Grosse Pointe rejected billionaire's slate in school election.

The Grosse Pointes aren’t usually an election bellwether. Normally, as goes Grosse Pointe, so goes Birmingham. And maybe the Newport Rhode Island yacht club.

On Election Day, as the rest of the country went right, Grosse Pointe went left — electing a teacher-supported, more liberal slate of school board candidates. Their success offers lessons for Democrats looking to rebuild from the disappointing 2024 election.

Some background: Local billionaire Sean Cotton has become an institution of sorts in the Pointes. Cotton and his family have invested heavily in Grosse Pointe Park’s retail strip along Kercheval (to be fair, mostly for the area’s benefit) and purchased the Grosse Pointe News.

For the last two years, he’s also led a majority faction on the board that governs schools in the five Grosse Pointe communities and part of Harper Woods.

The Cotton majority has governed by controversy. They killed previously approved plans for a health clinic — funded by a state grant and the Beaumont Foundation — at Grosse Pointe North High School with all the usual unfounded hysteria about abortions and parental rights. The flip-flop had the potential to make the district look fickle and unreliable to future partner organizations.





https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/contributors/2024/11/18/grosse-pointe-school-board-election-sean-cotton/76362266007/