A few weeks ago, I took a stroll through a nearby community called Madeira.
I used that walk and a few minutes that followed to show how easy it was to identify the extremists hiding in plain sight, trying to take over schools across the country. It turned out, in Ohio’s fourth highest-ranked school district, two Moms of Liberty candidates—one of whom had posted from DC on January 6th—were hoping to get themselves on the school board.
Wanna see how they did?
Amid an incredibly high turnout in Madeira for a mid-term, they (Kim Heath and Anita Grolmes) got absolutely crushed. Beaten by two long-term school and community advocates (Ann Ramos and Brad Cunningham).
See for yourself:
More than 3-1 for the school advocates! Now that is a rout.
And as many of you know, these routs happened way beyond Madeira, Ohio.
In Ohio, 70% of the candidates endorsed by Moms of Liberty and other conservative groups lost. (Spreadsheet here). And the same results (or better) happened in states all over the country.
Moms of Liberty endorsed 130 candidates across the country. Here’s how they did:
not a single candidate won in Minnesota (4 ran), Washington (4), Kansas and North Carolina
only one of 14 candidates endorsed in Iowa won
only one of six won in Virginia
five of 25 won in Ohio
four out of 19 won in New Jersey
similar candidates had a rough night in high profile races in Pennsylvania.
So what happened?
How did a group of candidates supported by a national, well-funded infrastructure do so badly?
Keep Your Toxic Politics Out of Our Schools!
The not so subtle hint of what was coming came from the poll I shared a few weeks ago.
Remember, the poll that showed that of all the things being debated in Ohio—abortion access, marijuana, minimum wage, gerrymandering—by far the least popular idea was something else? There was one idea that almost all Ohioans—Democrats, Republicans, Trump supporters, Biden supporters, men, women—agreed was an absolutely terrible one?
What was that absolutely hated idea?
It was the idea (sadly, happening right now) that the Ohio Governor take power from the State School Board of Ohio, some of whose members are directly elected by the people.
Just look at these numbers:
13-74! No other issue was even close to that unpopular.
And what does that tell us? It’s that voters don’t want the broken politics poisoning so much of the rest of our society to poison the education of our students in schools down the street.
That idea repels them so much that the prospect of the state school board being taken over by a Governor who won by 26 points only a year ago is the least popular idea listed among a number of high-voltage issues. And it’s not even close.
To make the point even more clear, look at this number…
Incredible.
Only 12%(!) of Ohioans (and this number was largely the same across all partisan divides) trust a Governor they just reelected overwhelmingly to make decisions over their schools.
Now….take that intense reaction and project it down to local school board races. Clearly, if milquetoast Mike DeWine is viewed as too political to be trusted making state education decisions, the prospect of hyper-politicized extremists bringing their politics to local school decisionmaking is triggering a fierce reaction among school voters all over the country.
Their powerful message could not be more clear: keep your toxic politics out of our schools.
Get Organized
That’s the theory—but how do you make it actually happen?
Thankfully, commendable grassroots efforts across the country showed the way this cycle, popping up across the country to expose who those extremists were to neighborhoods and voters who may not have seen them coming.
Here’s a great account of the amazing group in Madeira that, beginning around August, rallied an entire community to show up and reject those two extremist candidates. As one of their leaders explained on CNN.com:
“We were a rag-tag bunch of citizens who were willing to stand up and fight: A combination of parents, retired folks, and people with no children, some of us had a history of political activism (mine consisted mostly of writing postcards) and others had been involved in city government. A few worked for nonprofits. Another member knew enough to do basic website design. Someone else had experience helping another school district pass a levy….
We met weekly and we raised about $7,000 through website donations. We created a brand and a cohesive messaging strategy (This is where being a writer came in handy). We mined public data and learned to do targeted ads on Facebook. We designed and sent out mailers and did literature drops. We trained ourselves how to use texting programs….
[W]e stayed relentlessly focused on our message of “No culture wars. No extremism.”
Several prominent community members who typically voted Republican started echoing our message, saying that politicizing school boards was bad for our community and bad for our kids. It felt like a coalition, and we leaned into it.
That said, a constant thrum of conservative voices on our neighborhood Facebook page called us a hate group. They accused us of mudslinging and attacking the candidates personally. In fact, we only focused on things the candidates had publicly said and done, like declaring their first order of business was to start a curriculum committee — often the first step in efforts to strip materials that focus on diversity out of the classroom….
We may have been mild-mannered Midwesterners with little political experience, but we did not just roll over and hope that everything would work out. We mapped out a template to turn back future challenges from extreme groups.”
Amazing!
Or take a look at this underdog story out of Bucks County, PA, where a grassroots toppled a slate of school board incumbents whose right-wing push had brought chaos to Pennsylvania’s third largest school district. While the incumbents (and a right-wing PAC) were lavished support from one mega-donor, the grassroots candidates raised broad support—fueled by countless small donors—in order to get their message out. With that energy and support, they won all five seats that were up. One of the winners explained that “residents and parents were exhausted by the chaos that had become a normal part of monthly school board meetings”:
"I think that the community has had enough. They've seen what this former board majority has done and they said, 'No more. We deserve better as a district, as a community. This isn't who we are.’"
These groups took advantage of the dynamic I described in Saving Democracy, where I encouraged citizens across the country to “get to the front line” and engage actively in these school board races. Here’s what I wrote in May:
“It turns out, most people don’t want someone else’s parents or some outside group telling their own kids what they can read, or what ideas they can consider. I sure as hell don’t. Like me, most trust teachers and schools and librarians to do the job, and they vote accordingly.
More broadly, for the same reason people don’t want extremists taking over secretary of state offices (to then advance an extremist agenda), they really don’t want extremists taking over the school where they send their kids to learn every day. That’s an even more personal impact.
So the top goal in battling this new wave of censorship is to get to the front lines of that battle, where victories are just waiting to be won: state and local school boards, and positions that determine who leads public libraries.
Value these races as central to the broader battle over democracy.
Leave no seats uncontested. Anywhere.
Leave no incumbent extremists unchallenged. Anywhere.
Take it as your personal responsibility to fill these seats wherever you are. And if the candidate taking on that run is not you, help him or her in any way you can.”
Next.
The lessons could not be more clear.
Most people don’t want toxic politics brought to their schools.
Organizing at the school district level to inform those voters works.
Now, it’s time to apply these lessons far more early next time around. (And in those places where the extremist candidates did win, do what Bucks County did and start organizing to topple them now. Remember, the chaos they will surely bring is not popular.)
And you can be sure that these right-wing groups are already regrouping and, potentially, rebranding. To get even more under the radar. They will have a lot of money behind theoir effort.
So it’s never too early to build your grassroots army to rebuff their next attempt. As our champions of democracy from Madeira caution:
“Because while they may be defeated for now, they won’t stop trying. So, if Moms for Liberty is eyeing your district, start getting organized now. Find your pack. Create your PAC. And get ready to fight.”
Well done, everyone! Keep going!
Excellent and encouraging read! Tho I think they're branding themselves as "Moms for Liberty", rather than "Moms of Liberty". Almost as hilariously dishonest a branding as "The Freedom Caucus".
As the saying goes, Nailed It! And David I think you deserve a lot of credit for keeping us all focused.