Two weeks ago, Florida held its August primaries. Across the state, voters went to the polls to cast ballots for a litany of partisan primaries from Congress, to State House, to county commission. I covered these partisan primaries extensively in my 3-part preview series – which can be found on my main website. In addition to these primaries, however, were a slew of races for non-partisan local offices. The most prominent of these are city council and school board seats.
These races are non-partisan by law (except Jacksonville City Council but that’s another story). However, thanks to the actions of Ron DeSantis, these races have become much more partisan in recent years. DeSantis made major efforts to flip seats in 2022 and he came into the 2024 primaries with a list of races he wanted to exert his influence in.
There was only one problem for Ron – he got his ass handed to him this year! So with that, I am going to talk about the 2024 School Board races.
Ron DeSantis vs School Boards
Since becoming Governor in 2019, Ron DeSantis has increasingly sought to mold the state in his image. This has included several blatantly anti-Democratic moves as well as blatantly partisan efforts. These include, but are not limited to
- Delaying special elections for Majority-Black Districts
- Suspending officials with little legal reason to do so
- Getting involved in gerrymandering the state’s congressional district
As these efforts went on, DeSantis and the far-right also began a war on public education officials. This article covers much of this history well. It started with COVID and masking decisions, something that DeSantis embraced at first then ran away from as he sought to cultivate the far-right. Then post-COVID, DeSantis and his allies opted to use the LGBT community as a social wedge issue; attacking gay and transgender rights. This also came as the group “Moms for Liberty” – a far-right hate group (as designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center), formed to “protect kids” from “woke ideologies.” I wrote about this issue twice.
Then in 2022, as DeSantis ran for re-election, he endorsed 30 candidates for school boards across Florida. These boards, varying in size by county, are all officially non-partisan. However, DeSantis sought to inject partisanship in them, declaring Florida is “where WOKE goes to die.” Amid a massive resources advantage toward the GOP and a historically bad Democratic turnout (which I discussed here) – most of DeSantis’ candidates won there races.
New conservative majorities were established in places like Brevard and Sarasota; which shortly after fired their superintendents. After 2022, DeSantis was the unquestionably the most powerful politician in Florida. It seemed whoever he put his weight behind was destined to win.
That didn’t last long.
The 2024 Targets
It was not long after the 2022 midterms that DeSantis then turned his eye to 2024. With his disastrous Presidential campaign months away from being announced, DeSantis announced to Fox News in February of 2023 that he had a list of 14 incumbents he wanted to target for defeat. Broken down by party: 8 were Democrats, 3 were Republicans, 3 were independents.
This was just a preliminary list and would evolve with time, but don’t worry I will go over how these races shook out. As the next year and half went on, several other races that would become high-profile targets. However, DeSantis and Mom’s for Liberty would eventually not be the only players in school board races. By 2024, the Florida Democratic Party, still rebuilding after the 2022 disaster that forced out the last chair (read my initial post-2022 takes here), had a string of high-profile wins. Under Chairwoman Nikki Fried and the team that has been built, Democrats worked with candidates to and local orgs to flip the Jacksonville Mayoral Election and House District 35; races you can read about in my archives. Following this, the party announced the Take Back Local campaign for down-ballot races. This program targeted several school board seats for either flipping or defending. Some of these races overlapped with DeSantis targets, while others did not.
Meanwhile, Mom’s for Liberty suffered a major black eye when one of its co-founders, Sarasota School Board member Bridget Ziegler, was implicated in a major sex scandal. In 2024, Florida GOP Chairmanship after Christian Ziegler was forced out when it was revealed he and his wife, Bridget, engaged in a 3-way relationship with other women. The revelation came as Christian was accused of sexual assault by the third woman. While Christian was not charged with assault, the investigation revealed he and Bridget engaged in an open marriage where Bridget sought Christian to sleep with other women and engage in 3-ways with him. Bridget, who is an anti-LGBT voice on the school board, has resisted calls to resign despite her blatant hypocrisy.
It was amid this dynamic that Ron DeSantis would eventually release an official list of endorsed candidates. This included challengers to incumbents and a slew of conservative incumbents facing challenges. This did leave out some of the races DeSantis has discussed targeting back in February of 2023.
At the same time, the Take Back Local campaign announced 11 candidates they were endorsing. Many additional races did not have formal endorsements but were part of broader proxy wars. In some cases Florida Democrats did not endorse because such an endorsement would hurt candidates. The same goes for DeSantis leaving several races off his lists.
The 2024 August Results
Once all the results came in, the story for DeSantis were not good. The results showed that most of the races he got involved in went against his candidates. First thing’s first, how did everything shake out with the initial list of targets he laid out in 2023? The table of results is below.
Of his fourteen targets, EIGHT won re-election, five retired, and one incumbent is in a runoff. Lets take a moment with these results. First off, being unable to directly defeat any incumbent is a major shift from his 2022 success; with one race in a runoff that may give him one win – maybe. The retirement seats also showed mixed results. As the table shows, some seats did not see DeSantis formally endorse anyone.
In addition to these targets, DeSantis made a slew of endorsements for other seats that saw several of his candidates lose. In total DeSantis endorsed 23 candidates directly: only SIX of them won, ELEVEN lost, and SIX are in runoffs. That means for DeSantis needs to win all the runoffs to just pass 50%; far from the strong performance he had in 2022. Meanwhile, the Take Back Local program won SEVEN races, lost TWO, and and has TWO in runoffs. TBL will come out far ahead regardless of these runoffs.
The numbers breakdown is below. I broke down the races based on if it was a race where only DeSantis had staked out a claim, races where he and TBL were involved, or races with just TBL.
Below is a full list of the races were are talking about. Included in this list is a handful of high-profile races not directly tied to Take Back Local or had a DeSantis endorsement. Some races did not have direct involved but had right vs left politics going on in the periphery.
There were so many races here where DeSantis not getting his way is striking. The losses in Sarasota are a major rebuke of the situation out there. The failure to knock off an incumbent in deep-red Indian River, the loss of a conservative incumbent in Pasco.
Notable School Board Races
Now I’ll go over a few key races. I cannot touch on every race, but I have some coverage and maps for several.
Sarasota is fed up with drama
It only seems fitting to start with Sarasota County; the site of a major swing in 2022 and still-incumbent Bridget Ziegler’s sex scandal. After the 2022 elections, the board went from 3-2 “liberal” to 4-1 conservative. (I’ll also stress whether a board was liberal or just non-political is open for debate). Conservative Chairwoman Karen Rose ran for another term. She was challenged by Liz Barker, who ran as a moderate beyond partisan politics. Rose was clearly on defense despite being a “moderate conservative” – less outspoken than some of the board’s other members. Rose notably called for Ziegler to resign. However, as an enabler of the conservative majority, she took plenty of brunt for the antics of the board. She also was not free of complaints, as she supported the ouster of the Superintendent when the conservative majority came to power.
Meanwhile, challenger Liz Barker is former longtime school psychologist who has four children in the school district. She came into the race arguing that the district has become bogged down in ideological fights instead of tending to students and managing finances properly. She gained strong Democratic support as well as moderate Republicans. The race got insanely expensive for a school board fight: with candidates spending over $200,000. In the end, Barker won by 3% – OUSTING the Chair.
With this victory, the board would move to a 3-2 conservative majority. Unfortunately moderates could not alter the board further, as the other seat up was held by the board’s lone for-sure Liberal and Democratic member: Tom Edwards.
Edwards, who is openly gay, was one of the incumbents targeted for defeat by DeSantis back in 2023. Shortly after that was announced, Edwards faced a string of homophobic attacks at a school board meeting; including speakers calling him a “groomer.” Edwards defiantly walked out of the meeting and discussed everything with the press. He would formally file for re-election the very next day. When the Ziegler sex scandal broke, Edwards was a major critic of the hypocrisy of Ziegler’s anti-LGBT history.
Despite the target from DeSantis, Republicans never mustered a strong candidate against Edwards. Two candidates filed with Republicans first just hoping to force a runoff. Despite being the lone liberal vote, Edwards very much campaigned on the board being too political and needing to focus on day to day education issues. Edwards raised over $200,000 and opponents Thomas Babicz and Greg Wood not even hitting $30,000. Despite the initial threat by DeSantis, opposition to Edwards remained weak and the incumbent managed to secure 56% of the vote.
This vote, along with the Rose loss, shows how frustrated Sarasota voters were with the antics of the last two years. This is still a reliably Republican county. The results show, however, that many Republican voters in Sarasota want less drama and politics in the district debates.
Pinellas County Says “HARD NO” to Moms for Liberty
Over in Pinellas, a preverbal swing county in Florida, the results for DeSantis were a disaster. He targeted Board Chair Laura Hine, an independent with moderate and left-wing support. To take her out, Danielle Marolf was endorsed by the governor At the time, the Pinellas School board is not in conservative hands, and Marolf openly talked on the trail about “flipping” the board. Marolf openly ran as a conservative candidate while Hine focused on keeping politics as out of the school board as possible.
Despite being a near-even county in 2020 and a big win for DeSantis in 2022, Laura Hine easily bested Danielle Marolf; winning across the county.
Hine was strongest in the Democratic-heavy Southeast, but had big margins in the county’s northern Republican epicenter. Only one precinct tied; with none going to Marolf. This is a definitive landslide.
Things were no better for Team DeSantis in the single-member districts of the county. Up in the 4th; which covers the hyper-Republican north end of the county, another DeSantis challenger fell. Independent incumbent Eileen Long was targeted by Erica Picard, who secured DeSantis’ endorsement. Like the countywide race, Picard campaigned on conservative values. She also repeated a long-debunked conspiracy about “kids identifying as cat.”
Ok so if you have no idea what that is, I am so sorry for what I am about to explain. Sooooo as part of the completely insane anti-transgender movement, which insists any kid can be convinced to just “become transgender,” a joke went around that kids were identifying as cats and using LITTER BOXES in classrooms. This was a joke and I’m not even sure of its origin and if it was meant to mock transgender people or mock the over-reaction of anti-transgender critics. Either way, some conservatives started thinking it was a real story that is actually happening. So sure enough, Picard at one point said “have you heard about…….” and here we are. Of course any conservative repeating it is trying to make an anti-transgender argument that “kids can be convinced of anything.” Have I mentioned conservatives are fucking weird?
Anyway, Picard LOST her bid to unseat Eileen Long by 9 points!
It cannot be stressed how Republican this area is. It has long been the conservative bastion of the area. However, Picard proved to be a bridge too far.
In a district just below the 4th, a DeSantis-backed candidate was forced into a runoff. That race, for an open seat, I will cover in the fall. It will feature a DeSantis-backed Stacy Geier vs a moderate Republican Katie Blaxberg; giving Democrats the ability to rally and stop any DeSantis-backed candidates from winning in Pinellas.
Duval’s Modest DeSantis Win
Over In Duval, the DeSantis endorsements had more success; albeit thanks to the seats that were up. Now DeSantis had targeted 2 incumbents for defeat, but only one ran for re-election. As the results of primary night rolled in, the DeSantis side touted they’d won two of the three seats there and cemented a 4-3 conservative majority; making it the best rest for DeSantis for the night. So how did this happen despite 2023 seeing Democrats take the Mayoral race? It just came down to the partisan lean of the seats up this year.
The big flip was district 1, a modestly-red seat in Northeast Duval; voting for Trump by 6 points in 2020. Republican incumbent Kelly Corker was targeted for defeat by DeSantis but ended up retiring. The election saw Tony Ricardo, backed by DeSantis, win against a former Republican in Nadine Ebri.
While Ebri did well in the democratic-heavy south end of the district; the seat votes similar to the broader leans of the district.
Down in District 7, this was the lone school board race where Take Back Local took on DeSantis and lost. Both candidates had direct party backing. This was, however, Democrats taking a shot at winning a much redder district; a seat that voted for Trump by 13 points. In the end, the race went to Republican Melody Bolduc by 12% over Democrat Sarah Mannion.
This was definitely an example of Florida Democrats not staying in their comfort zone and striking out at a longer shot race. This is also about party building for Duval broadly, so getting involved when an official Democrat was running made plenty of sense.
The one big DeSantis loss in Duval was in district 3; where targeted incumbent Cindy Pearson narrowly fended off Becky Nathanson; the local chair of Moms or Liberty. Pearson, a moderate Republican, secured Democratic backing and just enough Republicans to win this Trump +5 seat.
Pearson was the latest of several incumbents DeSantis could not seem to oust.
Overall Duval was a brighter spot for DeSantis. However, this came much more down to the partisan lean of the districts up and the strength of the local Republican machine.
DeSantis’ Broward School Appointees Rejected
Ron DeSantis never endorsed candidates in the Broward School Board races. However, several of these seats revolved around him. Two incumbents on the board, Daniel Foganholi in District 1, and Torey Alston in District 2, were DeSantis appointees; and both opted to run for their own terms. Both members were conservatives on the commission; joining Brenda Fam as a block of 3 right-wing votes; still a minority on the board. The board is 9 members total: seven single-member seats and 2 at-large. This year seats 1, 2, 3, 5, and the at-large 9th were up. The Broward Mom’s for Liberty backed candidates for all these races while the Democratic Take Back Local campaign was involved in all but 1 and 5.
In District 1, Daniel Foganholi not only did not win a full term, he came in 3rd place behind two democrats. The winner was attorney and PTA leader Maura McCarthy Bulman. Moms for Liberty backed Foganholi while Florida Democrats stayed out of the race due to multiple Democrats running. With Bulman passing 50%, no runoff is needed. Democrats would have gotten involved if a runoff with Foganholi had occurred.
After Foganholi’s loss, DeSantis announced he would be appointed to the state board of education. Proving you can fail upward if you are a conservative in Florida.
Over in district 2, DeSantis appointee Torey Alston ran for a full term. Alston also served as a county commissioner for a brief period when DeSantis had to appoint someone there as well. A Black Republican, Alston in theory could have had support in the district’s Caribbean population. However, he wound up losing badly to Democrat Rebecca Thompson, who was the executive assistant to at-large School Board member Allen Zeman. Thompson had backing from Take Back Local and in this blue seat, easily won over Alston.
Alston suffered from attacks over not living in the district as well as his conservative views being out of step with a democratic-leaning seat. At one point, Alston had the support for Congressman Jared Moskowitz, who served on the commission with Alston for a short time. However, after backlashed, Moskowitz rescinded his backing.
In District 3, Democratic incumbent Sarah Leonardi easily cruised to victory over Jason Lee Loring. Leonardi had the backing of Take Back Local while Loring, who is openly gay and chairs the Log Cabin Republicans, had the backing of Moms for Liberty. Loring, like most conservative gay politicians, is a total sell-out of his own community; frequently repeating talking points from Moms for Liberty. He would find himself trounced by Leonardi in this solidly blue seat.
Notable here is that the district includes Wilton Manors, which holds a large LGBT population. Loring tanked against Leonardi in this area.
Over in district 5, a heavily Caribbean and non-Caribbean Black seat, incumbent Jeff Holness easily defeated businessman and pastor Windsor Ferguson; taking 76% of the vote and winning all precincts. I actually did a map of this race for client so sorry no image here. This race was a much quieter affair. Ferguson had the backing of Moms for Liberty and as a pastor was a big proponent of school prayer; something Holness opposed.
Finally, in the at-large district 9 race, incumbent Debra Hixon easily secured re-election. Hixon, elected in 2020, is one of the many ‘Parkland Parents’ to run for school board in Broward. Hixon’s husband, Chris, was the school athletic director and was killed in the 2018 shooting tried to disarm the shooter. Hixon’s re-election opponent was conservative Tom Vasquez, who had Moms for Liberty Backing. Hixon had direct Take Back Local backing. In the end Hixon easily won in a landslide.
With this cycle, much of the conservative board members are gone.
What is notable is how much these race results all matched up with “slate voting.” The results of the individual district races closely mirrored the county-wide contest. Hixon’s countywide support by precinct closely mirrored how her fellow “DEM” candidates for the districts performed. Below is a map showing how Hixon vs Vasquez compared with the single-member district races. Purple was Hixon higher, emerald is the single-member DEM candidates were higher. Anything within 5% or yellow.
The results show most of the areas saw little ticket splitting, with Hixon voters largely backing the “DEM” candidates and Vasquez voters backing other M4L backed candidates. District 1 has a big “SMD DEM” higher margin, which may be partly due to two democratic-aligned candidates running. Overall though, Broward voters were clearly voting as slates.
Brevard County Redistricting Nonsense
The story in Brevard is such an insane mess that it likely is something I will want to dedicate an article to after the general elections wrap up. In February of 2023, DeSantis targeted incumbent Jennifer Jenkins for defeat. Jenkins has been an outspoken liberal on the board for several years; gaining national attention for fights against Moms for Liberty. She has been in an especially nasty feud with State Rep Randy Fine; who being the massive asshole that he is, went so far as to publish her personal phone number for people to call and leave death threats on.
In 2023, the School Board conservative majority suddenly decided that it needed to redistrict its lines to match the county commission districts. Now this idea of matching commission and school lines is followed in a few counties; but this decision came after the first round of elections post-census created the conservative majority. In doing this, the lines just happened to remove Jenkins and moderate Katye Campbell from their seats. Hey that is just how redistricting can go right? I’m certainly not in favor of shaping lines to the residency of members. However, Board Chair Matt Susin, then offered to move lines to keep Campbell in her district; but not do the same for Jenkins. Campbell rejected this offer; which was made behind closed doors. Full story here.
The map changes are below.
While Campbell will still be able to serve till 2026 since seat 5 isn’t up this year Jenkins would either have to move or run in the 4th against Chair Matt Susin; an area where she had little base and was heavily Republican. Jenkins opted to not run again, but is likely to stay involved in politics. With this, the now “open” seat saw Republican-backed John Thomas filed for the district immediately after redistricting finalized (as if this was the plan all along…..) and went on to win the new Trump +8 seat over Democrat Amber Yantz.
So here we see a conservative flip, but one that comes with a great deal of caveats. Like I said, the Brevard redistricting story is something I may revisit once we get past November. Meanwhile in the 4th, Susin was forced into a runoff when he took only 48% of the vote. I’ll also be keeping an eye on this runoff. While Susin is likely favored in such a red seat – it going for Trump by 18 points – if he somehow loses it would be truly priceless.
Indian River Slate Voting
In Indian River, two school board seats were challenged: both with similar dynamics. DeSantis targeted incumbents Peggy Jones and Brian Barefoot; who were part of a 3-2 “liberal/moderate” majority on the board. Barefoot would not run again, resigning early when he moved out of the district. DeSantis appointed Kevin McDonald to that seat, giving the board a 3-2 Conservative majority. Jones filed for re-election and criticized the emergence of partisan politics in these races. In the race, DeSantis endorsed businessman Rob MacCallum. In the other race, challenger David Dyer ran on a moderate platform against McDonald; who DeSantis endorsed for a full term.
While no “official slate” was introduced, the races quickly became Jones and Dyer as the moderate’s vs MacCallum and McDonald. Both conservatives had the direct endorsement of the local Moms for Liberty Chapter. MacCallum said Moms for Liberty was “a group of concerned citizens that have been villainized.”
In the end, however, both Dyer and Jones won, moving the board back to 3-2 liberal/moderate.
Moderates Jones and Dyer got right around 57% of the vote; and their respective vote shares was within 5 points across most precincts. By and large “slate” voting was the order of the day there.
Indian River gave Donald Trump 60% of the vote and it rejected Mom’s for Liberty by 15 points. Hell of a swing.
Leon Republicans Hiding from Moms for Liberty
The race for Leon School Board District 4 is a contest I covered big time on my substack; which you can read here. I want go over all the finer details, so give that a link if you want more information. But incumbent conservative Laurie Lawson Cox faced a serious challenge from Democratic firefighter Jeremy Rogers. Cox won a 2022 special election riding the red wave in Florida; which allowed DeSantis to win the otherwise blue-leaning seat. However, once in office Cox tried to hide some of her conservative leanings. She would claim not to be tied to the Moms for Liberty group and DeSantis did not endorse her like he did in 2022; likely at the candidate’s request. Cox saw the local and start Democratic party target her for defeat. However, she was aided by her time as a teacher in the district; leading to many voters willing to buck party allegiances. What did not help Cox was her allies making anti-LGBT attacks against Rogers when he was endorsed by Equality Florida. The worst attacks came from the DUI-getting local Republican Chair – Evan Power.
Cox did benefit from a split in the local Democratic party; the result of several moderate Democrats becoming entwined with Republican-backing developers. The progressive wing of the party made efforts to aid Rogers along with the state party, but the developer-backed local democrats did nothing. This is something I’ll be covering in a substack before November. In the end, Cox managed a 5 point win.
If you go look at the maps from my substack coverage of this race, the thing that stands out is how similar this map looks to a Biden v Trump or DeSantis v Crist map. When Cox won in 2022, there was less party alignment for the race. This time, the “non-partisan” contest looks much more like a real D v R election. Cox was able to survive, but didn’t do so by embracing the Moms for Liberty crowd. Instead in Leon it was “Moms for Liberty who???” Meanwhile she kept hoping Evan would put down the bottle and stop tweeting.
Other Notable Races Across Florida
There are several other races I want to hit on, but I’m going to keep some of these short. Otherwise this article could go on forever.
Over in Hillsborough, Take Back Local and DeSantis went head-to-head for two school board seats. In Districts 1 and 3, both which lean blue, the Democratic incumbents were targeted by DeSantis. However, despite GOP efforts, Democrats Nadia Combs and Jessica Vaughn won with little problem.
These were much-needed wins for Hillsborough Democrats coming off a bad 2022 cycle. DeSantis won both of those districts in his re-election bid. An at-large race will go to November with a Democratic incumbent and conservative challenger. However that race is expected to remain in Democratic hands; as combined DEM candidates votes were over 50% in the primary.
In Pasco County, incumbent Alison Crumbley got a challenge from activist teacher Jessica Wright; who you can read about here. Wright launched her campaign following constant complaints from residents over the lack of information given to teachers and parents from the board. Before running, Wright was worked with the Florida Freedom to Read Project; a group that fought against book censorship. She leaned left, working for a more liberal candidate for school board in 2022, but also ran her campaign as a moderate. Wright was a former Democrat turned NPA and Crumbley’s campaign eventually resorted to attacking her as a “liberal” to stave off the challenge. DeSantis endorsed Crumbly in the summer. In a county that has moved heavily to the right, increasing the partisan tint of the race would only help Crumbley. Instead, Crumbley lost by just 2%.
A big conservative loss in a county that voted for Donald Trump by 20 points.
Over in Flagler County, an open seat was won by Democrat Janie Ruddy; who narrowly defeated the DeSantis-backed Derek Barrs. This was a sleeper win in a race few outside of Flagler had on their radar.
The race had been relatively quiet, with both candidates commending a clean campaign. Back in 2022, several races were heavily focused on LGBT issues and book bans; with one conservative incumbent actually losing their re-election. I might go back and approach those later on. If nothing else it shows that the DeSantis endorsement does not lock in a win, even in such a red county. Of course being non-partisan helps.
Another sleeper race was in Lee County. The 3rd district was a ruby-red district with no incumbent running. It would seem the DeSantis-endorsed Bill Ribble should easily take the contest. However, he barely defeated Democrat Kaitlyn Schoeffel.
Like Flagler, this was was not on major partisan radar. While it is a Republican-aligned win, it, like Flagler, shows DeSantis endorsements don’t equal guaranteed victory in red districts.
Down in St. Lucie, a formerly Democratic county that has slowly tilted right: backing Trump by 2% in 2020, saw another DeSantis endorsee go down. Incumbent Jennifer Richardson, a moderate Republican and Black woman, was targeted for defeat by DeSantis. However, his candidate, Nate Spera, ended up losing by a solid 13%.
Richardson had plenty of Republican support but really racked up votes with Democrats; namely the Black community around Fort Pierce. Richardson also seemed vulnerable, getting negative press for missing several school board meetings. However, she ended up easily winning re-election.
Over in Volusia is the lone place where DeSantis may yet get to say he defeated an incumbent. A runoff is scheduled for District 4 Democratic Incumbent Carl Persis, who came in 2nd to DeSantis-backed Donna Brosemer. This is a tough district for Democrats; backing Trump by 12 points in 2020.
For Persis, he will need to win over supporters of Marzill; but also turnout will be much higher in November. Persis needs the race to not become too partisan, otherwise he may be the lone incumbent knock-off of the cycle. Can’t help but wonder if DeSantis really puts effort here just so he can say he had one incumbent defeat.
And the last race I’ll quickly touch on is down in Miami-Dade. Down in District 9, incumbent Luisa Santos was targeted by DeSantis in February of 2023. However, showing Democrats in Miami-Dade still had fight in them, they worked to rally support for Santos in what is a blue-leaning seat. Eventually DeSantis would opt to not endorse conservative challenger Kimberly Beltran; who touted support from Moms for Liberty. In the end, Santos would win by a solid 25 points.
This was a solid win for Democrats in Miami-Dade, who will now be focused more on School Board Districts 3 and 7. If Democratic-aligned candidates win both runoffs, the current conservative majority on the board will flip to moderate. These will be runoffs I’ll give more coverage too as we head into November.
Final Thoughts
Back in 2022, Ron DeSantis decided to make school board races a major focus of his brand. He rode a massive re-election wave and flipped many seats; all done to try and cement his status as a Presidential frontrunner. Well, two years later, after his Presidential campaign crashed to earth, his brand is clearly weakened in Florida. DeSantis went from 25-5 in school board races to current sitting at 5 wins, 6 losses, and 5 runoffs. He can sweep November and still be far from his 2020 strength.
The results also reflect a continued re-emerge of Florida Democratic operations. It comes after the Jacksonville Mayor and House 35 flips. No doubt Florida Republicans and DeSantis still control the state; holding far more resources than combined Democratic efforts. However, we are clearly well past the 2022 height of DeSantis power.