’ve had enough.
In the Columbus area, several conservatives ran on culture war promises, including keeping transgender girls off girls’ sports teams, limiting diversity and inclusion efforts and curtailing sex education. Eight of 10 lost.
In Stark County in eastern Ohio, just one of nine candidates backed by Moms for Liberty was elected – an incumbent.
In the Cincinnati area, two of eight candidates endorsed by Moms for Liberty
won. Two others won who were backed by Ohio Value Voters, a group that collects mostly anonymous tips that schools are indoctrinating children on critical race theory, comprehensive sex education, and social and emotional learning.
Iowa voters delivered a near clean sweep for progressive school board candidates in the suburbs of Des Moines. Only one of the Moms for Liberty-endorsed Iowa school board candidates won. Voters also rejected four candidates endorsed by the Family Leader, an influential Christian conservative group. Nearly all candidates promoted by local Republican elected officials came up short.
“By and large, voters aren’t looking for extremist candidates,” said Scott DiMauro, president of the Ohio Education Association.
However, Jenn Turner, chair of Moms for Liberty Polk County, said recent Iowa education laws made parents more comfortable with what is happening inside schools, so some stayed on the sidelines.
“Students use bathrooms and locker rooms based on their biological sex. Boys cannot play in girls sports,” Turner said. “And sexually explicit books were removed from classrooms and school libraries across the state, and gender identity cannot be taught in K-6 classrooms.”
She also said her opponents circulated misinformation campaigns “telling the public that ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and other classics were being removed” from school libraries.
No more running under the radar
David Niven, a University of Cincinnati political scientist, said Tuesday’s elections mark the end of “the stealth school board candidate.”
“What we’ve seen in the past in Ohio is folks with pretty far-out-there views could run without that much scrutiny,” he said. “It was a lot easier to present yourself as a concerned parent or concerned taxpayer or civic-minded and not ever be confronted with ‘Do you want to ban books?’ ”
But now, “sort of a victim of their own success, they have these formal and organized efforts and adjacent efforts helping to know just who is who,” Niven said. “The effort is so much more brazen that it’s kind of a double-edged sword. They’re working harder to do this, but they’re almost at cross-purposes with themselves.”
Have voters had enough of the culture wars?
Tiffany Justice, a Moms for Liberty co-founder, said she feels good about the election results even though the candidates backed by the group lost far more races than they won.
“You have 50 liberty-minded individuals that are going to go serve on school boards, that are going to put the focus back on the basics in school and they’re going to make sure that parental rights are respected,” she said.
The group has helped 365 people get elected over the past two years, Justice said.
“The bottom line is this: We are helping a whole new group of people get involved in the civic process and to come and try to reclaim or reform public education,” she said. “Teachers unions have had a lock on school board elections for years. We’re the new kid on the block.”
Justice said her group is looking to expand its influence by getting involved in state board of education elections.
Another conservative group, the 1776 Project, said 58% of the candidates it endorsed – many of them in red areas – won. “Considering the national environment, we view that as a strong result,” said founder Ryan Girdusky.
But teachers’ unions, education activists and others portrayed the results as a repudiation of these groups’ farright agenda.
“These results underline what families have been telling us for the last two years: They don’t want culture wars. ,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.