RFS feel-good update (8/29): Just in time for back-to-school...
School boards, school boards, school boards.
Hi all -
Last week was Election Day for 22 RFS candidates — we had a great day!
Congrats to Bryan Eastman (Gainesville City Council), Peter Boyle (East Valley Institute of Tech governing board in AZ), Carrie Blumert (Oklahoma County Commissioner), Jabari Brisport (NY Senate), Kristen Gonzalez (NY Senate), Sarah Rockwell (Alachua County School Board, FL), A.J. D’Amico (FL house), Maria Salamanca (Orange County School Board, FL), Caprice Edmond (Pinellas County School Board, FL), Sarah Henry (FL House), Michele Rayner Goolsby (FL House), and others for winning big in their elections last week.
I am obsessed with this video of Ashley Gantt finding out she beat an anti-abortion anti-gay Democratic incumbent member of the FL House. Watch it and try not to get emotional.
You’ll note: We had 5 school board candidates running in Florida, 3 of them won either outright or will be moving on to the general election or a runoff — that’s great!
And, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to what we’re up against…
Ron DeSantis had 30 school board candidates up last week; 21 of his folks won, flipping five school boards to conservative control. (A few of them went on to celebrate with members of the Proud Boys.)
And he didn’t stop there: Last week Ron DeSantis suspended four of Broward County school board members and appointed political allies to replace them. (Coincidentally this happened the same day RFS alum & Broward County School Board member Sarah Leonardi wrote a note to RFS supporters on why races like hers matters.)
DeSantis isn’t the only one engaging in school board races. The 1776 Project PAC, an organization dedicated to helping conservative and extremist candidates win school board seats, flipped the Miami-Dade School Board to a conservative majority. (Fortunately RFS alum Luisa Santos and Lucia Baez-Geller stay in charge to fight back.)
Meanwhile in Texas, a far-right Christian cell phone company took their cues from Steve Bannon’s urging that conservatives needed to win school board seats to “save the nation” and spent $600k on 11 school board races across Texas, ultimately winning every seat — now those same school boards are banning books, forcing posters that read “In God We Trust” into all schools, and restricting how teachers can discuss race and gender.
Underpinning much of this are the Moms for Liberty, who are themselves funded by GOP mega-donors. This horrifying deep dive into their recent national summit — where DeSantis and Rick Scott, among others, gave keynote speeches — gives you a sense of what we’re up against. MFL had 43 wins in Florida last week, overlapping with much of Ron DeSantis and the 1776 Project’s candidates.
They’re also thinking bigger than school boards, as these races can turnout voters who might otherwise stay home, generating reverse coattails. Rick Scott made the implicit explicit: “[He] laid out the sweeping political strategy in no uncertain terms. “If you guys run, you’re gonna make everybody else win … I’m responsible for the next Republican Senatorial Committee. You will make sure senators win all across the country, congressmen and women win all across the country.”
Run for Something is one of only a handful of progressive organizations working on local school board races all across the country. In the past 5+ years, we’ve helped elect more than 100 school board members; we’ve endorsed another 54 this year (with more to come.)
That’s great, meaningful work that I’m incredibly proud of. And, it’s not sufficient given what we’re up against. There are 80k+ school board races across the country, 20k of which happen any given year (and only half of those happen in November…). We’re building an org big enough and deep enough year-round to be able to tackle them all. Your support matters.
In other RFS community updates:
In honor of Women’s Equality Day, our team pulled together 20 amazing women running for state and local office. Pick a few (or all!) to help this November.
Charlotte City Councilmember Virginia Watlington led the city to be the first in NC to implement protections against source-of-income discrimination, protecting people who pay for housing with vouchers.
St. Petersburg City Councilmember argues for the city to treat housing like a public utility to help solve the Florida city’s housing crisis.
IL state house candidate Nabeela Syed joined the Washington Post’s TikTok to talk about young people running for office.
PA State Sen. Lindsey Williams introduced legislation to provide free meals for all students.
This is the whole ball game, from RFS candidate April Prim in Texas.
I really liked this thread from Waterloo City Councilmember Jonathan Grieder, explaining why we need more young people in leadership.
In other related reading: The NYT on how state and local government can slow climate change is music to our collective ears.
In upcoming events: We’re hitting the road! You can join us online or in person for inspiring conversations in San Antonio, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Lansing, or Phoenix.
We’ve got two more rounds of endorsements and two more weeks of primaries before November’s big election day (9/6 in MA and 9/13 in RI, DE, & NH, among others) — thanks for helping us us keep up the momentum as we go into the final stretch!
- Amanda