“Folks just want their school boards to be boring again,” said Lesley Guilmart, who was one of three Democrats to take back the majority in the Cypress-Fairbanks school board in the Houston, Texas, area. “They want normalcy. Once the board was taken over by a super partisan extremist majority, folks across the political spectrum were dismayed.”
Conservative groups like Moms for Liberty got candidates elected who opposed school closures and mask mandates during the pandemic and argued that public schools promoted progressive values, and Republicans used the energy around those battles to leverage wins in state and national elections.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis elevated Moms for Liberty and attempted to use his "war on woke" as a springboard for his presidential campaign, and Donald Trump's anti-trans rights attacks on Kamala Harris proved to be one of his most effective ads during his 2024 re-election campaign, but those issues seem to be fading as voters continue worrying about rising costs.
“Covid went away, and the dissatisfaction with school districts abated," said Neal McCluskey, director of the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom. It’s not totally gone, but it lessened. I think we’re more at a fatigue level.”
Democratic-aligned group Pipeline Fund, which is recruiting candidates for school board and state legislative races, are targeting states all over the map, and its founder and executive director, Denise Feriozzi, argued that success in those races will help change negative perceptions about the party.
“When you have a Democratic brand that is suffering, you can show people what it actually looks like to be a Democrat in Mobile, Alabama, and Anchorage, Alaska,” Feriozzi said.
Democrats notched wins in this month's off-year elections in New Jersey, Virginia and elsewhere, and some believe voters prefer local politics in school board races than national issues, with GOP candidates in New Jersey's Ocean City Board of Education race losing despite touting endorsements from Moms for Liberty and Turning Point USA.
“For many parents, those endorsements signaled a strong commitment to parental involvement and transparency in public education,” said Robin Shaffer, who was on the losing slate along with two incumbents, said in an email.
Shaffer said he and his fellow Republicans were "proud" of the endorsements but conceded they may have been a drag with some voters.
"For others, those associations carried national-level baggage and triggered intense backlash based on misconceptions about our actual views," he said.
