{"id":1916885,"date":"2023-04-20T00:12:29","date_gmt":"2023-04-20T04:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/politico-pretends-culture-war-doesnt-win-school-board-races-but-dozens-of-pro-parent-candidates-just-prevailed\/"},"modified":"2023-04-20T00:17:09","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T04:17:09","slug":"politico-pretends-culture-war-doesnt-win-school-board-races-but-dozens-of-pro-parent-candidates-just-prevailed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/politico-pretends-culture-war-doesnt-win-school-board-races-but-dozens-of-pro-parent-candidates-just-prevailed\/","title":{"rendered":"Politico Pretends Culture War Doesn\u2019t Win School Board Races, But Dozens Of Pro-Parent Candidates Just Prevailed"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fpolitico-pretends-culture-war-doesnt-win-school-board-races-but-dozens-of-pro-parent-candidates-just-prevailed%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1916885&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>Conservatives who ran on culture war issues won dozens of school board elections in battleground and Democrat-controlled states last week, but you wouldn\u2019t know that from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2023\/04\/17\/gop-school-board-races-midwest-00092232\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Politico\u2019s coverage<\/a> of the races. The outlet claimed pro-parent candidates who ran against racist curricula in classrooms, lockdowns, and radical gender ideology \u201cflamed out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Politico not-so-subtly concluded, based on recent school board election results in Illinois and Wisconsin, that \u201cleaning\u00a0on school-based\u00a0wedge issues\u00a0to court primary voters in a crowded White House campaign\u201d won\u2019t bode well for 2024 front-runner Republicans including former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has not yet announced his candidacy. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1405028682\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div  class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-edd714188b681b02c0f54d1aa82466e3 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-edd714188b681b02c0f54d1aa82466e3\"><\/div>\n<p>Not long after publication on Monday, the article gained traction with leftist talking heads and organizations such as <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/maddow\/status\/1648036295615082514?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Rachel Maddow<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ProjectLincoln\/status\/1648008500675485705?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the Lincoln Project<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/edvotes\/status\/1648069825393033220?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the nation\u2019s largest teachers union<\/a>, and American Federation of Teachers President <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rweingarten\/status\/1648098063930605569?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Randi Weingarten<\/a>, who were thrilled to share about the potential demise of the issues that made them a target of public scrutiny for the last three years. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cParents, educators, and community members are all looking for candidates who are committed to strengthening public schools, not abandoning them,\u201d the National Education Association\u2019s elections arm <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/edvotes\/status\/1648069825393033220?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">tweeted<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>The public school activists were specifically thrilled that the publication\u2019s education reporter, Juan Perez Jr., pointed to Democrat wins in recent school board elections as evidence that the right\u2019s culture war issues were a brief and unsustainable phenomenon. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cGeneral election voters are less interested in crusades against critical race theory and transgender students than they are in funding schools and ensuring they are safe,\u201d Perez Jr. asserted.<\/p>\n<div  class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-c940a8bfce6fbab80ea3cd5af8dae517 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-c940a8bfce6fbab80ea3cd5af8dae517\"><\/div>\n<p>He evidenced this claim by noting that Democrats and teachers\u2019 unions in both Wisconsin and Illinois celebrated the wins of many of their preferred candidates in the more than 100 races they endorsed. Many of those wins came in districts in or near Democrat stronghold cities such as Chicago and Milwaukee, but that didn\u2019t stop the author from concluding that Republicans \u201clost big.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Perez Jr. included data from political action committees that clearly showed candidates on the right claimed several victories but discounted those results by claiming that at least \u201ctwo conservative national education groups did not dispute that their candidates posted a losing record.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Just seven paragraphs into the article, Perez Jr. included a half-sentence quote from 1776 Project PAC founder\u00a0Ryan Girdusky \u2014 \u201cWe lost more than we won\u201d \u2014 that seemingly backed up his belief that these results \u201coffer lessons to both parties as they eye even more board elections this year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had an hour-long conversation. [Perez Jr.] left it to one edited half sentence,\u201d Girdusky told The Federalist. <\/p>\n<div  class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-b177a3808f5ef1248bd42288eaab3602 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-b177a3808f5ef1248bd42288eaab3602\"><\/div>\n<p>Poorly framing quotes from Girdusky wasn\u2019t Perez Jr.\u2019s only mistake. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Leaning in<\/h2>\n<p>Leftist school board wins may have dominated corporate media coverage, but there\u2019s no denying they were rivaled by dozens of triumphs by conservative-backed school board candidates who ran on fighting the radical racial and LGBT indoctrination infecting the nation\u2019s government schools. <\/p>\n<p>Overall, school board candidates endorsed by Girdusky\u2019s 1776 Project PAC won 30 out of their 63 races. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"> <span class=\"E25X8iDvmuCQs4hufSk4y9EAU2xPIaKaF7vneK7yT3mgqxMbjU9DtqRkLC0OoeBcNrWldHBtFSWTbPn\"><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Our endorsed candidates also won 6 races in Illinois last night. <\/p>\n<p>Change is happening one county at a time <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/zbaIiN0v4T\">pic.twitter.com\/zbaIiN0v4T<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 1776 Project PAC (@1776ProjectPac) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/1776ProjectPac\/status\/1643756345282252802?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 5, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/span> <\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThe seats that we did lose in Illinois were because of a third-party conservative candidate. So it wasn\u2019t that conservatives lost, we split the vote,\u201d Girdusky explained. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a rejection.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Politico\u2019s article fails to mention this nuance \u2014 likely because it would undermine the article\u2019s purpose. <\/p>\n<p>Winning nearly half of the elections it participated in is not \u201closing big,\u201d especially when readers consider that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyherald.com\/news\/20230313\/pritzker-donation-raises-concerns-of-partisan-influence-on-school-board-races\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker<\/a>, Democrats, and their teachers\u2019 union allies in both Wisconsin and Illinois <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/ZfklO\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">outspent<\/a> conservative challengers by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.advantagenews.com\/news\/local\/granite-city-news\/democratic-party-of-illinois-spending-in-local-school-and-library-board-races\/article_3b84e314-ca57-11ed-bb5b-53a47e8e7a5c.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">hundreds of thousands of dollars<\/a>. They also got a helping hand from corporate media, which gave supporters of left-wing school board members <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/jb-pritzker-illinois-governor-face-the-nation-transcript-03-05-2023\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">plenty of TV time<\/a> to help protect eligible seats from pro-parent candidates. <\/p>\n<p>Handpicking the results from one off-year election and selling it as gospel truth about the future of culture war issues in local and national politics isn\u2019t just incredibly ignorant. It\u2019s deliberately deceitful and helps teachers\u2019 unions keep their monopoly on making decisions about children\u2019s lives that should fall under parents\u2019 jurisdiction.<\/p>\n<p>Whether corporate media like it or not, conservative messaging on education <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/politics-news\/desantis-education-message-winning-battleground-states-teacher-union-p-rcna38232\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">resonates with voters<\/a> and has done so for years now. In 2021, <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/11\/03\/parents-unhappy-with-woke-takeover-of-education-win-big-in-school-board-elections\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">dozens of parents<\/a> concerned about the rise of racist curricula in government schools curried enough support to secure landslide victories against left-wing incumbents in states such as <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/03\/03\/texas-parents-make-strong-showing-in-state-school-board-primary\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Texas<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kake.com\/story\/45113504\/republicanbacked-candidates-win-wichita-school-board-seats\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kansas<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/morganton.com\/news\/local\/johnson-sims-taylor-trio-sweeps-districts-sohovich-remains-on-burke-county-school-board\/article_9bdec2ee-3c59-11ec-b279-db2e63aa1521.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">North Carolina<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.desmoinesregister.com\/story\/news\/local\/ankeny\/2021\/11\/02\/ankeny-school-board-election-results-mask-mandate-election-northway-holtz-bullock-lovstad\/8573181002\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> Iowa<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/patch.com\/pennsylvania\/te\/tredyffrin-township-2021-election-results-polls-close\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Pennsylvania<\/a>, and\u00a0many more. The same momentum was found in <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/05\/10\/conservatives-who-promise-to-stop-leftist-racism-win-texas-school-board-seats\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2022<\/a> in states like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbc15.com\/2022\/04\/06\/gop-backed-school-board-candidates-win-milwaukee-suburbs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Wisconsin<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Perez Jr. can repeat <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/04\/18\/in-the-transgender-culture-war-leftists-fired-the-first-shot\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the prevalent lie<\/a> that conservatives simply \u201cseized on transgender students to rejuvenate a social agenda,\u201d but the truth is even he couldn\u2019t deny that parents\u2019 frustration with the education bureaucracy is responsible for changing the course of countless elections including Virginia\u2019s gubernatorial race in 2021. <\/p>\n<p>Contrary to what Perez Jr. and his sullen quotes from \u201cGOP activists\u201d would have you believe, the organizations propping up pro-parent candidates aren\u2019t backing down from the culture war. As Girdusky said: \u201cI think that there\u2019s clearly a message there that education is an important issue that Republicans can overperform in substantially.\u201d<\/p>\n<div  class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-60c122658d0a6c32a673e25d23079a5a fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-60c122658d0a6c32a673e25d23079a5a\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">   Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordanboydtx.<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-tags bdr-top-black mt-30 mt-sm-60 pt-15 pt-md-45\">\n<ul class=\"list-unstyled d-flex flex-wrap align-items-center mb-0 mx-n10 p-0\">\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/1776-project\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">1776 project<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/corporate-media\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">corporate media<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/elections\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Elections<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/illinois\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Illinois<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/parents\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">parents<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/politico\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">POlitico<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/school-boards\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">school boards<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/wisconsin\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Wisconsin<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Conservatives who ran on culture war issues won dozens of school board elections in battleground and Democrat-controlled states last week, but you wouldn\u2019t know that from Politico\u2019s coverage of the races. The outlet claimed pro-parent candidates who ran against racist curricula in classrooms, lockdowns, and radical gender ideology \u201cflamed out.\u201d Politico not-so-subtly concluded, based on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":490,"featured_media":1916886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[3664,7064,4421,7118,4588,12387,16550,24709,24708,8603,3924,6696,7627],"class_list":["post-1916885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-board","tag-candidates","tag-culture","tag-doesnt","tag-dozens","tag-politico","tag-pretends","tag-prevailed","tag-pro-parent","tag-races","tag-school","tag-war","tag-win"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/490"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1916885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1916886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1916885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1916885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1916885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}