ver the past two years, school boards have emerged as focal points for national debates about COVID-19 health policy, critical race theory, and policies surrounding LGBTQ students and curricula in public schools. National groups like the 1776 Project PAC and School Board Watchlist have formed to organize political action on school boards. New and existing national political organizations have increased campaign funding and support in school board races, reflecting the shifting preferences of school board candidates away from local issues and towards national partisan arguments. Analysts from DisinfoLab, an undergraduate-led think tank at William & Mary, have found that national organizations have exerted influence in local school board elections in two ways: through both financial and non-financial means. Local news sources are familiar with the unique issues important in each district and vital for informing the electorate on candidate preferences. Unfortunately, local media is failing to point out the increasing influence that national organizations are having over local debates, leaving voters under-informed about what the candidates they are voting for truly represent.
Methodology
To examine the changing landscape of school board elections and subsequent local media coverage, DisinfoLab analysts examined three counties in battleground states—Gwinnett County, Georgia; Loudoun County, Virginia; and Allegheny County, Pennsylvania—that have had recent school board elections. To find trends in national organization involvement, DisinfoLab collected campaign finance records from pre- and post-2020 elections and measured the percent of funding coming from national organizations. Then, analysts searched for any endorsements for the candidates on the candidates’ and organizations’ websites. To analyze local media coverage, the lab identified local news sources in a given county using the Local Memory Project and searched the sites by relevant keywords, including candidate names.
Gwinnett County, Georgia
In Gwinnett County, national organizations exerted influence on school board elections primarily through campaign finance. Gwinnett school board elections occurred in 2018, 2020, and 2022. Each election, the county saw an increase in the percentage of funding from national political organizations. In 2018, only one national organization donated to a school board campaign in Gwinnett, comprising under 1% of total donations. By 2020, three national organizations comprised 8.5% of total donations. And by 2022, eight national organizations contributed, making up approximately 11% of total donations. This increase in the amount of funding coming from national organizations is evidence of the novel influence these organization have in local elections.
Loudon County, Virginia
Loudoun saw a much smaller change in finance trends, from around 1% to 3%. Although national campaign donations were marginal, local candidates received an influx of non-financial support from national organizations. For example, in the 2022 Loudoun election, candidate Tiffany Polifko (who also serves as Vice President of Parents Against Critical Theory) appeared on Steve Bannon’s War Room and The New American to share her platform. Candidate Nicholas Gothard received an endorsement and support from Run For Something and Road For Progress, both progessive campaign-aid organizations, as well the National Organization for Women.
Local media tasked with covering elections in these counties failed to rigorously report on the new role of national organizations. In Gwinnett, local media lacked coverage of national donations flowing to candidates. DisinfoLabfound only two mentions of donations across the three elections cycles: one of a minor finance reporting violation by a candidate in 2020, and another of a candidate receiving donations from a non-profit he had worked for in 2018. And in Loudon, we did not find any mentions of Polifko’s War Room appearance or Gothard’s endorsements. In fact, the only two mentions of national actors were in a set of candidate interviews, where a candidate directly references that many attacks on his campaign come from “outside Loudoun,” and an article covering a town hall hosted by Moms for Liberty, a national organization dedicated to “defend[ing] parental rights.” Considering that 54% of 500 Moms For Liberty-backed candidates nationwide won their races in the last election cycle, the article’s failure to provide context on the organization is a significant misstep in informing the greater public.
Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
The failure of local news to rigorously cover the influence of national organizations can have serious implications on how voters view candidates during elections. For example, the North Hills School District of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, was the site of a contentious school board election in 2021, in which four of the seven candidates running in the election were endorsed by the 1776 Project PAC. That PAC purchased mailers which professed the dangers of critical race theory on behalf of its endorsed candidates. The mailer’s message, however, did not accurately represent the views of all named candidates. In an interview with DisinfoLab, Michael Santucci, a 2021 candidate and current North Hills School District Board of Education Board member, said that the 1776 Project PAC did not receive permission to use his name on any campaign materials. Santucci entered the race in hopes of implementing solutions to combat learning loss experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. He believes that critical race theory is a non-issue in North Hills Schools, and he released a statement on his campaign Facebook page denouncing the PAC for using his name without his permission.
Santucci expressed that involvement of the 1776 Project PAC caused him great duress during the campaign. His campaign platform was far more moderate than the mailers suggested, and he began to lose support among moderate voters, many of whom had previously supported him. Despite this, local media did not mention the PAC’s involvement. All of Santucci’s attempts to distance himself from the PAC was made via his own campaign platform, namely, Facebook. Local media failed to cover a major campaign disruption and, in turn, their role to ensure that voters were accurately informed on the beliefs of the candidates.
Back to School PA
The 1776 Project PAC was not the only outside political organization that played a major role in the 2021 North Hills Election. Back to School PA, a conservative education PAC founded by a Bucks County based venture capitalist, made significant financial contributions to the election. Similarly, to the 1776 Project PAC, the involvement of Back to Schools PA was not reported in any local media outlets. This oversight, however, is understandable given the manner in which the contributions were made. Back to Schools PA did not make direct financial contributions to candidates, but instead facilitated the creation of a local PAC through which all donations were funneled. This ensured that none of the donated money appeared on any of the candidate’s campaign finance reports. According to Michael Santucci, Back to Schools PA donated $10,000 to the election, a portion of which was spent on a billboard and fliers with inflammatory messaging related to, among other things, critical race theory.
Conclusion
National interest groups are influencing local elections to advance issues they care about. In some cases, influence means campaign finance. In others, influence means giving a microphone to favorable candidates or making a candidate appear favorable. Local media should serve as the watchdog for local communities, alerting voters when a local election is being affected in such a way. For example, a public radio station in Austin, Texas, called out new endorsements and financial support by national organizations that mirror the trends seen in DisinfoLab’s study, including endorsement from the 1776 Project PAC. Voters in local elections nationwide are being exposed to the influence of national organizations that sponsor, endorse, and fund candidates that espouse divisive national issues. Without local media informing the citizenry, this trend may continue unchecked.
Editors’ Note: Datasets for DisinfoLab’s research on this matter can be found here.
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January 10, 2023
Over the past two years, school boards across the U.S. have emerged as focal points for heated national debates. Analysts from Disinfolab have found that national organizations have exerted influence in local school board elections in two ways: through both financial and non-financial means.
O
ver the past two years, school boards have emerged as focal points for national debates about COVID-19 health policy, critical race theory, and policies surrounding LGBTQ students and curricula in public schools. National groups like the 1776 Project PAC and School Board Watchlist have formed to organize political action on school boards. New and existing national political organizations have increased campaign funding and support in school board races, reflecting the shifting preferences of school board candidates away from local issues and towards national partisan arguments. Analysts from DisinfoLab, an undergraduate-led think tank at William & Mary, have found that national organizations have exerted influence in local school board elections in two ways: through both financial and non-financial means. Local news sources are familiar with the unique issues important in each district and vital for informing the electorate on candidate preferences. Unfortunately, local media is failing to point out the increasing influence that national organizations are having over local debates, leaving voters under-informed about what the candidates they are voting for truly represent.
Methodology
To examine the changing landscape of school board elections and subsequent local media coverage, DisinfoLab analysts examined three counties in battleground states—Gwinnett County, Georgia; Loudoun County, Virginia; and Allegheny County, Pennsylvania—that have had recent school board elections. To find trends in national organization involvement, DisinfoLab collected campaign finance records from pre- and post-2020 elections and measured the percent of funding coming from national organizations. Then, analysts searched for any endorsements for the candidates on the candidates’ and organizations’ websites. To analyze local media coverage, the lab identified local news sources in a given county using the Local Memory Project and searched the sites by relevant keywords, including candidate names.
Gwinnett County, Georgia
In Gwinnett County, national organizations exerted influence on school board elections primarily through campaign finance. Gwinnett school board elections occurred in 2018, 2020, and 2022. Each election, the county saw an increase in the percentage of funding from national political organizations. In 2018, only one national organization donated to a school board campaign in Gwinnett, comprising under 1% of total donations. By 2020, three national organizations comprised 8.5% of total donations. And by 2022, eight national organizations contributed, making up approximately 11% of total donations. This increase in the amount of funding coming from national organizations is evidence of the novel influence these organization have in local elections.
Loudon County, Virginia
Loudoun saw a much smaller change in finance trends, from around 1% to 3%. Although national campaign donations were marginal, local candidates received an influx of non-financial support from national organizations. For example, in the 2022 Loudoun election, candidate Tiffany Polifko (who also serves as Vice President of Parents Against Critical Theory) appeared on Steve Bannon’s War Room and The New American to share her platform. Candidate Nicholas Gothard received an endorsement and support from Run For Something and Road For Progress, both progessive campaign-aid organizations, as well the National Organization for Women.
Local media tasked with covering elections in these counties failed to rigorously report on the new role of national organizations. In Gwinnett, local media lacked coverage of national donations flowing to candidates. DisinfoLabfound only two mentions of donations across the three elections cycles: one of a minor finance reporting violation by a candidate in 2020, and another of a candidate receiving donations from a non-profit he had worked for in 2018. And in Loudon, we did not find any mentions of Polifko’s War Room appearance or Gothard’s endorsements. In fact, the only two mentions of national actors were in a set of candidate interviews, where a candidate directly references that many attacks on his campaign come from “outside Loudoun,” and an article covering a town hall hosted by Moms for Liberty, a national organization dedicated to “defend[ing] parental rights.” Considering that 54% of 500 Moms For Liberty-backed candidates nationwide won their races in the last election cycle, the article’s failure to provide context on the organization is a significant misstep in informing the greater public.
Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
The failure of local news to rigorously cover the influence of national organizations can have serious implications on how voters view candidates during elections. For example, the North Hills School District of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, was the site of a contentious school board election in 2021, in which four of the seven candidates running in the election were endorsed by the 1776 Project PAC. That PAC purchased mailers which professed the dangers of critical race theory on behalf of its endorsed candidates. The mailer’s message, however, did not accurately represent the views of all named candidates. In an interview with DisinfoLab, Michael Santucci, a 2021 candidate and current North Hills School District Board of Education Board member, said that the 1776 Project PAC did not receive permission to use his name on any campaign materials. Santucci entered the race in hopes of implementing solutions to combat learning loss experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. He believes that critical race theory is a non-issue in North Hills Schools, and he released a statement on his campaign Facebook page denouncing the PAC for using his name without his permission.
Santucci expressed that involvement of the 1776 Project PAC caused him great duress during the campaign. His campaign platform was far more moderate than the mailers suggested, and he began to lose support among moderate voters, many of whom had previously supported him. Despite this, local media did not mention the PAC’s involvement. All of Santucci’s attempts to distance himself from the PAC was made via his own campaign platform, namely, Facebook. Local media failed to cover a major campaign disruption and, in turn, their role to ensure that voters were accurately informed on the beliefs of the candidates.
Back to School PA
The 1776 Project PAC was not the only outside political organization that played a major role in the 2021 North Hills Election. Back to School PA, a conservative education PAC founded by a Bucks County based venture capitalist, made significant financial contributions to the election. Similarly, to the 1776 Project PAC, the involvement of Back to Schools PA was not reported in any local media outlets. This oversight, however, is understandable given the manner in which the contributions were made. Back to Schools PA did not make direct financial contributions to candidates, but instead facilitated the creation of a local PAC through which all donations were funneled. This ensured that none of the donated money appeared on any of the candidate’s campaign finance reports. According to Michael Santucci, Back to Schools PA donated $10,000 to the election, a portion of which was spent on a billboard and fliers with inflammatory messaging related to, among other things, critical race theory.
Conclusion
National interest groups are influencing local elections to advance issues they care about. In some cases, influence means campaign finance. In others, influence means giving a microphone to favorable candidates or making a candidate appear favorable. Local media should serve as the watchdog for local communities, alerting voters when a local election is being affected in such a way. For example, a public radio station in Austin, Texas, called out new endorsements and financial support by national organizations that mirror the trends seen in DisinfoLab’s study, including endorsement from the 1776 Project PAC. Voters in local elections nationwide are being exposed to the influence of national organizations that sponsor, endorse, and fund candidates that espouse divisive national issues. Without local media informing the citizenry, this trend may continue unchecked.
Editors’ Note: Datasets for DisinfoLab’s research on this matter can be found here.
