Gov. Ron DeSantis backed a group of 30 school board candidates prior to Tuesday’s election primaries. With nearly all precincts reporting their votes in these races as of 10 p.m. Tuesday, at least 19 of those candidates have won their respective races.
Of the remaining candidates, seven are expected to participate in a runoff election, and only three have lost outright.
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An “anti-woke” theme — aimed at halting teaching practices for critical race theory and gender theory in Florida classrooms — has been a driving force behind DeSantis’ hand-picked school board candidates, along with a strong emphasis on parental rights in education.
UCF Professor James Clark told News 6 the outcome was far better than many had predicted, himself included.
“Many of them ran against established one-and-two-term incumbents and won,” Clark said. “I think there are going to be a lot of people surprised at his clout.”
Historically, school board elections have been nonpartisan in Florida since approval of Amendment 11 in 1998, which dropped political affiliations from school board races.
While no candidate announced political affiliations in these races, DeSantis’ endorsements indicated these candidates shared his education philosophy.
According to his campaign website, DeSantis’ education agenda is listed as “a student-first, parent-centered initiative focused on setting Florida’s children up for success, ensuring parental rights in education and combatting the woke agenda from infiltrating public schools.”
Clark said he is convinced the results from Tuesday nights election primaries show DeSantis carries plenty of political muscle across the state and on the national stage.
“I think when we look at Donald Trump, who has won over 90% of the races, and the question was, ‘Does Gov. DeSantis have that same kind of clout in Florida?’, the answer is, ‘Yes,’” Clark said.
Below is a list of DeSantis’ chosen school board candidates and whether they’re predicted to win based on reported precinct numbers Tuesday evening.
Alachua County
- District 2 — Mildred Russell — LOST (40%)
Brevard County
- District 1 — Megan Wright — WIN (61%)
Clay County
- District 1 — Erin Skipper — WIN (55%)
Duval County
- District 2 — April Carney — WIN (53%)
- District 6 — Charlotte Joyce — WIN (59%)
Flagler County
- District 1 — Jill Woolbright — LOST (48%)
- District 4 — Christy Chong — WIN (55%)
Hendry County
- District 4 — Stephanie Busin — RUNOFF (48%)
Hillsborough County
- District 2 — Stacy Hahn — WIN (63%)
- District 4 — Patricia Rendon — WIN (53%)
- District 6 — Alysha Legge — RUNOFF (37%)
Indian River County
- District 2 — Jacqueline Rosario — RUNOFF (46%)
Lee County
- District 1 — Sam Fisher — RUNOFF (43%)
- District 5 — Armor Persons — WIN (55%)
Manatee County
- District 2 — Cindy Spray — RUNOFF (39%)
- District 4 — Chad Choate — WIN (55%)
- District 5 — Richard Tatem — WIN (50%)
Martin County
- District 3 — Jennifer Russell — WIN (56%)
Miami-Dade County
- District 4 — Roberto Alonso — WIN (57%)
- District 8 — Monica Colucci — WIN (53%)
Monroe County
- District 1 — Darren Horan — WIN (58%)
- District 5 — Alexandria Suarez — LOST (46%)
Pasco County
- District 1 — Al Hernandez — RUNOFF (44%)
Polk County
- District 3 — Rick Nolte — WIN (51%)
Putnam County
- District 5 — Phil Leary — WIN (60%)
Sarasota County
- District 1 — Bridget Ziegler — WIN (56%)
- District 4 — Robyn Marinelli — WIN (52%)
- District 5 — Timothy Enos — WIN (52%)
Volusia County
- District 1 — Jamie Haynes — RUNOFF (44%)
- District 5 — Fred Lowry — LOST (49%)
With school board races, in any race with three or more candidates, a candidate must get 50% of the vote plus one vote in order to win the race outright. Otherwise, the top two vote-getters advance to a runoff in November. Seven of DeSantis’ chosen candidates will end up in a runoff election following the election primaries.
For a full list of school board candidate races across Central Florida, visit our election primaries results page here.