A recent analysis by Red Wine & Blue, a left-leaning network of over 700,000 suburban women working to influence politics at the grassroots level, found that 62 percent of candidates it labeled as “extremist” lost their elections. Meanwhile, 71 percent of the candidates it characterized as “common sense” won competitive school board races in states like Ohio, Virginia and Pennsylvania, which remains a key battleground in 2026.
Two-thirds of those winners were challengers, the analysis shows, and more than half were women, including many first-time contenders. It’s a departure from previous election cycles, when culture war themes like face masks, book bans and critical race theory propelled conservative sweeps of these boards.
“Being a culture warrior did not sell in 2025 because it was such a signal of being out of touch with people’s everyday concerns,” said Red Wine & Blue founder and CEO Katie Paris. “Folks are worried and feeling stressed from all angles, so to have these candidates come in and say the No. 1 thing we should be concerned about are transgender children and what bathroom they use or what sports they play feels incredibly out of touch with the day-to-day realities of people’s lives.”
Happening in Canada. My school baord has been hijacked by a Christian White Supremist who successfully disrupted all meetings with culture war bullshit, and she is supported by a local Nazi.
These people are a cancer.
Of course he’s backed the People’s Party. It was a horrible day when I discovered someone I thought a decent human being was running on their platform, radicalized during the first two years of covid.
I know people living in Hamilton/Scarborough, I’ll remind them to vote.