Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ bid to take over Florida’s school boards failed Tuesday night. Only six of the 23 candidates he endorsed won their races, and another six are headed to runoffs in November, while the DeSantis-linked Moms for Liberty, a far-right organization, won only seven of the fourteen candidates it supported.
It was a major setback for Florida’s culture warriors, who have worked tirelessly to transform the state’s public schools into a haven for their ultraconservative and extreme ideas.
DeSantis, a supporter of Donald Trump, took office in 2018. After winning by a decisive margin in 2022, the governor accelerated his culture wars agenda by signing a flurry of bills targeting people of color and the LGBTQ+ community. He has championed the ”Stop the WOKE lawwhich censors what teachers can say about race in the classroom, and the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Billa measure that made it illegal for teachers to discuss sexual orientation and gender identity. (He also said picked a fight with Disney (after the company half-heartedly spoke out against the measure.)
There was a time when it seemed like the far-right message of DeSantis and Moms for Liberty would completely take over Florida school boards.
“They were able to take advantage of the fact that people weren’t paying attention to school board elections,” Maya Henson Carey, a research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center, told HuffPost. “They were able to play on the politics of fear.”
In 2022, DeSantis was seen as a leading presidential candidate; when he supported candidates in 25 school boardsraces, nearly all of which he won. That fall, he defeated Democratic candidate Charlie Crist by 19 points and won his re-election bid for governor.
Moms for Liberty, which was founded in Florida in 2021, has praised DeSantis and the governor spoke at their summits in 2022 and 2023. Last year, DeSantis spoke appointed one of the group’s co-founders to the Florida Commission on Ethics, a commission charged with investigating Florida officials for ethics violations. After the 2022 election, the group reported a 80% win rate in Florida.
But then there were some potential signs that constant attacks on people of color or LGBTQ+ people weren’t winning strategies after all. Most notably, DeSantis, once seen as a formidable rival to Trump for the top of the Republican ticket, campaigned on taking his Florida agenda nationwide and burned early in the 2024 primary.
Tuesday’s election results indicate that Florida may not be all that enthusiastic about DeSantis’ agenda.
In Pinellas County, DeSantis and Moms for Liberty’s attempt to reshape the school board to a conservative majority failed. Two incumbents, Laura Hine and Eileen Long, handy reports the conservative candidates, while the third seat will be decided in a second round.
“People want common sense. People want common sense. And people believe that we need to educate everyone,” Long told The Associated Press about her victory. “The people have spoken.”
In Sarasota County, Karen Rose, who was endorsed by both DeSantis and Moms for Liberty, lost her raceAccording to the Tampa Bay Times, Rose is linked to Bridget ZieglerMoms for Liberty co-founder and Sarasota board member who was caught in a sex scandal with her husband, Christian Ziegler. Despite repeated calls to resign, Christian Ziegler remains on the board.
After a grand jury found “widespread wrongdoing” in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, DeSantis four school board members dismissed in reliably blue Broward County and replaced them with conservative members. On Tuesday, two of those appointees lost to challengers.
The culture war waged by DeSantis and far-right groups can be broadly described as extremists fighting against equality and progress. The exact details of the moral panic change constantly — Moms for Liberty was founded when conservatives decried mask-wearing in schools — but the demonization of minority groups remains the same.
In Florida, the attacks have manifested as a crusade against books that discuss race, sexual orientation and gender identity. The movement has adopted the term “parents’ rights,” essentially advocating against everything that white conservative parents don’t like. Culture warriors have railed against teaching race and history, and have smeared teachers as “caregivers” and “indoctrinators.” DeSantis has emerged as the de facto leader, pushing his “anti-woke” agenda across the state.
But now, after another setback, it appears that this iteration of the culture wars may be coming to an end.
“Parental rights movements don’t last forever,” Carey said. “At first it’s a splash, but then people wake up to the real stories they’re pushing.”
