Democrats are taking back school boards as voters tire of Republican culture wars. Dozens of Democrats have flipped seats across the country.
Source: southpawFA
Democrats are taking back school boards as voters tire of Republican culture wars. Dozens of Democrats have flipped seats across the country.
Source: southpawFA
22 Comments
Oh I wish that was the case in my city.
>Anti-LGBTQ+ “parents’ rights” groups like Moms for Liberty and Leave Our Kids Alone arose and accused educators of “grooming,” indoctrinating, and “trans-ing” students with inclusive school messaging that violated parents’ wishes. These groups thrived with support from conservative funders and Republican politicians, like Govs. [Ron DeSantis](https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/03/who-is-ron-desantis-where-does-he-stand-on-lgbtq-rights/) (R-FL) and Glenn Youngkin (R-VA), who repeated their rhetoric and platformed their leaders.
>The Pipeline Fund, a liberal group that recruited and trained school board candidates in 12 states, saw 43 of 49 of its candidates win in Pennsylvania and 18 of 22 in Ohio. Next year, the group is expanding its efforts to 21 additional states.
>In Pennsylvania, Democrats flipped at least two dozen school board seats; in the Houston-area suburb of Cypress, Texas, Democrats picked up three seats on the school board, ending two years of Republican control; candidates in New Jersey’s Ocean City Board of Education (who were endorsed by Moms for Liberty and Turning Point USA) also lost; and Republicans lost school board seats in the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio, [*Politico* reported](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/21/culture-war-democrats-school-boards-00663699).
>“Folks just want their school boards to be boring again,” said Lesley Guilmart, one of the newly elected school board members in the Cypress, Texas, school district. “They want normalcy. Once the board was taken over by a super partisan extremist majority, folks across the political spectrum were dismayed.”
>In the Cypress election, conservatives were hampered by their decision to ban 13 chapters of state-approved textbooks that discussed climate change, diversity, and vaccines, highlighting a costly censorship campaign amid the district’s $45 million deficit. Democrats there campaigned on eliminating politics and returning the school board to basic functions.
Christian nationalists like Moms for Liberty (Moms for Ignorance) want to ban books because they want to force kids to become part of their Christian nationalist army, rather than grow up happy and well-adjusted.
Not surprising as “Education” and “MAGA” are complete opposites, If we had put more effort into education MAGA wouldnt even exist.
Who could have ever predicted they all those pieces of shit running for school boards to push their discriminatory bullshit under the guise of “parent’s rights” wouldn’t work out?
As someone not living in the US, the idea that there are democrats and republicans school board fascinate me, not in a good way.
The fact that politics are a two party thing even at school level is weiiiiiird!
We were winning all the local elections, from school board to special elections to the early Nov elections.
We were having the momentum, just the senate dems be like “nope we are just controlled opposition” and decided to cave
In nearly every election apathy gets more votes than either candidate from the two major parties.
If you show up in these races and talk about issues that actually matter locally and not manufactured national wedge issues, you can win everything from School Board, Mayor, the US House and beyond.
The entrenched infrastructure pretty much requires you to run under one of the major party banners to even get on the ballot in most races, but hopefully we can get more candidates rejecting the premise and refusing to get dragged into debates on topics designed to divide us.
You Keller Texas with your hate in the name of god
Outstanding, this is how it done.
Yeah, that’ll happen when you learn the entire “movement” is just a front to protect pedophiles.
Does this matter much tho? Frankly, I always found school boards to be part of the problem. Power in education needs to be centralized, not decentralized.
This is how you do a bottom-up movement; you focus on local and make a difference for people’s lives. Really hoping we keep the momentum going and pair with similar progress. For example, we’re seeing the return of the Dem Socialist mayor nationally. As someone from the rustbelt, oh my god we needed those people back in action decades ago because we’ve had no competent urban planning and no counterweight to unchecked anti-public-interest corporate greed.
If we can get a successful Dem party tea party in the next ~7 years, then we might actually have a path back to being a functional country. If we put in the work and don’t derail ourselves or get derailed by the usual meddlers.
Rehire Democrats if you want any actual governing.
After making anti gay and trans policies then banning books, they had no more policies or knowledge of how to run a school district. I have 1st hand knowledge. I just retired from the Cypress district in Houston.
These fake culture wars were started by right wing billionaires like the Koch Brothers years ago, just to divide and distract the American people from REAL issues, from income inequality to climate change.
If this is a trend it’s important.
For the last 20+ years Democrats focused mainly on midterm and presidential election, with less focus on individual state elections.
Republicans have been playing a very long game instead, taking the approach that any election, no matter how small, from city councils to schoolboards would eventually result in entire states being Republican controlled from the Governor all the way down to the local dog catcher.
They realized this approach would give states lasting power and the ability to enact their agendas, enforcing draconian abortion laws and eroding the line between church and state.
Look at the rise of MAGA as a political force and movement as an example.
Democrats are 20 years behind, trying to play catch up. If they’ve learned you have to spend decades building your party’s national influence from the ground up, then fighting to take back school boards might not seem like much but it’s an important first step.
School boards are supposed to be non-partisan. As a current school board member, I hope the Dems being elected do a better job of that than the “conservatives” they’re replacing. The kids don’t need politics, they need funding and evidence-based improvements in education. (As well as parents reading to them and with them and encouraging literacy and numeracy at home.)
And in 4 years Americans will elect the fascists into power everywhere again, as they forget everything and trans people are somehow more dangerous than fascists again?
Just want to add that [this exact same scenario played out all over my home county of St. Charles, Missouri](https://www.stlpr.org/education/2025-04-10/st-charles-county-school-board-culture-war):
> The Francis Howell and Wentzville school districts, which have been at the center of culture war battles in recent years, will have more progressive leadership on their school boards this spring
this was after “mom’s for liberty” types went nuts here:
>The district is no stranger to controversy: Last year, the board voted to prohibit teachers from discussing gender identity in the classroom and rolled out a newly revised curriculum on Black history and literature, which faced criticism from students, parents and teachers.
St. Charles is [usually](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Charles_County,_Missouri#:~:text=Politics) a republican stronghold (though it was one of the few counties that moved to the left in the last presidential election), so this is significant.
I wish establishment democrats would take notes, because this strategy works.
I really think counties like St. Charles, formerly rural counties that are suburbanizing fast, are the key to democrats future.
*Finally*, that’s the best damn news I’ve heard in a while. We’re screwed if we let education fall to the wayside.
My wife was one of them. 3 seats up in the next election. If we win 2, we flip a 40 year run for local republicans.
That pendulum sure does swing. I’m all for a progressive push. But how long until there’s another conservative backlash and swing back? Hopefully this progressive push continues and it doesn’t happen, at least not in my kid’s lifetime.