Tuesday’s school board elections didn’t go great for conservatives in the state of Iowa. There were various victories across the state, but in areas where Democrats really targeted seats, they were largely successful.
It is important to explore the reasons why that success happened. So let’s throw out some theories:
*Iowa Republicans have been busy hopping from presidential campaign event to presidential campaign event. Undoubtedly Iowa Republicans ignored the 2023 local elections and prematurely prioritized the 2024 Iowa Caucus.
Hey, I am just as guilty as anybody. I have spent a large chunk of time following the presidential campaigns. In retrospect, I wish I would have set aside much more time to write about these elections. It would have been a tall task as there are many school boards in Iowa, but it’s an adjustment we’ll make for 2025.
*Two years after successful 2021 campaigns, conservatives failed to build on those wins. Perhaps that is because those conservative victories were due to COVID overreach. As we get further away from lockdowns, mask mandates and remote learning, we forget what those battles were like.
*Another potential factor may be social media’s throttling of political news. In 2020, 72 percent of voters got their political news primarily from social media. Online political news is more likely to be from a conservative point of view than traditional media. Facebook, for example, began throttling political news in the spring of 2022. People are unquestionably seeing less news about school board races and local elections on social media due to this decision.
*Republicans have been winning these fights at the state level, so there isn’t the same level of desperation that Iowa Democrats have after suffering defeat after another inside the Capitol.
*Early voting provided a large advantage to Democrats.
*Losses at the state level combined with embarrassing local-level losses in 2021 sparked a motivation within Democrats that was unmatched by Republicans.
*The bottom line is it is about turnout. That’s it. Whether we like it or not, the Democrats were much more motivated to win. They wanted it more than we did. They have the infrastructure and, since they struggle to compete in races beyond the local level, they have much more incentive to burn resources in these races where they can actually compete.
Traditionally, turnout has always been low for school board elections. Progress takes time — it’s taken the Democrats about 4,000 years to believe men can get pregnant, and they call that theory “progressive.”
More conservatives are paying attention to these races, it will just take time to get more to vote. And that is where the Republican Party needs to step up. There is no doubt the Democrat Party played a major part in the victories. Quite a few Democrat legislators also constantly weighed in on the races via social media.
I didn’t see a similar effort from Republicans. And again, we’re all busy with the Iowa Caucus and we forgot to invest in our school boards.
It is what it is. Can’t go back and change it, but we can fix it.
The important thing is that those conservatives who have awakened and engaged in these elections cannot get discouraged. They instead have to find a way to do more. And I know that’s hard, but it is reality.
Please call attention to the pac money that was thrown at the liberal candidates. There were mailers, texting, ads, etc. funded by unions of all kinds. Conservatives need to break through the old stigmas of unions and also stop letting the liberals define the narratives.