Democratic-backed candidates scored major wins in school board races across the country on Election Night, signaling voter fatigue with Republican-led culture wars over books, bathrooms, and LGBTQ+ inclusion. In Pennsylvania alone, Democrats flipped at least two dozen seats. In Cypress, Texas, they picked up three seats, ending two years of Republican control. Candidates endorsed by Moms for Liberty and Turning Point USA lost in New Jersey’s Ocean City, and Republicans also lost ground in suburbs around Columbus, Ohio, according to Politico.
The shift comes after years of heated conservative campaigns targeting masks, trans-inclusive policies, and what they called “pornographic” books. Anti-LGBTQ+ “parents’ rights” groups such as Moms for Liberty and Leave Our Kids Alone rose to prominence with support from GOP leaders, including Ron DeSantis and Glenn Youngkin. But this year, voters prioritized the economy and school safety over transgender issues, the Cato Institute found. Lesley Guilmart, newly elected in Cypress, said, “Folks just want their school boards to be boring again…They want normalcy.” Democrats there emphasized restoring basic governance, especially after conservatives banned 13 textbook chapters on climate change, diversity, and vaccines.
Pennsylvania winner, Daniel Kimicata, said, “National politics is very performative, but local politics is very personal…One of the messages that really resonated with voters was that there is no national political agenda that we’re bringing to the school board.”
