Yet others are facing tighter margins or even losing their races. Some candidates backed by DeSantis are blowing out the competition on fundraising. And on top of that, they also directed conservative state lawmakers where to donate their money. The DeSantis endorsements each came with a $1,000 contribution from his political committee. “The school board believes they are the parent to the children, and that’s not their role whatsoever,” Wright said in an interview. She’s against gender orientation and sexual identity being brought into the classroom and lessons that “focus on one race as an oppressor and one race as an oppressed,” which the GOP has branded as vestiges of “critical race theory.” Wright says she wants to be an advocate for parents on the school board and aligns with the Republican governor on key issues conservatives are pushing for in 2022. “The shift in school board races has matched the divisiveness of our people’s perspectives,” Belford said.īelford in her bid for reelection is facing a political newcomer in Megan Wright, who has the backing of DeSantis.
Next to signs advocating to reelect Belford, a parent propped up signs saying she “illegally masked your children.”įamilies protest any potential mask mandates before the Hillsborough County School Board meeting held at the district office on July 27, 2021, in Tampa, Fla.īelford said she’s “not investing a lot of energy” into the negative campaigning as she continues to knock on doors and canvass ahead of Tuesday’s election. The stark differences between the two sides are playing out at the hyper-local level, illustrated by dueling yard signs in Brevard County that demonstrate the heated rhetoric in some of these school board races. “It’s gotten fairy ugly,” Misty Belford, a Brevard County School Board member endorsed by the Florida Democratic Party, said in an interview.īelford’s race is one of seven pitting a candidate endorsed by DeSantis against one backed by Democrats, blurring the lines in what are non-partisan contests by law. In Miami-Dade County, a school board candidate was hit with a cease-and-desist from the DeSantis campaign in July for using a picture of DeSantis in an ad when the governor already endorsed her opponent. The local Democratic Party called the ad a “new low” while slamming “DeSantis and other GOP operatives,” although the candidate endorsed by the Republican governor also denounced the billboard, which was paid for by Sarasota County-based political action committee ABCD. In Sarasota County, a mobile billboard blasted one local school board candidate - who is endorsed by Democrats - as a “LIAR” and “A BABY KILLER” for previously working at Planned Parenthood. In some cases, the races have been heated. If he succeeds, DeSantis could end up with new allies on school boards who can help him as he continues to rail against teacher unions and Democrats who oppose the handling of Covid-19 mandates and how schools should teach lessons on race and sexual identity. In most instances, incumbents, regardless of affiliation, are being pushed to raise significantly more cash to defend their seats compared to four years ago, a sign of how endorsements are affecting campaigns this year. Out of those endorsements, the DeSantis campaign is targeting 15 school board races among several counties that defied him and the GOP last fall by passing local student mask mandates.ĭeSantis is also challenging at least 10 incumbents who are running for reelection.
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“Parental rights, curriculum transparency and classrooms free of woke ideology are all on the ballot this election, and it starts with school board elections,” DeSantis said last week when announcing a statewide campaign tour ahead of the midterms. Political committees tied to Florida Republicans and Democrats are also pouring tens of thousands of dollars into these normally sleepy races - eclipsing the amount in the 2018 midterm - underscoring the importance of K-12 education and mobilizing parents ahead of November. Some candidates have received hundreds of thousands of dollars from individual donors. The move is also leading Florida Republicans to send cash and campaign help on the eve of the primaries, in many cases targeting incumbents who have opposed some of the GOP’s policies. By wading into school board races and endorsing local candidates, DeSantis is attempting to reshape the education landscape in the country’s third most populous state.