On Tuesday, several anti-queer and anti-transgender candidates backed by Governor Ron DeSantis lost their school board races in Florida. The defeats included suburban districts like Sarasota, an early focal point of DeSantis’ anti-LGBTQ+ culture wars, and Pinellas County, a swing district that supported Donald Trump in 2016. Many of these candidates were associated with Moms For Liberty and campaigned on anti-LGBTQ+ platforms. Their losses continue a growing trend in which anti-LGBTQ+ politics are becoming increasingly detrimental to candidates ambitions.
In mid-July, Governor Ron DeSantis released a list of endorsed candidates for school board races across the state. Most of these endorsements were in Republican-leaning counties, which should have given DeSantis an advantage in the final outcomes. Many of the candidates ran on openly anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-trans platforms. You can view a list of his endorsements here, along with their final outcomes: green for candidates who won, red for those who lost, and yellow for those heading to a runoff:
Among the most impactful losses were Erika Picard and Danielle Marolf in Pinellas County, where, according to the popular local political blog Florida Politics, three Moms for Liberty-aligned candidates ran. Two victories would have given these far-right candidates control of the school board in this politically important swing county. Both Picard and Marolf ran on fervently anti-LGBTQ+ platforms. For instance, Erika Picard frequently promoted the hoax that litter boxes were being placed in classrooms, stating, “When you hear about kids identifying as whatever, and we’re now accommodating them with a kitty litter box in the bathroom, that’s a problem.”
“And I didn’t make that up. This is a family that actually had this happen to them in Hillsborough County schools,” she added. Hillsborough County Schools denied the allegation, which was originally promoted by Libs of TikTok and has been widely fact-checked as false.
Meanwhile, Marolf, a private religious school operator, often carried a copy of Gender Queer to her campaign events. Gender Queer is a frequently targeted book that tells a genderqueer coming-of-age story and has been cited to justify book bans on hundreds of LGBTQ+ titles in other parts of the country.
Another surprising result came in Sarasota, where conservative candidate Karen Rose lost her race as an incumbent and current chair of the Sarasota County School Board. Under her leadership, the Sarasota County School Board voted to reject federal Title IX guidelines and passed a resolution to “protect female sports,” “acknowledge the importance of single-sex facilities,” and stated that “sex is an immutable characteristic that cannot be changed, fluid, or altered.”
DeSantis-endorsed candidate Derek Barrs even lost his race in the conservative county of Flagler, which was part of DeSantis’ congressional district when he was in congress and has been considered “home turf” for the Governor.
“The results are clear: Floridians are tired of the politics of rage and division. Voters across the state — Democrats, Independents, and moderate Republicans — stood up to reject the extreme candidates backed by DeSantis and his allies. This election was a rejection, a repudiation, and a rebuke of an agenda that has sought to divide us rather than unite us.” said Stratton Pollitzer, chair of Equality Florida Action PAC. “Floridians have had enough of DeSantis and his cronies ignoring real issues while doubling down on censorship and government control to pander to extremists. They want representatives who will stand up for the rights of every parent and restore access to healthcare and quality education.”
The outcome of these school board elections in Florida mirrors the 2023 school board races races, where over 70% of Moms For Liberty and Project 1776 candidates lost their races across the United States. Despite its roots in Florida, the organization — known for its fiercely anti-LGBTQ+ platform — faces mounting setbacks. The wave of anti-trans panic and book bans seems to have crested, and now, the string of defeats has reached the very state where so much of it began.
This piece was republished with permission from Erin In The Morning.
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