DeSantis targets Miami-Dade school board member for 2024 election. One of 14 on his list
Three months after the November election that resulted in more than 30 school board candidates backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis winning their races, the governor is again indicating he will have a heavy hand in local school board races in 2024.
On Tuesday, the governor’s team released a list of more than a dozen school board members across Florida — including Luisa Santos on the Miami-Dade School Board — whose seats he plans to target in the next school elections.
The list — which the governor’s office announced exclusively to Fox News — indicates yet another attempt by the governor to control local school boards, which have historically been non-partisan and which are funded by local property owners. Florida governors historically have stayed clear of school board elections.
It remains unclear why Santos, who edged out Dennis Moss, a former Miami County commissioner in 2020, is being targeted over other liberal-leaning members on the board and what, if anything, positioned her and the 13 others in opposition to the governor and his agenda.
DeSantis’ office referred questions to the governor’s political arm for questions, which did not respond to the Herald’s queries. But those involved in the discussions told the Herald the individuals were highlighted because of their voting record and announcing the targets early on notifies potentially interested candidates which seats will be a focus for the party.
“These are people that have supported (critical race theory) and the indoctrination stuff in the schools, (who) are woke,” said Christian Ziegler, chair of the Republican Party of Florida. He also cited mask mandates and “even school shutdowns” as possible motivations for selecting them.
“These are individuals that just don’t fall in line with the vision that we see for school boards, which is a pro-parent, pro-kids school board member, rather than being controlled by unions or pushing, you know, this leftist ideology onto our kids,” he told the Herald.
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Ziegler, who didn’t speak specifically to Santos’ inclusion, was among the more than a dozen members who met with the governor regarding the list. Tiffany Justice and Tina Descovich, co-founders of Moms for Liberty, a conservative parents rights organization whose members routinely espouse QAnon conspiracy theories, state Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr., Ryan Tyson, a prominent GOP consultant and pollster, and House Speaker Paul Renner were also present.
The governor’s office was asked why Diaz and the governor’s chief of staff, James Uthmeier, were at the political meeting. Bryan Griffin, the governor’s press secretary, told the Herald that they were both “off the clock, in personal capacity” when they took part in the conversations.
Santos declined to speculate on why the governor may be trying to oust her. Instead, she said, “what’s most important to remember is that being on the school board is about making sound decisions on behalf of the parents and students, not about politics.”
Santos is viewed as a liberal member of the board, but her voting record has been mixed when it comes to what the governor and conservatives want.
Ahead of the 2021-22 school year, when the number of new daily COVID cases were topping 20,000 a day, a record, she supported a temporary mask mandate, despite the governor’s ban on face coverings. (Indeed, the mandate included a medical opt-out.) And in September, she voted against recognizing October as LGBTQ+ History month in Miami-Dade Schools, but only after an amendment she requested to ensure the item was in alignment with the Parental Rights in Education law failed.
At the same time, she has regularly sided with her liberal colleagues on the board. Over the summer, she voted to adopt a comprehensive sexual-health textbook — a measure conservatives, including members of Moms for LIberty, were against. Moreover, she supported a property tax referendum to support teacher pay and boost school safety — a measure the Miami GOP lobbied against.
Santos also cited her accomplishments so far, including an increase in one or more grade levels in 11 schools in her district.
“If anyone wants to challenge my results, I have never shied away from a healthy debate,” Santos said. “I look forward to a healthy election cycle.”
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An already conservative board
Overall, the governor’s team singled out 14 board members from nine Florida school districts, including two each from Pinellas, Hillsborough, Duval, Indian River and Volusia counties. No members were included from Broward County schools, which has already seen a transformation in recent months, including the firing last year of Superintendent Vickie Cartwright by the five DeSantis appointees to the Broward School Board. (The new board rehired her; she left the district last month.)
But according to Justice, of Moms for Liberty, the list will likely grow to include more school board members from across the state. That’s why the list was released now, she said. (In 2022, DeSantis announced he would be endorsing candidates just a few months before the primary elections and launched his Education Agenda Tour just days before.)
“The focus of putting the list out early is that we need to recruit good candidates to run against these people,” Justice said. “Showing and signifying that there are people who need to be replaced” could encourage people in those districts to run.
“These school board members have shown us (how they vote) and now we’re going to work to replace them,” she said. Notably, she said there are Republicans on the list, adding a person’s party affiliation “isn’t going to shield you from being held accountable.”
Zeigler agreed, arguing this list is “the first step. It also basically notifies people in those areas that, hey, these seats are going to be priority seats for us and if you’re interested in running for school board in these seats, please let us know.”
In Miami-Dade, five seats — including Santos’ — are up for reelection in 2024: Vice Chair Dan Espino, whom DeSantis appointed to replace Christi Fraga when she became Doral mayor last year; Lucia Baez-Geller; Mary Blanco, whom DeSantis appointed to replace Lubby Navarro, who stepped down at the end of December to comply with new anti-lobbying laws; and Steve Gallon.
The DeSantis appointments of Espino and Blanco, along with Monica Colucci and Roberto Alonso, who were both endorsed by the governor and won their seats in the August primaries, essentially secured a 5-4 majority on the board. Another DeSantis-endorsed board member could result in a 6-3 conservative majority.
Chairwoman Mari Tere Rojas, who also won her reelection in August and was previously seen as a possible swing vote, has so far sided with the conservatives on items that split the board. In January, for example, she joined Alonso, Blanco, Colucci and Espino, all endorsed or backed by DeSantis, to elect Espino as vice chair over Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall, the longest serving board member and who was reelected in August with more than 75 percent of the vote.
Nevertheless, Juan-Carlos Planas, an elections lawyer and former state legislator, says he isn’t convinced the governor’s tactics will be as successful as they were ahead of 2022.
For starters, Santos’ district is different from the districts he helped secure a win in six months ago, Planas said. Santos’ district, which includes South Dade and Pinecrest, is more of a swing district than the others, he admitted, but “it’s still not one that will take kindly to this type of rhetoric.”
Ultimately, a lot has changed since the August primary and November election, and “pictures of empty bookshelves in classrooms is really starting to ring a bell with folks,” Planas argued. This “isn’t the type of district where I think the governor’s schtick is going to play well.”
Miami Herald Staff Writer Ana Ceballos contributed to this report.
This story was originally published February 23, 2023 at 6:54 PM.
