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Voters opted for more progressive candidates in key school board races across Colorado on Tuesday, in some cases breaking the hold of conservative board majorities and in others adding more left- or center-leaning voices to right-leaning boards.
The shift was in keeping with the blue wave that helped Democrats prevail in high-profile races around the county this year, including gubernatorial contests in Virginia and New Jersey and on a redistricting ballot question in California championed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Tuesday’s election will sweep aside conservative-leaning school board majorities in at least three Colorado districts. They include Douglas County, the state’s third largest district, which has been controlled by a conservative-leaning board that faced multiple lawsuits and protests over the last four years. Woodland Park, which borders Douglas County, and Mesa County Valley District 51, which is based in Grand Junction, also flipped seats previously held by conservative-leaning board members. Woodland Park in particular has been roiled by school board tumult in recent years, with staff resignations, teacher gag orders, and religious proselytization by some board members.
In some districts, such as Pueblo 70 and Montezuma-Cortez, board members elected Tuesday could nudge right-leaning boards toward the center. While Colorado school board races are non-partisan, candidates often get support from the Democratic or Republican party or from people or groups with party affiliations. For example, two candidates who lost their bids for seats on the Cherry Creek school board received donations from a top Trump administration official, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
With many newly elected candidates backed by teachers unions, including in Denver, Jeffco, and Cherry Creek, Tuesday’s results could bring about more union-friendly policies in some districts. In others, new board dynamics could mean less time devoted to hot-button issues such as library book removals, transgender student athletes, and how social studies is taught.
Kevin Vick, president of the Colorado Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, doesn’t see the school board shifts that occurred Tuesday as a dramatic swing from conservative to liberal.
“Instead of right to left ... it’s kind of right to center,” he said.
He said the election results show that voters are tired of extremist politics in school board decision-making.
“I think communities have really grown weary of that,” he said.“I know educators have really grown weary of the attacks on their profession and their schools.”
Durango is one district where the left-leaning board stayed solidly intact Tuesday. Three incumbents, all backed by the teachers union, won their races by large margins. The 4,500-student district in southwestern Colorado has been the target recently of a conservative news outlet called Rocky Mountain Voice, founded by former Republican gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl.
Ken Davis, the chair of the El Paso County Republican party, said it wasn’t a good year for conservative school board candidates in most of Colorado. Frustration over the federal government shutdown and disruptions to the federal SNAP program may have helped shape voters’ views this year, he said.
“I think it’s just an example of how what’s happening nationally can have an impact locally,” he said.
Davis also said some conservative-minded voters who helped elect conservative candidates two years ago may have become less engaged this time around.
“Maybe they felt like they had some wins on these issues,” he said, and they’ve dropped out of the conversation.
Despite big gains for progressive or centrist school board candidates around the state, conservative candidates did win in some districts, including Colorado Springs 11 and Academy 20 in El Paso County.
“The truth is it’s one of the largest red counties in the country,” said Davis. “We’re kind of in a bubble in El Paso County.”
Election results are still up in the air for one of the county’s most high-profile districts. That is District 49, which has a conservative-leaning school board, recently passed controversial policies on transgender student athletes and is now involved in a conflict with the state over a “public Christian school.”
While one conservative incumbent was reelected in District 49 onTuesday, another, Jamilynn D’Avola, remains in a neck-and-neck race with a progressive newcomer, Holly Withers. If Withers wins, the board’s politics could shift leftward.
Withers said on the campaign trail that she was “here to squash the culture war.”
Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.
