Democratic-backed candidates beat out Republican-backed ones in numerous school board elections nationwide during the recent Democratic Election Night elections, showing a successful repudiation of Republican messaging about banning books and restricting transgender restroom use. Democratic groups hope the recent wave of victories can be repeated in the new wave of school board elections next year.

Republican takeover of school boards spiked after the COVID-19 shutdown, amid conservative upset over mask mandates, trans-inclusive policies, “pornographic” library books, and progressive curriculum (like so-called critical race theory).

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Republicans tried to make Virginia’s elections all about trans people. They lost everything.

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 (R-FL) and Glenn Youngkin (R-VA), who repeated their rhetoric and platformed their leaders.

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.

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School board races are usually nonpartisan, but candidates receive endorsements and funding assistance from partisan groups, the publication explained. However, this election cycle, the economy and school safety ranked higher for school board voters than trans issues, according to an analysis from the Cato Institute.

“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.

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.

The group hopes that voters will respond favorably to seeing Democratic candidates improving their communities and young people’s lives rather than focusing on conservative cultural clashes that bring the national Republican agenda into smaller districts with bigger concerns.

Neal McCluskey, director of the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom, said just as many school board seats will be up for grabs in 2025, leaving open the possibility of more Democratic wins. McCluskey also said that parents’ dissatisfaction with school districts has lessened, and parents are showing “fatigue” over constant culture war battles.

“National politics is very performative, but local politics is very personal,” said Daniel Kimicata, one of the Democrats elected to a Pennsylvania school board. “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.”

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