ANNALS OF DeSANTISTAN: DeSantis-endorsed school board candidates in Florida mostly struggled. (Tampa Bay Times)

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DeSantis-endorsed school board candidates in Florida mostly struggled

More lost than won in Tuesday’s primary elections. 

Ron DeSantis speaks during the Moms for Liberty Joyful Warriors national summit at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown on June 30, 2023, in Philadelphia. In the 2024 election cycle, DeSantis endorsed 23 school board candidates, many of whom support the Moms for Liberty agenda.[ MICHAEL M. SANTIAGO | Getty Images North America ]

By 

• Jeffrey S. SolochekTimes staff

Published Earlier today

Things didn’t go well Tuesday in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ attempt to push Florida’s local school boards toward his agenda.

Eleven of the 23 candidates he endorsed appeared to have lost their races, while six won and five headed to November runoffs. One remained too close to call just after 9 p.m.

The outcome for the governor’s effort was particularly poor in the Tampa Bay region, where the incumbents he targeted as being too liberal — Laura Hine and Eileen Long in Pinellas County, and Nadia Combs and Jessica Vaughn in Hillsborough County — handily won reelection.

Those results heartened Katie Blaxberg, another Pinellas County candidate headed for a November runoff against a DeSantis-endorsed candidate.

“Pinellas said no to Moms for Liberty,” Blaxberg said, noting that many of the hopefuls DeSantis backed also had support of the conservative organization behind school book censorship and the eradication of diversity and inclusion initiatives.

In other parts of the state, Sarasota County incumbent Karen Rose, who had been allied with Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler, was ousted from her post. Two Indian River County candidates backed by DeSantis lost, as did one in Pasco County, one in Flagler County and one in St. Lucie County.

Two of three candidates DeSantis supported in Duval County won, as did one of two in Brevard County, with the other headed to a runoff.

With parental rights and freedom from “woke-ness” among his battle cries, DeSantis had stressed the importance of achieving such goals from the ground up — starting with local school boards.

Heading into the 2024 election season, the governor endorsed 23 candidates in 14 mostly Republican counties, aiming to bring more like-minded conservatives to the boards that control what students learn. DeSantis backed a mix of incumbents and challengers he said would build upon efforts to give parents more control over their children’s education, remove objectionable books from schools, eliminate diversity initiatives and accomplish a host of his other policy objectives.

Some observers noted that he tapped many candidates who likely could have won without him, suggesting he was trying to burnish an image as an influencer without delving into communities like Orange and Broward counties, where his own support is thinner.

DeSantis, who still appears to have aspirations for the presidency, attempted to build upon 2022 efforts to swing school boards, a first in modern Florida politics. That time out, he found success in all but a handful of races he waded into.

This year, he took the added step of targeting sitting board members in several counties, including Pinellas and Hillsborough, saying they were too liberal. Groups backing the slate endorsed by DeSantis, such as Empower Parents Florida and Celebrate Achievement, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on mailers both touting the candidates they liked and trashing those they opposed.

They attacked the opposition as socialists advancing radical agendas that harm students and as pedophiles for wanting to curb censorship of library books that mention sexuality.

The races grew nasty and partisan in advance of a November referendum seeking to amend the state Constitution so school board seats no longer would be nonpartisan. The Republican-dominated Legislature placed the item on the ballot, arguing that voters have the right to know the political leanings of the candidates seeking to govern local public schools.

Besides, they contended, the campaigns have become increasingly more partisan anyway, so the net effect would be minimal.

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  Jeffrey S. Solochek is an education reporter covering K-12 education policy and schools. Reach him at jsolochek@tampabay.com.