Texas school board candidates pledging to ban books faced opposition at the ballot box, with most pro-censorship candidates losing elections in six districts across the state.
The U.S. has seen a recent rise in book bans, with PEN America reporting that the 2022-23 academic year saw 3,362 instances of book banning, a 33 percent increase from the previous year.
Frank Strong, a teacher in Austin, Texas, who tracks school board elections, wrote in his Anger & Clarity newsletter that nine of the 15 candidates who ran on banning certain books from schools lost their races.
"Voters decided again to reject some of the worst, most anti-book candidates," Strong wrote, adding, "And, what's more, these results continued a clear pattern, stretching back through four election cycles to November 2022, of voters successfully organizing to resist extremist takeovers of their school boards."
Strong tracked the races using a 23-page document that he compiled, which includes information on the candidates, whether they are for or against book bans, and what they have said about censorship in the past.
Strong also tracked whether candidates were supported by groups such as Moms for Liberty, which advocates for "parental rights at all levels of government" and has worked to prevent schools from teaching LGBTQ+ content.
Moms for Liberty supporters say American schools should focus their efforts on the country's illiteracy rate instead of teaching children about "gender ideology." The Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled Moms for Liberty as a far-right, anti-government organization.
Newsweek contacted Moms for Liberty for comment via email outside normal working hours.
In September, Moms for Liberty endorsed Brandi Burkman in her school board election. Burkman, Strong wrote, has a history of calling for books to be banned and filed a police report against the Leander Independent School District in 2022 over Jonathan Evison's Lawn Boy, which she and Moms for Liberty say is too obscene for schools.
At a True Texas Project forum later that year, Burkman defended her decision to call the police, saying: "The definition of abuse actually covers this, and having the sexually graphic material in these books for minors, it fits the definition of abuse, and we need to hold these people accountable."
The book, which contains LGBTQ+ themes and discusses race and class, has been targeted by school boards across the country.
Burkman lost her race to incumbent school board member Anna Smith. Newsweek contacted Burkman for comment via social media outside normal working hours.
Candidates who saw success on election night include four in Conroe, Texas. The news site Texas Scorecard reported that all seven seats of the city's school board are now filled by "Mama Bears," members of a group that has, Strong wrote, attacked teachers online and pushed for anti-trans legislation in schools.
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