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DeSantis was hardly alone in avoiding the subject at CPAC, where Russias offensive just hours old drew only glancing interest at one of the partys most prominent gatherings of the year. Even in a country where conflicts abroad rarely animate the electorate, it was one of the starkest indicators in decades of how far foreign policy has fallen on the Republican agenda. No longer is the GOP the party whose president once told Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down this wall.

Today, said Ryan Horn, a longtime Republican strategist in the Midwest, Ronald Reagan is probably rolling around in his grave.

In Washington, D.C., the GOPs governing class has largely responded to Russias aggression by calling for sanctions, such as President Joe Biden is imposing, while faulting the Democratic president for doing too little, or for not acting quickly enough framing that dovetailed with the partys long-running attempts to cast Biden as weak.

But at CPAC, there was no sign Ukraine represented anything more important than that, despite its extraordinary geopolitical implications. As the conference opened, Russia was bombing Ukraine. Vladimir Putin, with a nuclear arsenal at his disposal, was warning the West that interference would result in consequences you have never seen. Dozens of people had been killed, and financial markets were reeling.

Ukraine drew mention from some Republican politicians. Yet attendees heard more about banned books, Marxist leftists, Covid mandates and the fantasy that the 2020 election was rigged. It was a reminder that the economy and domestic culture wars are more likely to define the midterm and 2024 presidential election than fearsome conflict abroad.

Jim McLaughlin, a veteran Republican pollster, said that in combination with the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan last year, Ukraine adds to the general overall feeling that this administration and this president look weak. Former Michigan Republican Party Chair Saul Anuzis said that politically for Republicans, Its going to be a big deal for us.

But as a stand-alone issue, its different. Of Ukraine, said Rory McShane, a Republican strategist, Its too complicated a situation to campaign on.

Attendees shop at a booth at a trade show at CPAC on Friday.|John Raoux/AP Photo

The Republican approach to Ukraine is a reflection of the partys evolution, with the GOP divided in its assessment of the war and its vision of Americas role in the world. There are pro-sanction lawmakers. And then theres the America First set influential with base voters, such as Foxs Tucker Carlson and conservative activist Charlie Kirk, founder of the youth movement Turning Point USA.

The U.S. southern border matters a lot more than the Ukrainian border, Kirk said to applause on Thursday, CPACs opening day. Im more worried about how the cartels are deliberately trying to infiltrate our country than a dispute 5,000 miles away in cities we cant pronounce, in places that most Americans cant find on a map.

Former President Donald Trump, still the leader of the Republican Party, has failed to provide his followers a coherent direction. On Tuesday, he described Putin as genius and savvy. On Thursday night, he said only, If I were in Office, this deadly Ukraine situation would never have happened!

Trump may offer more substantive remarks when he appears at CPAC on Saturday, though his record includes nothing to suggest he will chart a unifying course for the party. Trumps coziness with Putin during his presidency disturbed even some Republicans.

Paul Ryan, then the Republican House speaker, said Trump must appreciate that Russia is not our ally after Trumps infamous joint press conference with Putin in 2018, where Trump suggested the U.S. was to blame for its tensions with Russia and declined to rebuke Putin for the countrys interference in the 2016 election.

Still, Republicans are waiting for Trump to lay down a marker. In some ways, the GOP is more deferential to him than it was in 2018, and the risk of crossing him is extreme, with Trump intervening in primaries across the midterm electoral landscape and with the prospect that he may run again in 2024. If Trump offers any direction on Ukraine, Republicans will come under intense pressure to follow his lead.

I think within the Republican Party theres a lot of people looking to see what Trump will say, said Bob Heckman, a Republican consultant who has worked on nine presidential campaigns. The only common denominator right now among Republicans is that its all Bidens fault What feeds it is the instinct to want to say that everything Biden is doing is wrong. So, if you want to make the argument that Biden has been feckless and weak, which I think is correct, then you have to be for some kind of strong response yourself. Yet the Trump wing of the party hasnt traditionally been for strong foreign responses, so I think everybodys trying to figure it out right now.

He said, Were going to see whether or not people who understand foreign policy, like Pompeo, Nikki Haley and Mike Pence, to give you three names, whether they gain more respect from speaking intelligently on this, or whether they get marginalized.

The only common denominator right now among Republicans is that its all Bidens fault.

Bob Heckman, Republican consultant

Chuck Hagel, the former Republican senator from Nebraska and defense secretary in the Obama administration, suggested Americans may not yet fully appreciate the significance of Russias war on Ukraine, unlike any foreign conflict since World War II. But over the course of what will be a tough time for the next few months, maybe longer, he said, theyll start to understand it, because consequences are going to back up in this country just like every other country.

It will force people to come to their senses as far as realizing how important this day is in the world, he said.

If that happens, the Republican electorate may demand a more cogent foreign policy vision from the partys leaders than Trump has offered so far. But if it doesnt, they may not have to do much more than echo him or, as DeSantis did on Thursday, say nothing at all. Foreign policy traditionally ranks low on the list of American voters concerns.

Foreign policy rarely resonates with voters unless Americans are dying, said Whit Ayres, the longtime Republican pollster. Its usually overwhelmed by the economy, the pandemic, education, all these other domestic issues. That doesnt mean people arent paying attention. But when it comes to voting issues, domestic policy normally trumps foreign policy, unless Americans are dying overseas.

Republicans expectation that voters will be consumed with concerns other than Ukraine was nowhere more evident than CPAC. During a rare session devoted to the conflict, Trumps former deputy national security adviser, K.T. McFarland, was discussing the price of oil and Putins ability to finance a war when Right Side Broadcasting Network cut away from its livestream of the event.

It had an interview to air instead with John Schnatter, the founder of Papa Johns.

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At CPAC, Ukraine takes a back seat to the culture wars - POLITICO

Abbott is traumatizing trans kids, criminalizing their parents, and deputizing teachers and health care workers to drop a dime on their neighbors and community. This is hate codified to terrify.

Abbotts edict is no more about protecting trans children in Texas from abuse than Governor Ron DeSantiss Dont Say Gay bill is meant to defend parental authority in Florida. That states execrable Parental Rights in Education bill, which would block teachers from discussing LGBTQ topics deemed not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students, passed Thursday in the Republican-controlled House, Its also expected to sail through that states Senate. At least when the bill reaches DeSantiss desk, what wont be in it is an amendment that would have required schools to out LGBTQ children to their parents.

Get Weekend Reads from IdeasA weekly newsletter from the Boston Globe Ideas section, forged at the intersection of 'what if' and 'why not.'

Joe Harding, the Florida state representative who sponsored the original bill, claimed in a statement that he withdrew the amendment because exaggeration and misrepresentation in the media was a distraction; all the amendment did was create procedures around how, when and how long information was withheld from parents so that there was a clear process and kids knew what to expect.

There was no exaggeration or misrepresentation. Harding wanted children to be outed.

I waited until I was 32 years old to come out to my parents. Perhaps I should have done it sooner, but only I could decide when I was stable enough to weather even the worst potential fallout. If a teacher I trusted had outed me to my family, I doubt I would have survived my teens.

The bills and laws targeting the LGBTQ community especially trans kids in Florida, Texas, and other states are branding certain sexual orientations and gender identities as deviant. Just as DeSantis seems to be mimicking Russias so-called gay propaganda laws, which bar children from access to content that portrays LGBTQ people in a positive light, Abbott is ripping a page from the dictators how-to guide. In the same vein as his states draconian abortion laws, Abbott is using trans kids and their families to cultivate the kind of body policing and trust no one paranoia that sustain authoritarianism.

Attacking the LGBTQ community has long been a GOP political tactic. At the 1992 Republican National Convention, failed presidential candidate Pat Buchanan gave one of the most detestable speeches of its time. In a preview of the demagoguery that now defines the GOP, Buchanan railed against Bill Clinton, then the Democratic presidential nominee, and Hillary Clinton, whom he called a practitioner of radical feminism.

The agenda the Clintons would impose on America abortion on demand, a litmus test for the Supreme Court, homosexual rights, discrimination against religious schools, women in combat units thats change, all right, he said. But it is not the kind of change America needs. It is not the kind of change America wants. And it is not the kind of change we can abide in a nation that we still call Gods country.

For many Republicans, Gods country means despotic white supremacy where democracy and equity have no home. This nation is skidding toward mandatory conversion therapy and indoctrination camps. From the slavery era to Indian boarding schools to the Trump administrations actions against migrants at the US-Mexican border, using despicable policies to take children away from their parents is nothing new for America, so dont think it cant happen again. After all, once it would have been unimaginable that parents could be investigated for supporting their childs identity.

This is Abbotts dystopia. If a trans child in Texas is sick or injured, will a parents fear of being reported by a doctor or nurse outweigh their childs need for care? What kind of nation would allow such horrors? This era will be scarred by foul tyrants who care only about appealing to the worst instincts of their political base. LGBTQ children are already susceptible to alarming rates of self-harm and suicidal ideation; hateful legislation can only exacerbate this overlooked epidemic.

Yes, Republicans are waging war, but dont call it a culture war. Its a campaign against childrens humanity, an assault on the LGBTQ communitys basic right to exist.

Rene Graham can be reached at renee.graham@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @reneeygraham.

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Republicans arent waging culture wars. Theyre trying to abolish LGBTQ existence. - The Boston Globe

Did Russia invade Ukraine because of western nations showing respect for people who are transgender, people adding their pronouns to the email signatures, or increasing political correctness?

Thats certainly a point of view being pushed by several prominent conservative commentators in recent days.

Jumping on the bandwagon today is former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, writing in the Wall Street Journal, and published in The Australian, Abbott argues that a variety of factors have lead to Russian leader Vladimir Putin having the confidence to invade Ukraine.

Among the steps that lead to war Abbott lists a reluctance from US President Joe Biden to put troops on the ground in Ukraine, moves to close down coal-fired power stations, and respect for people who are transgender.

The worst contemporary folly is the constant undermining of Western civilisation, history and national virtues.

Partly it is deliberate subversion by cultural Marxists, but mostly its the polite acquiescence of diffident and historically ignorant people conditioned not to give offence.

These days the rights of men who want to be women routinely trump those of women who dont want to face unfair competition in sport. Abbott writes.

Victorian Liberal Tim Smith took to social media over the weekend to draw a link between the conflict in Ukraine and peoples use of gender pronouns.

The Liberal member, who recently returned to the parliament after some extended personal leave following a drunken car crash, closed off comments on his post after just over nine hundred responses.

Lyle Shelton, the former head of the Australian Christian Lobby, now spokesperson for Fred Niles Christian Democrats, was on Twitter praising Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, asking if he was indeed the most courageous man on the planet?

Before making a segue into Our leaders dont even have the will and courage to stand against political activists demanding our children be taught their gender is fluid. No wonder the West is in decay.

Leaving us to wonder if Shelton is potentially the highest user of the rainbow flag emoji on the internet.

On Sky News presenter Andrew Bolt took aim at the British secret service, saying theyd been more focused on learning about gender pronouns than the security of the nation.

British spies are being urged to consider the white privilege and declare their pronouns, he, she, zed, ze, then, they, whatever. Bolt ranted.

This is just amazing, its very symbolic, no wonder Putin and Xi Jingping, they look at the west and think this is our chance to strike, theyre so busy peeking down their pants figuring out what gender they are, they wouldnt even know how to pick up a gun'

Maybe, just maybe, this war will shake us out of that nonsense. Bolt said.

Over inThe Spectator writer James Macpherson asked Will woke survive the war?

At the very moment Putin was surrounding Ukraine with rocket launchers, British soldiers were taking a break from tiresome military exercises to discuss unacceptable behaviours such as bullying, sexual harassment, and racism.

Doesnt Putin know we have the most diverse, equitable, tolerant and trans-inclusive militaries in the history of the world? Macpherson wrote.

One thing we do know, is that in region of the world which has some of the most homophobic and anti-transgender laws, Ukraines President has taken a different path and spoken out about having respect for gay, lesbian and transgender people.

Back in 2019 when asked heckled during a press conference,President Volodymyr Zelensky said this in support of LGBTIQA+ people.

I dont want to say anything negative because we all live in an open society where each one can choose the language they speak, their ethnicity and their orientation. Leave those finally at peace, for Gods sake!

Graeme Watson

If you are struggling with anxiety or depression, support and counselling are available from:

QLife: 1800 184 527 /qlife.org.au(Webchat 3pm midnight)QLife are a counselling and referral service for LGBTQIA+ people.

DISCHARGED:9364 6909 /waamh.org.au/[emailprotected]Discharged is a trans-led support service with peer support groups for trans and gender diverse folks.

Lifeline: 13 11 14 /lifeline.org.au

Beyondblue:1300 22 4636 /www.beyondblue.org.au

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War due to the Woke: Conservatives link culture wars to actual war - OUTinPerth

Last week, before Russian threats toward Ukrainian borders turned into an all-out invasion, one part of the American media landscape questioned why we werent supporting the invaders.

Hating [Russias president, Vladimir] Putin, has become the central purpose of Americas foreign policy. Its the main thing that we talk about, the Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson said on Tuesday. It might be worth asking yourself, since it is getting pretty serious: What is this really about? Why do I hate Putin so much? Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him?

Interviewed on The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show on Tuesday, former President Donald Trump described Mr. Putin as smart and savvy. Then on Wednesday night, as reports of Russian explosions across Ukraine rolled in, Mr. Trump repeated his admiration for the Russian leader. J.D. Vance, a Republican candidate for Senate in Ohio, said during a Feb. 19 podcast interview with Steve Bannon, Mr. Trumps former White House chief strategist, We did not serve in the Marine Corps to go and fight Vladimir Putin because he didnt believe in transgender rights, which is what the U.S. State Department is saying is a major problem with Russia. Mr. Bannon, for his part, hailed Mr. Putin as anti-woke hours before Russias assault on Ukraine.

The American political right was long associated with Cold War hawkishness. But in recent years the trend has shifted toward fawning praise for autocrats, even those leading Americas traditional adversaries, as well as projecting our own culture wars overseas. Where once Russia and other autocracies were seen as anti-democratic, they have now become symbols of U.S. conservatism a mirror for the right-wing worldview.

Supporting Mr. Putin, as well as other authoritarian leaders, is yet another way in which the political right is weaponizing culture wars to further divide Americans.

Part of this new paradigm is that foreign policy is now a partisan matter. In 2016, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary offered an endorsement of then-candidate Donald Trump, admiration that was later returned. Mr. Putins Russia reportedly meddled in the American election in 2016, and the Russian president has admitted that he wanted Mr. Trump to win. Those amicable relationships trickled down to the Republican voting population, which shifted its views on Mr. Putins favorability, which soared from a mere 10 percent in July 2014 to 37 percent in December 2016. A Yahoo News/YouGov poll from January of this year found that 62 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents consider Vladimir Putin a stronger leader than Joe Biden.

Strong may be the key word here. In this construction, a strong leader is apparently one who cracks down on opposition, cultural and political, and does not concede. This idea then dovetails with right-wing ideas that liberal elites are actively corroding deeply held traditional values including traditional gender roles. For those who spend a fair amount of airtime worrying about the emasculation of men, the kind of strength portrayed by Mr. Putin who on Monday convened his top security officials and demanded they publicly stand and support him is perhaps appealing.

Many of the admirers of the worlds strongmen on the American right appear to believe that the countries each of these men lead are beacons of whiteness, Christianity and conservative values. On Wednesday, conservative commentator Rod Dreher wrote, I adamantly oppose risking the lives of boys from Louisiana and Alabama to make the Donbas safe for genderqueers and migrants.

These comments, from the right, arent exactly advancing a new position. In 2018, the political commentator Pat Buchanan said that Mr. Putin and the Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko were standing up for traditional values against Western cultural elites. He considered the Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs to have told a moral truth in asserting that same-sex relationships were fake. But those traditional values do not include the freedom to political opposition. According to Viasna Human Rights Center, an organization dedicated to keeping track of Belarusian abuses, there are over 1,000 political prisoners in Belarus, many of whom were arrested for peaceful assembly, protesting or daring to engage in political activities.

Russia is neither all white nor all Christian it is a country that encompasses several regions, religions and ethnicities. Still, it is often perceived as white. The white nationalist Richard Spencer has referred to Russia as the sole white power in the world. Matthew Heimbach, a founder of the Traditionalist Worker Party who was involved in the 2017 Unite the Right rally, has expressed admiration for Mr. Putin and ultranationalist European political leaders. Russia is our biggest inspiration, Mr. Heimbach told The Times in 2016. I see President Putin as the leader of the free world. As The Times reported at the time, this construction of Mr. Putin as a beacon of far-right values began with the ultra-far-right nationalists in Europe and later spread to the United States.

But, as the Washington Post opinion writer Christian Caryl wrote in 2018, just as the halcyon image American Communists had of Stalinist Russia in the early 20th century belied the truth of a brutal regime, the Russia celebrated today by conservatives is also, in some ways, a fiction.

In any event, Mr. Putin is not waging a culture war. He is waging real, actual war, in which real, actual lives are already being lost.

But then, why would that matter? The Russia, Ukraine, Hungary and Belarus of conservative pundits imaginations are just that: imaginings. Avatars. Projections of themselves. The Russians and Ukrainians who are living and dying do not factor into the picture.

Emily Tamkin is the U.S. senior editor at The New Statesman and author of The Influence of Soros and the forthcoming Bad Jews.

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Opinion | How the American Right Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Russia - The New York Times

A Southlake mother and lawyer spent recent months relaying to other conservative parents the playbook that catapulted her onto the Carroll school board.

Hannah Smiths path proved to be an inspiration to trustee hopefuls, Republican donors and the state GOP. And now, ahead of several school board elections in May, the resonance of her story could be put to the test at the ballot box.

Conservatives across North Texas found a rallying cry in taking back local schools. And though its still early, their interests and dollars are coalescing into new political action committees.

At least 10 conservative PACs have launched in the past year in cities across the Dallas area with the goal of steering local districts in a more conservative direction. And Tuesdays primary election which showed early wins for many far right candidates hint to the growing momentum.

Underlying many of new PACs efforts is a belief that schools are not transparent to parents, that children have access to sexually inappropriate books and an intense opposition to the idea of critical race theory.

One of the stated goals of a Keller PAC the KISD Family Alliance PAC is to keep politics out of the districts curricula.

We believe that the Districts curriculum framework should be void of political partisanship and in keeping with conservative values, its website reads. Efforts to reach the groups leadership for an interview were unsuccessful. The group raised more than $41,000, according to their most recent filing.

Another PAC, Prosper Citizen Group, said that it would support school board and city council candidates that believe in individual liberty, limited government, transparency and accountability, fiscal responsibility, and alignment to the U.S. and Texas Constitution.

Included in its website is a form to report issues with Prosper ISD to district administrators. Five of eight checkboxes address current hot-button concerns pushed by conservatives: sexually inappropriate content in books or curricula; anti-bias training or diversity, equity and inclusion work; social emotional learning; anti-American bias in instruction or teaching environment; and Critical Race Theory.

The groups leadership did not respond to an interview request.

Republicans are rallying around these issues particularly critical race theory galvanized by wins locally and across the country. The academic theory is a decades-old academic framework that probes the ways United States policies and laws uphold systemic racism. However, some conservative politicians and pundits conflate it with a wide host of schools diversity, equity and inclusion efforts even as school officials continue to insist it is not part of K-12 curriculums.

The Texas GOP made clear it would tap into such energy to push more conservative candidates into school boards and other municipal seats. It announced in December a new initiative to build momentum around these nonpartisan races.

As part of their announcement, state Republican officials specifically highlighted Smith and other conservatives positions on Southlakes school board victories as a win. Those candidates were backed by Southlake Families PAC, which currently has more than $168,000 cash on hand.

The general sense of unease with some of the cultural direction of contemporary public education thats a real thing, said Matthew Wilson, a Southern Methodist University political science professor. What political form that takes depends on the actions of these local political leaders and groups and how they seek to capitalize on it.

Smith laid out her playbook at a recent meeting hosted by a PAC targeting Frisco school board seats.

She explained how she was prompted to run after Carroll ISDs diversity council proposed a cultural competency plan, which recommended the school system hire a director of equity and inclusion; establish a grievance system through which students can report discrimination; and audit the district curriculum through an equity lens.

It was decried by many in the mostly white, affluent community as creating diversity police and promoting a left-wing agenda. At the same time, students of color and their parents were pushing school leaders to recognize racism on campuses.

With conservatives on the board, Smith told the crowd, the diversity councils work has been destroyed. The group was disbanded and their cultural competency plan rejected.

After her win, Smith said she heard from a mother, now running for school board herself, who told her: We want to do in Frisco what you guys are doing in Southlake.

Having conservatives on your school board really makes a huge difference from curriculum to teacher trainings to whats in your kids classroom, Smith said at the event.

Smith did not respond to an interview request.

The recent Families 4 Frisco PAC meet-up featured two board candidates, Stephanie Elad and Marvin Lowe. The groups leadership declined requests for comment, as did Elad. Lowe did not respond.

As of the Jan. 18 filing, the PAC had $5,640 cash on hand. Donors to the group include conservative trustees from other school districts, including Southlake, and $1,000 from Star Patriots, another political action committee.

Speakers at the Families 4 Frisco event highlighted the need to raise more money and door-knock, specifically because school board races tend to have low turnout.

In general, races for school board seats even those in large school districts have fewer than 10,000 votes. Campaigns are similarly smaller in scale, with total contributions rarely topping $50,000.

The roughly 100 people who attended the Frisco meeting held in a local retirement community were encouraged to text their friends, host meet-and-greets and get others excited about conservative Frisco ISD candidates.

The keynote speaker was Allen West, the former Texas Republican Party chair who unsuccessfully campaigned for the gubernatorial nomination. Before he left, he held up his phone to announce he had just donated $100 to the Families 4 Frisco PAC.

School board is the most important elected position in the United States of America, West said.

Smith reiterated that idea when speaking at this years Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida. During a panel discussion, she ended with a call to action for those in the crowd.

This movement is a tidal wave, she predicted.

Conservative politicians are increasingly campaigning on the idea of parents rights, a trend seen from local school board races up to the gubernatorial one.

Gov. Greg Abbott, at a recent campaign event in Lewisville, unveiled his proposed Parents Bill of Rights, which he said would include expanding families access to courses with all lesson materials available online.

The Texas Education Code already contains a chapter that outlines parental rights and responsibilities. But Abbott suggested amending the Texas Constitution to reinforce that parents are the main decision makers in all matters.

Similar rhetoric in Virginia helped propel a Republican into the governors mansion in November.

The idea of how much control parents should have over their own childs learning as well as what level of control they should be able to exert over their classmates is driving much of the tension in Texas.

This is particularly apparent in the debate over library books.

More and more community members have challenged some school library books, many of which deal with issues of race, gender or sexuality. The titles specifically called out by Abbott are memoirs by LGBT authors.

Education advocates decry this trend as a threat to all students access to stories that may reflect their own lives or open their eyes to others experiences.

Richardson mother Sherry Clemens gained attention online from conservative outlets this fall after raising the alarm at a board meeting about titles listed as options for her eighth grade daughters book club, noting they included strong language.

She appeared on a podcast, saying the books included left-wing ideology theres homosexuality, theres a lot about gender identity, which I think is a huge hot topic right now and scary for our girls to be exposed to.

Clemens recently announced she was seeking a seat on the RISD board. She recently told The News that shes been considering a run for awhile.

I dont think its partisan politics, she said. Its moms and dads. Its parents of all political backgrounds. Theyre saying, We want transparency in schools.

The Richardson trustees will soon select a new superintendent after Jeannie Stone suddenly submitted her resignation in December. Stone was an outspoken advocate for racial equity in the district.

The passion and purpose of my work was all of a sudden named CRT and something that was bad to do, Stone told The Texas Tribune after her resignation announcement. And then that took off like wildfire, and I was never able to ever figure out a way to put that out.

The website for Richardson ISD Families First, a new PAC formed in that district, includes the work of the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion department as part of the problem in RISD schools.

The group, which has yet to make official endorsements, has nearly $12,000 to spend, as of the Jan. 18 filing. Among their large donors are two local mothers who appeared on Fox News this fall to decry school closures because of COVID cases. Clemens gave a small amount.

The Texas GOP announced late last year that it would double down on local, traditionally nonpartisan elections. The Local Government Committees goal is assisting conservative candidates as they aim for often-overlooked school board and municipal seats.

Its important because its where the government is closest to the people and their daily lives, state GOP chair Matt Rinaldi said.

The immediacy of action is needed because he believes critical race theory is being injected into schools.

Rinaldi said that while grassroots efforts like the local PACs would play an important role in many races, the state GOP would enter the fray in a few selected races in May, including a Coppell ISD school board race.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party has run Project LIFT since 2015, a program to support and train candidates for down-ballot races.

Spokesman Jestin Patton said that this round of elections, theyre looking to promote candidates who dont dabble in culture wars unlike the growing anti-critical race theory rhetoric from the right.

This is nothing more than fear-mongering that Republicans are using to gain leverage with voters, Patton said. Weve seen this on every front in partisan races and non-partisan races.

Democratic-backed candidates, he said, should focus on promoting solutions to issues such as teacher shortages and learning loss. He acknowledged, though, the gains and momentum conservatives are building around culture war issues.

We know that it doesnt mean we cant win, Patton said. It just means we have to do a better job of connecting with the people of those communities and explaining to them why candidates with Democratic support are best for the job.

Tuesdays primary election previewed the potential power of the conservative education momentum. For example, Evelyn Brooks who ran in part on the idea of upholding the critical race theory ban beat incumbent Sue Melton-Malone for the State Board of Education District 14 nomination. The district encompasses several North Texas counties, including part of Frisco ISD.

Edwin Flores, a Dallas ISD board member, was defeated in his bid for the Republican county judge nomination by Lauren Davis, a mother who railed against his support for mask mandates in Dallas schools.

School board races in Texas, however, have long been free of party affiliation. Ostensibly, such a design asks voters to focus on local issues and not national party platforms or movements.

But that line is eroding, said SMUs Wilson. (SMU is a supporter of the Education Lab at The Dallas Morning News.)

Everything in American political life has been drifting towards more polarization, more partisanship, and non-partisan local politics is part of that trend, Wilson said.

Prior to this election cycle, national progressive groups threw their support behind nearly a dozen school board candidates in the Dallas and Houston areas in 2017.

Current education debates about COVID response or how race and sexuality is being taught in schools have gotten wrapped up into a highly partisan culture wars framework, he said.

And so its going to be increasingly difficult for people on school boards to step aside from that partisan fray. I think these groups are right that, more and more, people running for those offices are going to have to pick a side.

The danger of that, said Wilson, is when these races become about cultural politics, they become less about competency of administration or educational policy expertise.

The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.

The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from The Beck Group, Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, The Meadows Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University and Todd A. Williams Family Foundation. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Labs journalism.

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Bolstered by CRT, book fights, conservative PACs aim to take back Texas school boards - The Dallas Morning News