Democrats sweep school boards amid culture war backlash
The party put money and effort into school board races to remove Republicans. The strategy succeeded.
An empty elementary school classroom is seen on Aug. 17, 2021, in the Bronx borough of New York. | Brittainy Newman/AP
Cypress Texas, a Houston-area suburb, draws families with its top-notch schools. For two years, Republicans ran the school board. They banned textbook sections about climate change, diversity and vaccines.
This month, Democrats gained control of the board. They won three seats ending the conservative rule.
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Democrats sweep school boards in culture war backlash
The party put money into school board races and found candidates to kick out Republicans. This plan succeeded.
An empty elementary school classroom is seen.
An empty elementary school classroom is seen on Aug. 17, 2021, in the Bronx borough of New York. | Brittainy Newman/AP
By Liz Crampton and Madison Fernandez
11/21/2025 05:55 AM EST
In Cypress Texas, a Houston-area suburb that draws families with its top-notch schools, Republicans used their two-year control of the school board to stop teaching about climate change, diversity and vaccines.
This month, Democrats gained control winning three more seats on the school board and ending conservative rule.
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From Texas to Pennsylvania to Ohio, candidates with Democratic support won campaigns in some of the country's biggest school systems and in key political areas. They focused on test scores and bus safety instead of arguments about which bathrooms transgender students should use and banning books from school libraries. The outcome showed election results at the local level that highlighted the backlash against Republicans by swing voters earlier this month. These results were made clearer by Democrats' strong performance across the country, as Americans rejected the party in power.
In Pennsylvania, Democrats won at least two dozen school board seats, according to an ongoing count from the progressive group Pipeline Fund. This quiet shift happened because voters grew tired of the culture wars that helped the MAGA movement take over school boards and spark local interest in politics during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Besides Texas, Republicans lost seats in the outskirts of Columbus Ohio, and the key battleground state of Pennsylvania. This came from well-funded campaigns led by local leaders. School board races don't have party labels, but candidates get support and money from partisan groups.
"People just want their school boards to be dull again," said Lesley Guilmart one of the new members elected in Cypress-Fairbanks. "They want things to be normal. After a very partisan extreme majority took over the board, people from all political sides felt upset."