DeSantis and M4L target incumbent school Board members in Florida. They win anyway.

Eighteen months ago, on February 21, 2023, Governor DeSantis met with Florida House Speaker Paul Renner, Florida Commissioner of Education, Manny Diaz Jr., Florida GOP Chairman Christian Ziegler (infamous for a sex scandal), and Tina Descovich and Tiffany Justice, co-founders of Moms for Liberty, for a strategy session to identify school board members who, according to the governor, did not protect parental rights and or shield students from “woke” ideologies. During that strategy session, DeSantis unveiled his initial 2024 school board target list, which featured 14 school board members across the state who he felt did not “protect parental rights and have failed to protect students from woke ideologies” and announced plans to work with “key leaders in the state’s school board reform movement” to identify and recruit new DeSantis-aligned candidates to serve on school boards across Florida.

Fox News covered the story, writing:

“Our children’s education is a no-fail mission. We will continue to support Florida school board candidates who promote the components of a world-class education and defeat those that are focused on the latest ideological trends,” Renner said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Make no mistake, we intend to win as Florida’s future is too important.”

Descovich and Justice said in a statement to Fox News Digital that DeSantis’ leadership in education and focus on school board races “has been a game changer for Florida.”

“He is building the model for how governors should champion parental rights in every state in the country,” they said. “We are so thankful for his willingness to take on this fight!”

The meeting was so important, they documented it with a photo which they shared on social media.

Election Day was Tuesday.

Let’s look and see how successful this group was in their campaign against their targeted school board members (SPOILER ALERT: not very successful. It looks like Floridians are beginning to tire of censorship, division and culture wars):

Brevard County School Board

• Jennifer Jenkins  chose not to run for re-election after being drawn out of her district and established Educated We Stand, a national, non-partisan organization “solely dedicated to blunting the progress of far-right school takeovers.” Launched in May, Educated We Stand endorsed 17 school board candidates in Florida of which 10 of their endorsed candidates won their primary school board elections outright & 5 others advanced to runoffs in the November election.
• Jenkins’ open seat was won by DeSantis endorsed John Thomas.

Duval County School Board

• Kelly Coker chose not to run for re-election. Her open seat was won by DeSantis endorsed Tony Ricardo.
• Cindy Pearson, won her re-election defeating a DeSantis endorsed local M4L leader by 440 votes.

Hillsborough County School Board

• Nadia Combs won her re-election with against Layla Collins, a DeSantis endorsed candidate who was also formerly endorsed by U.S. Senator Marco Rubio. Collins is the wife of Republican state Senator Jay Collins. She raised over $130,000 (almost twice as much as Combs) from GOP PACs and other donors. On election night, Combs said “Its not about politics, it’s not about endorsement, it’s not about money, it comes down to who the candidate is and what they have to offer the community.”
• Jessica Vaughn also won re-election against a DeSantis endorsed candidate.

Indian River County School Board

• Peggy Jones won re-election against DeSantis endorsed candidate
• Brian Barefoot mistakenly resigned (read about it here) and was replaced by a DeSantis appointee, Kevin McDonald, who was defeated by newcomer David Dyer.

Miami-Dade County School Board

• Luisa Santos overwhelmingly defeated her Moms for Liberty opponent, with more than 60% of the vote.

Pinellas County School Board

• Laura Hine won 69%-30% over her DeSantis endorsed, Moms for Liberty backed opponent. Hine voiced her support for keeping school board races nonpartisan, saying “We have got to stay focused on that work at hand and not be subject to the social political winds. Education is vital. And it has to be stable.”
• Eileen Long also defeated her DeSantis endorsed, Moms for Liberty backed opponent. The Pinellas school board had been targeted by its local Moms for Liberty organization, who intended to “flip” the board along ideological lines. Long admonished those attempts: “People want sanity. People want common sense. And people believe we should educate everyone,” Long said. “The people have spoken.”

St. Lucie County School Board

• Jack Kelly did not seek re-election. His open seat was won, unopposed, by Terissa Aronson.

Volusia County School Board

• Anita Burnette did not seek re-election. Her seat will be determined in a November run-off.
• Carl Persis moves on to a November run-off with DeSantis endorsed opponent.

Sarasota County School Board

• Tom Edwards, who has been the sole voice of reason on the Sarasota board after the M4L takeover in 2022, was handily re-elected, with 56% of the vote in a three-way race.

Eighteen months ago, DeSantis and Company targeted 14 school board members for defeat. They were NOT successful. Eight of their targeted candidates won outright, one is headed to a runoff, and five decided not to run again. Of the five who chose not to run again (and who can blame them… school board campaigns in Florida have become brutal), two seats were flipped to DeSantis endorsees. Predictions that DeSantis was, once again, “on the cusp of reshaping Florida’s school boards” did not come to fruition.

On Tuesday, across Florida, voters rejected M4LMayhem. As Pinellas incumbent Eileen Long said “People want sanity. People want common sense. And people believe we should educate everyone,” Long said. “The people have spoken.”