Candidate’s apology for anti-Muslim post was too little, too late
On the eve of local elections, Pearland ISD trustee Rusty DeBorde posted an item to his campaign Facebook page that stood out for its contrite, introspective tone.
“I just had one of the most incredibly impactful meetings with Abul Azad, the associate director of Pearland’s Islamic Center, that I have ever had,” DeBorde wrote Friday. “I shared with him my regret and apology for the hurt I caused in my failed attempt to stand up for what I believe.”
The next day, DeBorde lost his school board seat to a guy too young to go out for a beer to celebrate.
Dawson High School senior Mike Floyd received 3,075 votes (54 percent) to DeBorde’s 2,597 (46 percent.) DeBorde enjoyed not only the advantages of incumbency and experience, but the endorsement of U.S. Rep. Pete Olson, a Republican who represents the area. He lost despite his apology for an earlier Facebook post that seemed to raise concerns about a Muslim candidate for the Pearland City Council. The other Pearland ISD trustee facing a challenge, Pam Boegler, easily won reelection with 60 percent of the vote.
“I had thought all along that Rusty would walk away with it,” said Sue Wojtyn Matthews, a longtime Pearland resident who started an anti-DeBorde Facebook group that became part of the online backlash to DeBorde’s earlier post.
That post included a photo of two women wearing head coverings above a magazine article headline, “How American Muslims are Trying to Take Back their Government.” DeBorde wrote: “Please spread the word — this is happening this election cycle right here in Pearland!”
Although it didn’t identify her, the post was an obvious reference to Dalia Kasseb, a 30-year-old pharmacist who went on to lead a field of six candidates Saturday in the campaign for a newly created city council seat.
Kasseb, whose campaign material features photos of her wearing a hijab, is the first openly Muslim candidate for public office in Brazoria County history. She won 47 percent of the vote Saturday and will face
Woody Owens, who got 18 percent, in a runoff next month.
DeBorde had gone on Facebook to share a post by former Pearland Councilman Kevin Cole, who warned: “If you think this can’t happen in Pearland, well guess again. It is!! The way to stop it is to vote...”
Reaction to Trump
The Atlantic magazine article that the post linked to discusses the growing number of Muslims running for local offices around the country, partly in response to the perceived anti-Muslim policies of President Donald Trump.
“It really wasn’t a Muslim issue,” DeBorde told me a few days before the election. “The idea was: This is happening. Go out and vote.”
DeBorde said then he was concerned that many candidates for nonpartisan local offices were running based on “agendas” focused on specific interests such as LGBT rights or protecting Muslims from discrimination.
“What I meant more was, the Democrats were pulling together with those type of groups,” DeBorde said. “Other people said stuff (in the comments to his post) that I don’t condone.”
Transgender support
One Pearland resident cheering Floyd’s victory is Kimberly Shappley, the mother of a transgender daughter who has publicly appealed for the school district to change its bathroom access policy. The issue gained attention last year when Superintendent John Kelly suggested that more inclusive policies for transgender students, and legal approval of same-sex marriage, were akin to support for pedophilia and polygamy.
Shappley said she was grateful to Floyd for his support of allowing transgender students to use bathrooms that conform to their gender identity. His victory, she said, shows that attitudes in the fast-growing suburb are changing as it becomes more ethnically and culturally diverse.
“Across the board,” Shappley said, “people are fed up. They’re not going to allow this narrow mindset.”
If she’s right, it’s fair to say that Rusty DeBorde miscalculated the effect of his misbegotten Facebook post, whatever he intended by it. And it should be interesting to see whether an 18-yearold living with his parents and preparing to enter the University of Houston can affect the culture of a suburban school district, or of the community it serves.