Candidates running on opposition to woke ideology like Critical Race Theory, gender fluidity, and social emotional learning dominated school board elections in suburban Dallas-Fort Worth races, fueled in part by help from a Christian cellphone carrier.
The usually quiet, non-partisan races were animated this year by anger at progressive curricula and COVID-19 masking policies, as well as $500,000 in donations to a pro-parent PAC by Patriot Mobile, a Grapevine, Texas,-based cellphone company that caters to Christian conservatives. Candidates backed by Patriot swept school board races in Tarrant County, a populous urban region that includes Fort Worth.
“Conservatives won school board elections across Texas,” Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted. “Parents are more involved and active in school elections and school policies than ever before. No one cares more about children than their parents. The power of parents will continue to expand in Texas.”
School board candidates opposed to CRT and mask mandates swept elections across Texas last night.
Wins in Frisco, Clear Creek, Grapevine, Southlake, Keller, Carroll, Spring Branch, Richardson, and even in Dripping Springs (Austin, TX), where conservatives flipped the board. pic.twitter.com/K2eBLeZEcP
— Election Wizard 🇺🇸 (@ElectionWiz) May 8, 2022
Officials behind the PAC, called Patriot Mobile Action, intend to take the message – and financial support – to school board elections beyond the Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs.
“Patriot Mobile Action is a new entity created to put Christian conservative values into action,” said a statement from Patriot Mobile spokesperson Leigh Wambsganss. “We will take action in supporting organizations and candidates that exemplify these values.”
Winning candidates in several races held Saturday also had the support of True Texas Project, a conservative organization that grew out of the Tea Party movement.
In Tarrant County, which includes Fort Worth and has a population of over 2 million, conservative candidates won at least 10 of the 11 open seats. The county includes the Grapevine-Colleyville, Keller, and Mansfield school districts. Tarrant County is about 30% Hispanic and the nation’s 15th-largest county. In the 2020 election, it tipped for President Biden.
Many of those parents appear to have rejected the increasingly leftist curriculum that public schools around the country have embraced, say some observers.
“What parents discovered was that their children were being told that their “gender identity” has nothing to do with biological reality, that White people are inherently racist and inferior, that Blacks are chronic victims of racism and can never rise above that, and that America is an evil country that has exploited racial and sexual minorities across the world for centuries,” wrote Andrea Widburg, of American Thinker.
The anti-progressive theme was a clear winner throughout the region. In Colleyville, True Texas-endorsed Tammy Nakamura ousted incumbent Louie Sullins by campaigning on returning power to parents and banishing “liberal Austin lobbyists,” according to the Star-Telegram. In Keller, Micah Young defeated incumbent Craig Allen with a message of keeping “politics out of the classroom.” Other upset victories came under similar messaging.