TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida school board candidates backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis were defeated in several counties Tuesday, results the Republican’s opponents say are a rejection of his conservative education agenda.
Incumbent school board members in one of Florida’s largest swing counties appear to have held off a challenge from candidates backed by DeSantis, according to preliminary results. Activists had hoped that three challengers backed by the local chapter of Moms for Liberty would win a conservative majority in Pinellas County, home to St. Petersburg on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
But unofficial results show that current School Board President Laura Hine and incumbent Eileen Long retained their seats. They argued that a political shift on the board could unsettle the district and distract from its mission of improving student achievement.
In a third race for an open seat on the Pinellas City Council, candidates Stacy Geier and Katie Blaxberg appeared headed for a runoff after no one in the three contending parties received more than 50% of the vote.
With 100% of voting precincts reporting, Hine, the council president, won 69% of the vote to 30% for DeSantis-backed challenger Danielle Marolf, according to preliminary results. Incumbent Long won 54% of the vote to 45% for Erika Picard, who was also backed by the Republican governor.
“We need to stay focused on the work ahead of us and not be swayed by the sociopolitical winds. Education is vital. And it needs to be stable,” Hine told The Associated Press ahead of Tuesday’s election.
In the third race for board, Stacy Geier received 37% of the vote to Katie Blaxberg’s 34%, with third-party candidate Brad DeCorte taking 28%, according to preliminary county results. Geier was endorsed by DeSantis and the local chapter of Moms for Liberty, while Blaxberg has argued that parental rights activists have overreached, with some equating books with pornography and labeling teachers as “groomers.” She found herself on the opposing side of the local Moms for Liberty chapter and has been targeted by conservative activists online.
“The misinformation that has been spread by this group of people and the intent to … sow distrust in our teachers,” Blaxberg said, “people are fed up with it.”
Much of the political debate in the election has revolved around “parent rights,” a movement that emerged from opposition to pandemic measures in schools but is now fueled by heated complaints about lessons on identity, race and history.
Long, one of Pinellas’ sitting senators, said she sees the results as a warning to the governor.
“People want common sense. People want common sense. And people believe that we need to educate everybody,” Long said. “The people have spoken.”
Hillsborough County incumbents hold off conservative challengers
In neighboring Hillsborough County, home to Tampa, two current board members — who were on DeSantis’ list of incumbents he wanted voted out — both appeared to resist challenges from candidates the governor had backed.
With 100% of polling places reporting, incumbent Nadia Combs had garnered 52% of the vote, to 37% for DeSantis-backed Layla Collins. A third candidate, Julie Magill, had just shy of 10% of the vote.
Meanwhile, incumbent board member Jessica Vaughn received 58% of the vote, compared to 41% for DeSantis-backed Myosha Powell.
Collins and Powell were among 23 school board candidates DeSantis endorsed this cycle, in an effort to continue his war on “woke” in public schools. Combs and Vaughn, meanwhile, had the backing of the Florida Democratic Party, which threw its support behind 11 school board candidates across the state.
In Broward County, DeSantis’ appointees are being voted out
Meanwhile, in South Florida, two conservative school board members appointed by DeSantis in generally Democratic Broward County appear to have lost their seats to challengers, preliminary results show.
DeSantis picked Torey Alston to join the Broward board in 2022 after the governor removed four elected board members from office after a grand jury found them guilty of mismanagement and neglect of duty. DeSantis appointed Daniel Foganholi to the board in 2023 after a voter-chosen candidate was barred from running because of a prior criminal conviction.
When the county’s voters got the chance to decide Tuesday, they chose to fire the two political appointees.
With 100% of Broward precincts reporting, the unofficial count shows Maura McCarthy Bulman with 51% of the vote, to 19% for Foganholi. A third candidate, Chris Canter, received 28%.
Rebecca Thompson, who was endorsed by the Democratic Party in Florida, received 66% of the vote, compared to 33% for Alston.
The three elected incumbent senators running to retain their seats on Broward’s board — Debbi Hixon, Jeff Holness and Sarah Leonardi — each won by more than 40% margins in their respective races, according to the county’s unofficial results.
___ Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
