Kenny Cooper: How Democrats flipped a Central Bucks School Board embroiled in controversy
Central Bucks school district in Pennsylvania that has been out in front of the wave of right wing ideologue policies in schools. Tuesday night, the voters threw the whole slate of right wingers out. Kenny Cooper reports on the story for WHYY.
Democrat Heather Reynolds was not supposed to win on election night — let alone defeat Republican Dana Hunter, the president of the Central Bucks Board of School Directors.
“If anyone was going to lose, it was supposed to be me,” Reynolds said.
But there she was, standing victorious with four of her running mates.
On Tuesday night, Democrats completed a clean sweep of the five Central Bucks School Board races, changing the balance of power in a district that has garnered national attention for book bans, anti-LGBTQ actions and rhetoric, and treatment of its students and teachers.The 6-3 Republican-majority board will now be a 6-3 Democratic majority once the newly elected candidates take oath.
“I’m overwhelmed with emotion. I’m humbled and I’m really proud of the work that we did,” Reynolds said. “I’m proud of the community for standing up and really using their voice and their vote to say, ‘we’ve had enough. We don’t want this for our district any longer. This is not who we are.’ Because I think we all knew that and felt that, but we got to see it on display with the votes that were cast.”
Yesterday’s victories didn’t come easy for the Democrats.
With five seats up for grabs, four of which were previously held by Republicans, the party began laying the groundwork to seize control of the board following the 2021 election cycle. But, the presence of Moms for Liberty, a far-right “parental-rights” group, and massive amounts of spending in the races created enormous obstacles for the party looking to flip the Republican-controlled board.