Progressive candidates win big in key local elections, group says
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Mar. 30—Many candidates and causes that favor public education, transgender rights and other progressive issues prevailed in key local elections this week, according to progressive groups.
In the highest-profile race, Croydon school board Chair Jody Underwood, who helped engineer drastic cuts in the town's school budget last year, was ousted by a vote of 229-36.
In Amherst, Free State Project founder Jason Sorens lost his bid for a seat on the town planning board.
"When they're revealed — they fail," tweeted Democratic Party Chairman Raymond Buckley about Sorens.
"In nearly every school board race, Granite State voters chose out-spoken champions for public education and an honest, inclusive education. This is a big win for public schools and for our future," said Zandra Rice Hawkins, executive director of Granite State Progress.
The head of the culturally conservative group Cornerstone Action said the defeats follow a consistent pattern. A "cultural weakness on the right" makes conservatives less motivated to turn out for local elections, said Shannon McGinley.
"The cultural left has a much more politically-engaged worldview. We often see that conservatives are more likely to think of themselves as 'just living my life,' and the result is the cultural left wins and dominates by default," McGinley said in an email.
But conservatives weren't shut out entirely.
In Deerfield, voters rejected a tuition agreement to send most of the town's students to Concord High School, after Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut visited the town to advocate for school choice. Deerfield voters also rejected a $15.89 million school budget.
In nearby Raymond, the town voted 677-640 to remove any materials with nudity, sex or gender identity from the downstairs children library. According to the conservative group We the People NH, a conservative ousted a liberal in the race for library trustee.
A measure to sever ties between the Raymond town library and the American Library Association failed by 60 votes.
Fran Wendelboe, a co-founder of the conservative 603 Alliance, said she lost her seat on the Newfound Area School Board by four votes to newcomer Michael Delaney.
On the school board, Wendelboe tackled issues such as masking, test scores and the appropriateness of material containing sexual innuendo for young children. But she believes personality clashes with another school board member played into her defeat.
"The thing in Croydon last year didn't help. They did more harm to the cause than help," Wendelboe said.
Granite State Progress noted victories in 11 elections. Among them:
Two candidates in Milford — school board Chairman Judi Zaino and Amy Clark Canty — won election to the school board a little more than a month after a contentious debate over bathroom use by transgender students. Former Republican state Sen. Gary Daniels, who was running against the two in a three-way race, lost.
In Wolfeboro, residents voted 1,058-406 for a measure that prevents the use of any funds to ban books or other content from the public library.
In Weare, candidates William Politt and Christine Heath were reelected over Toni Parker, a vocal opponent of critical race theory and a supporter of efforts to remove books with themes of racial injustice and LGBTQ+ themes.
Efforts to ban the use of voting machines were rejected in Pelham, Sandown and Salem.
In Brentwood, two candidates prevailed over Melissa Litchfield, who ran on a campaign of parental rights and cuts to public education. Litchfield lost her seat in the New Hampshire House in 2022.
The tallies were prepared by the Education Justice Campaign of Granite Progress and 603 Equality.
