Half of 'extreme' school board candidates targeted by Md. Democratic Party win their races

A first-ever effort by the Maryland Democratic Party to spend tens of thousands of dollars targeting “extreme” school board candidates had mixed results, with voters choosing to elect more than half of them in this week’s election.

The party targeted many candidates in the supposedly nonpartisan school board races that it said were affiliated with Moms for Liberty, an organization with GOP ties also formed in 2021 to focus on local school board races, or endorsed by Project 1776 PAC, a group that pushes for conservative education policies and parental rights in schools.

Aiden Buzzetti, head of coalitions and candidate recruitment for Project 1776, confirmed in an interview Thursday that it spent at least $75,000 spent in the general election to support 19 candidates in nine counties. Buzzetti said his group was “still able to win more than half the races we got involved in,” even though he claimed the state’s Democratic Party and the state and local teachers’ unions had more funding and resources to invest in the races.

“The candidates that we support care about turning our schools around, and they’re willing to engage with parents and teachers, other community stakeholders, and that resonates with them,” Buzzetti said. “We get involved because these candidates deserve to have a voice and not be drowned out by teacher’s union.”



https://marylandmatters.org/2024/11/08/half-of-extreme-school-board-candidates-targeted-by-md-democratic-party-win-races/