Incumbents on the Palm Beach County School Board warded off a major conservative challenge in most races Tuesday night.
District 3 School Board member Karen Brill won over three conservative challengers, Kristen Stevenson, Connor Frontera and Bailey Lashells in a southwest county district.
“I want to thank all the voters in District 3 for their confidence in my leadership and for the understanding that experience matters,” Brill said Tuesday night. “I look forward to working with the community going forward for the next four years.”
District 4 School Board member Erica Whitfield defeated conservative challenger, Angelique Contreras, in a district that spans from Delray Beach to West Palm Beach.
District 6 incumbent Marcia Andrews could be heading to a runoff. With most precincts reporting, she was just shy of the 50% needed to avoid a runoff. Her opponent would be one of two conservative parents, Jen Showalter or Amanda Silvestri, who were running neck-in-neck for second place.
Trailing the others in the District 6 race were real estate agent Jeff Browning and English teacher Deanne Ewers.
Christopher Persaud, a conservative candidate in District 7, a largely Black district that spans from Delray Beach to Riviera Beach, didn’t win. But he did force a runoff between the two leading candidates, lawyers Edwin Ferguson, who got the most votes, and Corey Smith, who was a close second.
The winner in District 7 will replace longtime board member Debra Robinson, who did not seek re-election. She endorsed Smith.
Although School Board races are non-partisan, they’ve attracted mostly Democrats in Palm Beach County. But this year, eight out of the 11 newcomers running for the board were Republicans or supported right wing causes. Most had attended School Board members to speak out against issues such as mask mandates, which the Legislature banned last year, and the teaching of critical race theory and LGBTQ issues in schools.
Three School Board candidates complained in South Florida Sun Sentinel endorsements of a summer camp on a district school where students were asked to provide their pronouns. Multiple candidates also held campaign events at gun and knife shows, and one candidate, Showalter, held a fundraiser at a gun range.
Similar political movements among conservative parents and activists are happening throughout Florida and nationwide.
Gov. Ron DeSantis entered the fray, issuing a questionnaire to school board candidates asking such questions as “Should Florida’s students be locked out of school or subjected to forced masking?” and “Do you agree that students should be educated and not indoctrinated?”
DeSantis issued a list of 30 “pro-parent” candidate endorsements. Although several Palm Beach County candidates said they sought his endorsements, the governor stayed out the race here.
