I designed this document as a mobilization tool. In other words, while I hope you find it informative, what really matters is that we use the information here to act. Specifically, I hope this document can help people:

1. Support school board candidates who resist book bans and stand up for all students in their district.
2. Connect like-minded voters with each other and with groups already working in each district.
3. Tie extremist candidates to their extreme positions.

To use this document:

• Collaborate. This is a working document, and I want to add updates from people closer to the action than I am. If you know something that should be added, please email me: booklovingtexanvotes@gmail.com.
• Check back. Candidate filings were finalized in late August, and information is going to come in quickly. Check back often!
• Start with groups on the ground. One of the most important sections on each page is the “Contacts on the ground” box–these are people who either know a lot about what’s going on in a district or have already been working to prop up good candidates and challenge powerful PACs. If you want to organize in a district, start by contacting them.
• Share. The more people who see this and use it, the better.

Terminology & Designations:

Candidates highlighted in red are either members of pro-censorship groups (Moms for Liberty, local PACs) or have the support of such groups.

Candidates highlighted in orange echo pro-censorship talking points but don’t have documented links to those groups.

Candidates highlighted in green either have a record of standing up for academic freedom, diversity and inclusion or have been targeted by pro-censorship groups and thus need support. This is not necessarily an endorsement–in races with multiple candidates, there may be more than one candidate worthy of this designation.

Candidates not highlighted could be great, or awful, or somewhere in between. As I get more information on them I’ll add it in the notes and change their designations if necessary.

“Contacts on the Ground” are local resources for organizing and information. If this is you, please let me add your name/group here!

• #FReadom
• Book Ban Busters (Red Wine & Blue)
• Dr. Tasslyn Magnusson’s Book Censorship Database (EveryLibrary Institute)
• Mothers for Democracy
• TxLEADSEd
• Pastors for Texas Children 
• Texas Educators Vote
• Texans for the Right to Read
• We Make the Future
• Book Riot (includes weekly roundup of censorship news)
• Texas Blue Action
• Blue Horizon Texas
• Children’s Defense Fund Texas
• Students Engaged in Advancing Texas
• Authors Against Book Bans

NEW FOR 2024!

In December of 2023, I joined a group of Texas parents to launch the Texas Freedom to Read Project. We uncover and publicize information regarding book removals in schools and public libraries, inform voters about elections that affect the freedom to read, train and organize parents to speak up at school board meetings and legislative committees, and amplify the voices of those affected by book bans. Check us out!

Contested Races

Candidates

Position 4

Position 5

Position 6

Position 7

Datren Williams (I)

Jamison Gentle

Nicole May

Lindsay Dawson

Kristin Guardino

Josh Webb

Stacey Chase (I)

Melissa Semmler

Scott Buzbee

Marianne Horton

John Robichau

Notes on Red Flag Candidate(s)

Position 4

• Jamison Gentle describes himself as a “small business owner” on his candidate application. Information about him is scarce. He voted in the last three Republican primaries, but doesn’t have any history of making campaign donations. I’ll update his status as information becomes available.

• Nicole May’s priority as both an activist and trustee candidate seems noble enough: improving special education services in Conroe ISD and advocating for students with dyslexia. Unfortunately, she has aligned herself with some of the most extreme, anti-public school, and anti-book elements in Texas politics.
• Most troublingly, May is paying CAZ Consulting, run by Christopher Zook, Jr., the president of anti-public school group Texans for Educational Freedom. CAZ Consulting has dumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into Texas school board races in recent years, often employing deception to try to get extremists who will undermine public schools onto district boards.
• May is also part of a slate of candidates that has the full-throated endorsement of Cassandra Crowe, who literally launched Conroe ISD’s book scare by calling for the removal of 35 books–including Brave New World and The Bluest Eye–from the district.
• May is an active member of Crowe’s anti-book Facebook group “The Force for Conroe ISD,” and also has the support of anti-book trustees Misty Odenweller and Tiffany Nelson.  
• May has been endorsed by the Christian Nationalist group the True Texas Project.

Position 5

• Conservative attorney and former mayoral candidate Kristin Guardino is playing up her Republican bona-fides in her campaign for CISD position 5. Guardino’s website reports that “Kristin is a supporter of former President Donald Trump,” and that “She worked for Ronald Reagan’s campaign while she attended college and later worked on George H. W. Bush’s campaign while an election judge and precinct chair.”
• Guardino also explains that “her life is devoted to increasing individual strength through the pedagogy of moral character, intellect, reliance on God, and to the best of one’s ability, the abandonment of fear.”
• Guardino’s website and interviews have enough red flags to (language around parental rights, “lessening political influences in classrooms”–which often means removing books about race) to keep me wary, but they’re all vague enough to keep me from giving her an orange highlight yet.

• Lindsay Dawson is a financial analyst who, like Nicole May, has the support of Cassandra Crowe and Conroe ISD’s anti-book “Mama Bear” trustees.
• Dawson seems especially concerned with keeping materials that include LGBTQ themes and characters out of Conroe schools. In The Force for Conroe ISD’s Facebook group, Dawson has called for the banning of Lily and Dunkin, a book featuring a trans protagonist,
• Dawson wrote to the legislature in support of HB900, the anti-book bill that has been found likely unconstitutional by the uber-conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, saying, “It is shameful,” she wrote, “you are the adults, and you need to protect my children and the other hundreds of thousands Texan children depending on you.”
• Like May, Dawson is paying anti-public school firm CAZ Consulting for marketing.
• Dawson has also been endorsed by the Christian Nationalist True Texas Project.

Position 6

• I’ll admit that Melissa Semmler puzzles me. Semmler teaches English at Lone Star College and yet is pushing as hard for book removals from Conroe ISD as any of her “Mama Bear” slate-mates. I actually had a conversation with Semmler this summer–she came off as a dedicated teacher and a nice person whose love for reading is genuine. But that doesn’t change the fact that Semmler has spoken out at board meetings for book removals, and written a blog post for “Two Moms and Some Books,” the newsletter published by Michelle Nuckolls, who has pushed for removing LGBTQ books from not only Conroe ISD but also the Montgomery County Public Library. In her post, Semmler described Lily and Dunkin, which has a trans protagonist, as pervasively vulgar. It’s not. And she argued that Pico v. Board of Education gives school boards leeway to remove books like it from district shelves. In fact, the plurality decision in Pico says that you can’t remove books for the ideas they contain, which is what Nuckolls and the district’s “Mama Bears” are trying to do by removing books that affirm trans characters.
• Semmler also has the full support of political operative Cassandra Crowe, who, again, launched Conroe ISD’s anti-book frenzy, turning it into the district that has removed the most books in the Houston area.
• Semmler has also been endorsed by the Christian Nationalist True Texas Project.

Position 7

• Marianne Horton is another English teacher who somehow doesn’t understand that Conroe ISD’s book-banning frenzy has made teaching English harder for CISD teachers, who have literally had to take books like Brave New World out of the hands of their students to comply with district mandates.
• Horton wrote to the legislature in favor of the unconstitutional anti-book bill HB900, saying “Please clean up the trash in our school libraries and classroom libraries” and describing Nicola Yoon’s Everything, Everything and John Green’s Looking for Alaska as “porn.” (They are not)
• Interestingly, one of Horton’s campaign contributors is Dale Inman, the former trustee who helped Crowe kick off CISD’s book scare.
• Horton has also been endorsed by the Christian Nationalist True Texas Project.

Alternative Candidate(s)

Position 4

• Incumbent Datren Williams is an accountant and the CFO of an oil and gas rig logistics company, and he serves on the board of directors of the Montgomery County Women’s Center.
• Just about every time books or policies related to books have come before the board, Williams has voted the right way, and he has given thoughtful reasons for those votes.
• What’s more, Williams has drawn ire from the “Mama Bear” trustees for accurately pointing out that the district’s book removals have disproportionately affected books by and about people of color and LGBTQ people.
• Williams has also spoken up against proposed policies that target trans kids at meetings, accurately pointing out more than once that what connects so many of the “Mama Bears” efforts on the board–their anti-trans policies, the books they choose to flag–is targeting and bullying a vulnerable minority.
• Volunteer for or donate to Datren Williams.

Position 5

• Josh Webb is a business owner and a Conroe ISD and Texas A&M graduate with a background in finance.
• Webb has the support of StandUp: Conroe ISD. Webb also has the endorsement of a number of community leaders, including Anthony Shelton, Senior Pastor of West Tabernacle Church, former trustee Scott Kidd, and current Board President Skeeter Hubert.
• Volunteer for or donate to Josh Webb.

Position 6

• Stacey Chase ought to be running for governor. Or president. She’s that good. Like Datren Williams, she has repeatedly voted against motions that would remove books or target LGBTQ students, and like Williams she has consistently brought intelligence, honesty, and open-mindedness (and, occasionally, humor) to book debates that have come before the board. When the predictable consequences of the “Mama Bear” trustees’ became clear, Chase was there to call them out. “What are we doing here? These are classics,” she said as the board voted not to return Brave New World and The Color Purple to district classrooms. And now Chase is proposing revisions to CISD’s book policies to clean up the Mama Bears’ mess. But those revisions depend on the new slate of “Mama Bears” being turned away in this election.  
• An MBA and CPA, Chase is also the Director of Internal Audit for what she describes as a “large, multinational company” and has been a CISD trustee since 2020.  And Chase is a district parent, with two children in CISD elementary schools.
• Chase has voted in both Republican and Democratic primaries.
• Chase has the support of standUP: Conroe ISD.
• Volunteer for or donate to Stacey Chase.

Position 4

• John Robichau is a small business owner and Oak Ridge High School graduate with a history of volunteer involvement and charity work in the Woodlands.
• Robichau has a history of voting in Republican primaries.
• Robichau has the support of standUp: Conroe ISD and community leaders like Pastor Anthony Shelton, former trustee Scott Kidd, and current Board President Skeeter Hubert.
• Volunteer for or donate to John Robichau.

Contacts on the Ground

• standUP: Conroe ISD was formed in the wake of the “Mama Bears” electoral wins in 2022, when community members realized, in their words:

1- Our schools have become a target for very extreme groups

2- Misinformation and lies are rampant in what used to be very dull, uneventful school board elections

3- Most parents WANT to know the difference, but just don’t have time to keep up with it. We get it!

The leaders of the private Facebook group hoped to provide honest updates and information and make it easier for parents and community members to follow school board politics without the extremist spin that comes from groups like Mama Bears Rising and its CISD spinoff, The Force for CISD. Since forming, standUP: Conroe ISD has organized to inform community members about reasonable trustees and candidates. They also provide brilliant, can’t-miss threads for monthly board meetings.   

• The group has merch! I bought the “Vote Like an Educator” t-shirt.
• Follow them for events and ways to get involved in this election.

• Rebel Readers of Montgomery County is another great Conroe group focused specifically on issues of book bans and censorship.

Organizing steps/upcoming events

• PLEASE CONTACT ME TO ADD–Canvasses, organizing meetings, other events!

Contested Races

Candidates

At-Large (3 open places)

District 2

Alice Upshaw Hawkins (I)

Donald “Don” Clark (I)

Steve Barrera

Michael Bergsma

Augustin "J.R." De La Garza

Samuel Aundrá Fryer 

Pooja Bindingnavele

Jaime Arredondo (I)

Penny Kaminski

Notes on Red Flag Candidate(s)

At-Large

• The Nueces County chapter of Moms for Liberty is endorsing retired Army officer Samuel Aundrá Fryer, who also claims membership in Citizens Defending Freedom, one of the groups most involved in book removals in Texas.
• In August, Fryer appeared on the Kingdom Heirs Podcast and, in a jaw-dropping conversation about school library books with host James Maddalone, seemed to equate LGBTQ individuals with pedophiles and groomers. “They have those very sexually explicit books, they call them like ‘graphic novels,’ and they’re pornographic stuff, they push this whole LGBTQ mindset,” Fryer said. “And they want it to be in schools, and they actually have that stuff in school libraries.”

“They can come out by the way, if parents …” Maddalone responded.

“If parents say,” finished Fryer. “But the interesting thing is, it’s so ingrained–it’s like, [mocking voice] ‘We have to make sure everybody’s represented.’”

“No you don’t. No you don’t,” said Maddalone.

“That’s a bunch of baloney,” said Fryer.

“Pedophiles do not need representation. They do not need representation with your kindergartners,” said Maddalone.

“And groomers don’t either,” said Fryer. “Individuals that don’t know if they’re a male or a female … They need help. That’s not a matter of saying we need to affirm.”

• In the same conversation, Fryer spoke positively of the controversial new appointments to the Public Library Board, praising their “Biblical worldview,” and also praised the Traveling Pastor Circus that has been going from district to district in Texas demanding the removal of a list of nearly 700 books. And Fryer expressed the Christian Nationalist view that opposes separation of church and state, saying “This mindset, of that ‘separation of church and state,’ it’s not a part of the Constitution. Just like the concept of democracy.”

• Michael Bergsma is a member of Moms for Liberty’s Nueces County chapter’s Facebook group, and he has the support of many of the same people supporting Fryer. In fact, Bergsma has donated to Fryer’s campaign.
• Bergsma has shared multiple posts on his social media decrying “sexually explicit” books and Marxist librarians, and seems especially concerned with books involving LGBTQ themes, characters, and authors. (Ironically, in posts from before the current book-banning frenzy, he shared several posts lamenting liberal book-banning.)

Alternative Candidate(s)

At-Large

• Incumbent Alice Upshaw Hawkins is a retired teacher who has led the local chapter of the League of Women Voters. She is also a member of the Corpus Christi Library Board.
• Hawkins has degrees in education from Texas A&M and is currently pursuing her doctoral degree in Educational Leadership.
• She has the endorsement of the Coastal Bend Labor Council and the Corpus Christi American Federation of Teachers.
• Donate to or volunteer for Alice Upshaw Hawkins.

• Incumbent Donald Clark is the current board president and a veteran of the U.S. Air Force. He is also a CCISD graduate.
• Clark was elected to the board in 2020.
• I haven’t found a website for Clark yet, but here is his campaign Facebook page.

• Agustin “J.R” De La Garza is a healthcare administrator. He has the endorsement of the Coastal Bend Labor Council and the Corpus Christi American Federation of Teachers.
• De La Garza is a CCISD graduate with a B.A. from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and a master’s degree from
• Donate to or volunteer for J.R. De La Garza.

• Pooja Bindingnavele is a former teacher who currently serves as the Chief Financial Officer for a plastic surgery office.
• Bindingnavele was a member of the Corpus Christi Library Board, but was removed in a controversial decision by the City Council in 2023.  
• Donate to or volunteer for Pooja Bindingnavele.

• Steve Barrera is a former CCISD principal.
• Barrera has the endorsement of the Corpus Christi American Federation of Teachers.
• I haven’t found a website for Barrera yet, but here is his campaign Facebook page.

District 2

• Incumbent Jaime Arredondo is a retired teacher who has served on the board since 2018. Some of Arredondo’s comments and votes have caused clashes with the Corpus Christi AFT during his tenure on the board.
• I haven’t found a campaign website or Facebook page for Arredondo yet. Will update if that changes

• Penny Kaminski is also a former teacher and administrator.
• Kaminiski has the endorsement of the Coastal Bend Labor Council and the Corpus Christi American Federation of Teachers.
• I haven’t found a website for Kaminski yet, but here is her campaign Facebook page.

Contacts on the Ground

• TBD

Organizing steps/upcoming events

• PLEASE CONTACT ME TO ADD–Canvasses, organizing meetings, other events!

Contested Races

Candidates

Place 3

Place 4

Tim Bolton 

Brett Deason

Courtney Gore (I)

Jaci Lopez 

Notes on Red Flag Candidate(s)

Place 3

• In a race full of conservatives, Tim Bolton and Jaci Lopez are trying to position themselves the most conservative of conservatives. Bolton’s campaign Facebook describes him as “Your ‘real conservative’ for “limited government” and “family values.” His website says he is “committed to faith, family values, and education.”
• Bolton has the support of the most extreme elements of Granbury’s book-banning faction, including Monica Brown, who filed a complaint with the Granbury police over books in the library. Book banning trustees Melanie Graft and Karen Lowery (who co-signed Brown’s criminal complaint) have also welcomed Bolton’s campaign announcements on Facebook.
• Bolton has the support of the Christian Nationalist group the True Texas Project.

Place 4

• Jaci Lopez also has the support of Monica Brown, and both Melanie Graft and 2023 red-highlight board candidate Rhonda Rogers Williams liked her campaign announcement on Facebook.
• Lopez’s candidacy lends support to the idea that extremists in Texas aren’t actually trying to steward Texas public schools, but to discredit, defund, and ultimately demolish them. Lopez homeschools her children; in May, she posted on Twitter, “Stop sending your children to Caesar. The government schools do not care about your children the way you care about your children. Homeschool your kids.”
• Lopez has been endorsed by the Christian Nationalist group the True Texas Project.

Alternative Candidate(s)

Place 3

• Bret Deason has said on social media he supported the initial removal of books from Granbury ISD libraries, which earned the district an investigation from the Office for Civil Rights after an audio recording of then-Superintendent Jeremy Glenn revealed that he was specifically (and unconstitutionally) targeting books with LGBTQ themes. That’s why I’m not giving him a green highlight. That said, Deason has since been outspoken and courageous in calling out the most extreme elements in Granbury (like book-banning trustees Karen Lowery and Melanie Graft and their supporters Nate Criswell and Mike Lang). He has objected to scaremongering about books, to the absurd 2-year police investigation of Granbury ISD libraries (yes, that really happened!) and to the two trustees who broke into a school library in order to search for inappropriate books. All of that distinguishes Deason (and his slate-mate Courtney Gore) from Bolton and Lopez, who are both embracing Granbury’s extremists.
• Deason describes himself as having a business background, and he has served in a number of community leadership positions, including on the Hood County Children’s Charity Board of Directors and the Granbury Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.
• Deason supported moderate candidates Mike Moore and Nancy Alana in 2022. After that election, Deason said, “We sent a message last month to those who want to continue to attack public education: We’re not going away and we’re going to defend it.”  
• Deason has earned the endorsement of a number of local Republican officials and the majority of the current GISD Board of Trustees.
• Donate to or volunteer for Bret Deason.

Place 4

• Incumbent Courtney Gore describes herself as a “lifelong Republican and Christian” who nonetheless “knows her position on the school board is one that is non-partisan” and that “she must serve all of the students of Hood County, not just those who align with her political or religious views.”
• Gore has been endorsed by a number of Granbury and Hood County Republican officials, and the majority of the current GISD Board of Trustees.
• You may have heard of Gore–she was featured in an absolute MUST-READ article in The Texas Tribune. She’s the GISD trustee who was a former podcast co-host with Granbury’s leading extremists, Nate Criswell and Mike Lang. The three stoked the district’s anti-book frenzy, and Gore ran for the board in 2021 because “our American Education System has been hijacked by Leftists looking to indoctrinate our kids into the ‘progressive’ way of thinking.” But then a funny thing happened when she got onto the board: she realized the indoctrination she had campaigned against wasn’t really happening. As The Texas Tribune put it, she found:

The pervasive indoctrination she had railed against simply did not exist. Children were not being sexualized, and she could find no examples of critical race theory, an advanced academic concept that examines systemic racism. She’d examined curriculum related to social-emotional learning, which has come under attack by Christian conservatives who say it encourages children to question gender roles and prioritizes feelings over biblical teachings. Instead, Gore found the materials taught children ‘how to be a good friend, a good human.’

When Gore told her extremist allies, they weren’t interested in her good news. So Gore went public with a series of Facebook posts denouncing the narrative she had run on. “I’m over the political agenda, hypocrisy bs,” Gore wrote. “I took part in it myself. I refuse to participate in it any longer. It’s not serving our party. We have to do better.” 

• Predictably, Gore’s former allies turned on her. As the Tribune describes, she faced awful rhetoric that escalated into what could be perceived as violent threats. The criticism hasn’t stopped. District book-banner Monica Brown recently wrote on Facebook, “Just about any candidate is better than Gore. Gore has made decisions from day one against the values she said she stood for when she first campaigned. She actually campaigned against the sexualization of children and then did zero to correct the problem in Granbury ISD.”
• Donate to or volunteer for Courtney Gore.

Contacts on the Ground

• Former Granbury ISD trustee Chris Tackett and his wife, Mendi, have been documenting the district’s slide into Christian Nationalism for years. The two are tenacious and absolutely worth following on social media for information on GISD.
• Adrienne Martin has been courageous in speaking up for Granbury students at board meetings, and has also been a key source of information on district happenings.  

Organizing steps/upcoming events

• PLEASE CONTACT ME TO ADD–Canvasses, organizing meetings, other events!

Contested Races

Candidates

Place 3

Place 4

Place 5

Nekosi Nelson

Jim Sneeringer

Brandi Burkman

Anna Smith (I)

Zach Zayner

Sade Fashokun (I)

Gerald Prater

Notes on Red Flag Candidate(s)

Place 3

• Jim Sneeringer is a retired software engineer who served on the board from 1993 to 2011. Sneeringer has earned the endorsement of Christian Nationalist pseudo-historian David Barton–it’s not clear if that’s a current endorsement, as Sneeringer’s website doesn’t seem to have been updated recently.

Place 4

• Candidate Brandi Burkman, who also ran in 2022, has the endorsement of Moms for Liberty.
• Burkman believes that Leander ISD teachers and librarians who allow students access to books like Lawn Boy are committing a crime. In 2022, she filed a police report on the district over perceived obscenity in the book.
• At a True Texas Project forum that year, Burkman defended that action, accusing LISD teachers of abusing and damaging children: “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. … Because these teachers are obligated to the state of Texas because the state of Texas gave them their teaching certifications, not the superintendent, so they need to stop damaging Texas children.”
• Burkman has continued to crusade against books in the district. This June, she told the board she had submitted 19 reconsideration requests for books “for pornography.”

Place 5

• Gerald Prater has the endorsement of Moms for Liberty.
• Prater has been a part of just about every push to get books removed from Leander ISD. He shared a change.org petition to get books removed from LISD schools way back in 2021; this past summer, Prater was there when the Traveling Pastor Circus tried and failed to once again make a stink about books in the district.
• When Williamson County Commissioners voted to withhold funding from Leander and Round Rock ISD, damaging the district and harming students over so-called pornographic books, Prater celebrated on social media.
• In between, Prater has repeatedly spoken up in public comment about books, about so-called “CRT,” and against diversity, equity, and inclusion. In one characteristic diatribe, he told the board he disagreed with “what you’re doing” and then quoted the Federal Criminal Code’s statutes on grooming.
• An all-around crank, Prater harangues the board at just about every meeting, whether he has something specific to be angry about or not. In one farcical moment, Prater quoted Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” at the board for no discernible reason while wearing a MAGA hat and a “Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president” t-shirt (this was in January of 2022),
• An Air Force veteran, Prater describes himself on his campaign Facebook page as a “Christian conservative for parental rights.”

Alternative Candidate(s)

Place 3

• All in LISD is supporting Nekosi Nelson to replace Christine Mauer, who has decided not run for re-election in Place 3. Formerly an investment banker, Nelson has spent more than 12 years working in education, and has served the Leander community in a number of capacities, including serving on the planning committees for the COL Juneteenth and MLK Day Celebrations and acting as Commissioner for Public Arts & Culture Commission, Place 3.
• Nelson also has the support of several current board members.
• Donate to or volunteer for Nekosi Nelson.    

Place 4

• Incumbent Anna Smith was first elected to the board in 2020 and has since helped steer the district to a number of accomplishments, including earning the prestigious AP Large District of the Year Award in 2023.
• Smith’s slogan is “Advocate like a mother,” and she writes on her website that she was initially inspired to run by her experience as a district parent (Smith has three children in the district and one recent graduate), when she encountered “​​the complexities of the Texas special education system” which she said “seemed focused on creating confusion than supporting students and families.” Such advocacy remains a focus of Smith’s platform, along with fiscal responsibility and a commitment to early intervention programs.
• Like Nelson and fellow incumbent Sade Fashokun, Smith has the endorsement of public school advocacy group All in LISD.
• Donate to or volunteer for Anna Smith.

• Zach Zayner is a former teacher who now works for Google. Zayner says the “three key pillars” of Transparency, Integrity, and Community “guide my approach to making Leander ISD a district where every child can thrive.”
• Donate to or volunteer for Zach Zayner.

Place 5

• Sade Fashokun was appointed to the board in September 2021 after trustee Jim MacKay resigned. She has been part of a number of district successes, including Leander ISD being named by the College Board as the AP Large District of the Year in 2023.
• She’s the owner of an insurance agency, a former attorney and member of the Washington State Bar Association, and a parent of two Leander ISD students. She has been a strong voice for inclusion in the district, having expressed support for LGBTQ students on multiple occasions.
• Along with Nelson and Smith, Fashokun has the support of public-ed advocacy group All in LISD. In her last election bid, she was also endorsed by Texas Freedom Network and IDEALeander, among other groups.
• Donate to or volunteer for Sade Fashokun.

Contacts on the Ground

• All in LISD is a phenomenal group committed to promoting “the election of pro-public education candidates and policies.” They  have shown an impressive dedication to equity and inclusion in education, and have shown up to support teachers at school board meetings where educators were under attack. You can volunteer here to knock on doors with them, show up at school board meetings, or make phone calls.

Organizing steps/upcoming events

• PLEASE CONTACT ME TO ADD–Canvasses, organizing meetings, other events!

Contested Races

Candidates

Place 1

Place 2

Place 7

Estevan Jesus “Chuy” Zarate (I)

Joshua Escalante 

Melissa Ross

April Guerra

Mingyuan “Michael” Wei

James Steele

Notes on Red Flag Candidate(s)

Place 1

• Joshua Escalante works in healthcare and is a RRISD parent.
• Escalante’s Facebook campaign announcement was welcomed by a who’s who of Williamson County extremists, including Moms for Liberty leader Christie Slape, PAC founder Jeremy Story, Citizens Defending Freedom executive Marcia Watson, and two-time red-highlight Leander ISD candidate Brandi Burkman. Other posts on his Facebook page were liked by Michelle Taff Evans, the former congressional candidate who (in all seriousness) fomented the crazy notion that Round Rock schools are supplying litter boxes in restrooms to accommodate “furry” students.
• Escalante himself has a very small political footprint: no fiery school board meeting speeches, no angry testimony at the Texas lege. His campaign Facebook page, website, responses to press queries, and interviews are pretty tame. So how to explain the extremist enthusiasm for his candidacy? Well, part of it might be the fact Escalante’s wife is active with Moms for Liberty and is an ally of Slape. Round Rock ISD extremists seem to have learned from 2022 that their message isn’t a winning one–so now they’re running candidates a degree removed from their most incendiary rhetoric.
• That said, Escalante has expressed his own extreme views. In a candidate forum hosted by Christian Nationalist organization Citizens Defending Freedom, Escalante said he supports providing cameras and audio access to allow surveillance of teachers–a position favored by some of the most extreme, anti-teacher activists in the country.

Place 7

• James Steele is a combat veteran and retired IT worker.
• As with Escalante, posts on Steele’s campaign Facebook page are frequently liked by the leading book-banners in Williamson County, including Burkman, Evans and Moms-for-Liberty aligned 2022 candidate Linda Avila.  
• Steele is a frequent poster on the Facebook page of Williamson County Citizens Defending Freedom, where he shares links to content about “the war on children,” “transgender indoctrination,” and “empowering parents” to fight back against “critical race theory.”
• IMPORTANT UPDATE: At a PTA candidate forum on October 8, Steele finished his closing argument by saying “Vote for me, I’m American-made,” an apparent swipe at his opponent, Michael Wei, who is an immigrant. (Supporters of Steele have argued that he was merely expressing his pride in the American education system.)

Alternative Candidate(s)

Place 1

• Chuy Zarate has led the district’s Council of PTAs Diversity and Inclusion Committee who was elected in 2022 after making equity a centerpiece of his campaign. On his website for that campaign, he wrote, “It is a trustee’s duty to think of innovative ways to ensure that marginalized students are given the same advantages as others. A trustee has to be ready to make choices that build up Black, brown, LGBTQIA2S+ and SPED students.” It shouldn’t, but it takes political courage to write those things in 2024.
• Zarate has the endorsement of Access Education RRISD and the Texas Freedom Network.
• Donate to or volunteer for Chuy Zarate.

Place 2

• Melissa Ross is a former Round Rock ISD student and UT grad who taught at Westwood High School for a decade.
• Ross is also a Round Rock ISD parent, and she has been involved in quite a bit of public service both in RRISD and in the larger community.
• Ross’s answers to Access Education RRISD’s recent candidate survey were both thorough and thoughtful. Of particular interest to this guide, Ross spoke up for the board’s recent implementation of a policy addressing identity-based bullying and turned a question about equity and inclusion into a specific response about addressing the real needs of, in her words, “LGBTQIA+ students, students from diverse racial or socioeconomic backgrounds, foster care or homeless students, immigrant and refugee students, and English language learners.” 
• Ross earned the endorsement of Access Education RRISD and the Texas Freedom Network.
• Donate to or volunteer for Melissa Ross.

• April Guerra is a financial analyst who says that her experience as a parent of a dyslexic student spurs her advocacy for diverse learning needs and inclusivity.
• An MBA with a website focused on entrepreneurship and inspiration, Guerra also has a record of volunteering with groups like the Junior League of San Antonio and Austin, the Center for Child Protection, Special Olympics of South Texas, and Habitat for Humanity.
• Guerra gave decent answers to Access Education RRISD’s candidate survey. She listed RRISD’s anti-bullying policy as one she specifically supported and argued for the importance of using data to address disparities for diverse students.
• Donate to or volunteer for April Guerra.

Place 3

• Mingyuan “Michael” Wei is a toxicologist with a Ph.D. in environmental science with a record of service in both the district and the community.
• Wei’s responses to both the Access Education RRISD survey and the Austin Chronicle reflect real commitment to inclusivity in education. Wei told Brant Bingamon of the Chronicle, “As a school board candidate, I have personally experienced the harmful effects of identity-based bullying on social media. A local parent falsely claimed that my foreign birth disqualified me from serving on the board and singled out my college in Wuhan for attack. This racist behavior is unacceptable and deeply concerning.”
• Wei was endorsed by Access Education RRISD and the Texas Freedom Network.
• Donate to or volunteer for Michael Wei.

Contacts on the Ground

Lots of great ways to get involved in Round Rock ISD:

• Access Education RRISD is organized, energized, and dedicated to fighting for public education in Round Rock. Contact them to see how you can help!
• The Round Rock Black Parents Association successfully fought an attempted ban on the book Stamped from the Beginning, by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi, with petitions and organized interventions at board meetings.

Organizing steps/upcoming events

• PLEASE CONTACT ME TO ADD–Canvasses, organizing meetings, other events!

Contested Races

Candidates

Position 5

Position 6

Position 7

Amanda Bass

Joseph Ferguson

Justin Unser (I)

Jennifer Kratky

Coco White

John Payne

Notes on Red Flag Candidate(s)

Position 5

• Joseph Ferguson objected to being included on my list of red-flag candidates when he ran for the board in 2022. But he justified my choice when he later endorsed the book-banning slate of candidates Jennifer Kratky, Stephanie Lopez and Billy Moore for the other three open positions on the board. The orange highlight stays.
• That said, in candidate forums and some social media interactions, Ferguson comes off as a candidate with an independent streak who is trying to be gracious and neighborly to his fellow candidates and potential constituents (though not always succeeding--Ferguson has a history of making combative Facebook posts that he sometimes later deletes).
• A US Army veteran, a former Tomball ISD teacher, and assistant principal who recently taught at Lone Star College, Ferguson is also a TISD alum and parent, and in a recent candidate forum spoke movingly about his experiences with the district.

Position 6

• Jennifer Kratky got the memo that book-banning is out of fashion in Texas. After running for the board in 2022 on a platform of getting books out of the district (Tomball locals report that Kratky carried examples of “inappropriate” books door-to-door while canvassing), Kratky’s new campaign features a website that is not only free of controversial stances but even claims that Kratky will support Tomball ISD teachers. But Kratky has been a member of just about every extremist and Christian Nationalist group in the Houston suburbs, including Mama Bears Rising, Tomball Family Values, and True Texas Project.
• At the Greater Tomball Area Chamber of Commerce’s recent candidate forum, Kratky said she is running for the school board because, when her family was living in Austin, “Things started happening in my kids’ school that I couldn’t believe that were upsetting lots of parents actually, you know, kind of the ‘woke’ stuff coming into schools and we didn’t think that it could be legal in a state like Texas.”
• While Kratky is keeping her pro-censorship views relatively quiet this year, restricting reading material remains a passion for her. This past summer, Kratky was there when the Montgomery County Commissioners Court implemented changes to the governance of the public library, making moves that will lead to book removals and restrictions.
• Kratky’s history of pushing censorship is long and distinguished: At a 2022 board meeting, Kratky advocated replacing district’s health education requirement (including sex ed) with options for “a culinary class, or a personal financial literacy class where you learn about health insurance.” She continued: “Both of those in my opinion would be much more beneficial to lifelong health than the stuff that’s in this book, or even some of the FFA requirements, like gardening for example. And you could allow those substitutions.”  
• Kratky also supported Mama Bears Rising’s effort to challenge books in Conroe ISD, offering to “set up a work session” to help the group submit a mass of book challenges.
• One of her donors this year is Julie McCarty, CEO of the True Texas Project.

Alternative Candidate(s)

Position 5

• Amanda Bass is a Tomball parent with a significant history of service in the district. A PTO super-volunteer and member of the inaugural Tomball ISD Leadership Class, Bass is currently the  president of the Tomball ISD Education Foundation.
• In the 2022 election that was plagued by extremist candidates backed by Tomball Family Values PAC, Bass endorsed reasonable candidates.
• Bass has a history of voting in Republican primaries.
•  Donate to or volunteer for Amanda Bass.

Position 6

• Incumbent and current board Vice President Justin Unser was unanimously appointed to the board in 2019 and then won re-election in 2020.
• A parent of two TISD students, Unser has worked for ExxonMobil for more than 25 years.
• Unser’s website is free of culture-war nonsense, and he even makes a point of describing how important reading has been to him.
• Unser voted in the most recent Republican primary.
• Donate to or volunteer for Justin Unser.

Position 7

• There’s considerable energy behind the candidacy of Courtnay “Coco” White, a law enforcement officer with the City of Tomball who previously worked as a school resource officer.
• White is both a TISD graduate and a parent of four TISD students and pastor of a local church. White graduated from Prairie View A&M University with a degree in Criminal Justice and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Public Administration.
• Donate to or volunteer or Coco White.

• John Payne is an accountant and former teacher and coach. Like White and Ferguson, he spoke at the recent Greater Tomball Area Chamber of Commerce’s candidate forum about his experience working in schools, recounting a time he helped a student pass a math standardized test for the first time.
• Payne is a graduate of Texas A&M and describes himself as coming from a family of educators.
• Donate to or volunteer for John Payne.

Contacts on the Ground

• Stand Up for Tomball ISD is a great group for organizing and sharing information about extremist attacks on education in Tomball.

Organizing steps/upcoming events

• PLEASE CONTACT ME TO ADD–Canvasses, organizing meetings, other events!