THERE is hope for Texas, election results like this prove when provided with the facts and especially when their children are at risk voters will do the right thing and vote out fascist authoritarians and "christian" nationalist. This from Daily KOS and MSN.....
Voters fire book banners in Texas school board elections
Texas suburban voters removed hard-line book banners from a number of suburban Houston school boards. See article.
In Fort Bend County Independent School District (FBISD), Afshi Charania and Angie Wierzbicki won election as trustees. Charania defeated incumbent Rick Garcia who supported what district librarians described as the “most restrictive” book policy. Wierzbicki defeated Cheryl Buford, who was hand-picked by outgoing board member David Hamilton who championed book banning. (I made a very modest effort to help by distributing Afshi and Angie door hangers to about 120 homes.)
In Katy ISD, board president and book-banner Victor Perez lost to former principal James Cross. In Clear Creek ISD, Rebecca Lilley defeated incumbent book banner Scott Bowen. In Humble ISD, Brittnai Brown won election over Ken Kirchhofer and Tracy Shannon. Shannon, who declared herself to be in favor of banning 1,000 books, was backed by the Republican Party. Fort Bend, Katy, Clear Creek, and Humble ISD are all in the Houston area.
Texas voters oust book-banning school board members in major suburban shakeup
In one of the most closely watched races, Katy ISD board president Victor Perez lost his seat to longtime educator and former principal James Cross. During his tenure, Perez led a hardline conservative push to remove books deemed sexually explicit or related to gender identity and sexuality, and backed a contracted policy requiring teachers to inform parents if a student asked to use a different name or pronouns.
In a string of emails, Perez pushed for Sherman Alexie's Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian to be taken off district shelves despite a committee in place to make such decisions. When reminded by Superintendent Ken Gregorski that the book had already been challenged and determined appropriate for instruction by a book review group, Perez wrote in an email that the book "is clearly promoting the idea that white people are racist and oppressors."
In Fort Bend ISD, incumbent Rick Garcia, who supported passing what district librarians described as one of Texas's "most restrictive" book policies, lost to new-comer Afshi Charania. Charania has served on the FBISD Facilities Steering Committee, the Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce and the local Homeowners Association, among other organizations.
Although Trustee David Hamilton announced he would be resigning his seat on the board before the contest, Saturday's election dealt him a devastating blow.
Hamilton, who spearheaded the book policy, which prohibits any title that "advocates or promotes" racial, ethnic, sex-based or religious stereotypes, sexual activity or illegal actions by minors like drug usage, backed Cheryl Buford. Buford received Hamilton's hand-pick to take over his work within the district.
Buford was defeated by FBISD parent Angie Wierzbicki, who spoke out against the book policy at a board meeting last year and rebuked Hamilton for being behind many of the district's book review requests.
Wierzbicki said of Hamilton's action, "If that is not driving an agenda—I don't know what is."
Challenger Brittnai Brown claimed victory against incumbent Ken Kirchhofer and opponent Tracy Shannon—who previously stated she was behind more than 1,000 book removals in the district. Despite Shannon collecting support from the GOP, she could not win against Brown.
New-comer Rebecca Lilley defeated Clear Creek ISD Scott Bowen, a staunch supporter of the crackdown on titles in his local public library. Bowen was endorsed for re-election by notable GOP names, including state reps. Dennis Paul, Terri Leo Wilson and state senator Mayes Middleton.
Trends of victories in 2022 for Christian Nationalist phone company Patriot Mobile-backed candidates halted Saturday night, with most of the candidates propped up by the conservative PAC losing within significantly wide margins.
The pattern started with Keller ISD, a known hyper-conservative board built by Patriot Mobile, where all of the candidates favored by the board’s Patriot Mobile-backed group lost. All three Patriot Mobile-favored Mansfield ISD candidates, Craig Tipping, Keziah Valdes Farrar and Bianca Benavides Anderson, were also defeated.
In Grapevine-Colleyville ISD, Trustee Tammy Nakamura, who led the charge against books and kept a list of "poisoned" educators she wanted to run out of the district, failed to hold onto her seat despite PAC's $50,000 in support.
Another group, CAZ consulting firm, led by Chris Zook Jr., leader of the pro-voucher group Texas For Educational Freedom, lost heavily Saturday night after providing services to several Houston-area candidates. CAZ usually wins big in such elections, having worked to support candidates like Conroe ISD's self-described "mama bears" in past contests.
Other extremist groups, such as the True Texas Project and Moms For Liberty, also threw their hats in the ring by recommending candidates for the suburban school board contests. All but five of the 25 True Texas Project candidates lost, and Moms for Liberty candidates were defeated in Liberty Hill, Humble and Katy.
"Voters across Texas clearly and consistently punished the people who have been restricting students' reading and learning," said Frank Strong, Co-founder of Texas Freedom to Read Project. "They delivered a message: Texans are sick of book bans, sick of attacks on educators and librarians, sick of leaders waging culture war battles at the expense of good governance."
While incumbents and challengers supporting book removals and other hot-button culture war issues lost across the board, candidates who community members say will either maintain the conservative status quo or endorse such issues won in Dripping Springs ISD, Eanes ISD, Northwest ISD, and Spring Branch ISD.
