Local school board elections are held in Wisconsin every spring on a staggered basis. While party affiliation does not appear on ballots in Wisconsin for school board elections, Democratic- and Republican-backed candidates flipped formerly nonpartisan seats in the 2024 spring election.
The Daily Cardinal reviewed financial reports and found over 100 school board candidates statewide received support from either a political party or a political action committee (PAC) this spring. Total contributions to school board candidates in Wisconsin from PACs and political parties have increased by over 3,800% since 2014 to $348,163, the review found (Note: this figure is an underestimate as the review primarily counted contributions to titles including ‘for school board’ or ‘schools’).
In strong partisan districts, party endorsements all but guarantee a victory, leading to questions about how county party leaders pick candidates to endorse.
Political party contributions largely come from the Democrats
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin supported about 55 school board candidates, according to their spring Pre-Election 2024 Campaign Finance Report, from Superior to Sheboygan to Racine.
While no direct monetary support from the party was given to any candidate, nonmonetary support — which could include campaign materials such as direct mailers or yard signs — reached as high as $11,458 for a single candidate. Some of the county Democratic parties did provide monetary support to school board candidates.
In total, the party invested about $230,000 in school board candidates in 2024, according to Joe Oslund, the communications director for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.
Wisconsin’s Republican Party did not directly support any school board candidate according to their spring Pre-Election 2024 Campaign Finance Report, but they did provide support to county party organizations. Some of the county Republican parties did provide monetary and nonmonetary support to 22 school board candidates, totaling over $17,900.
Wisconsin’s Libertarian Party spent $3,329 on spring elections, but did not support any school board candidates.
Ten years ago, Wisconsin’s Democratic Party and Republican Party provided no monetary or nonmonetary support to any school board candidate, according to campaign finance records. Only one county party supported candidates totaling $300.
Nonpartisan incumbents fight to keep seats
In some races, such as the De Pere School Board race, Democratic-endorsed candidates faced off against Republican-endorsed candidates. In others, such as the Arrowhead School Board race in Waukesha County, a Republican-endorsed candidate Anna Angeli challenged incumbent nonpartisan candidate Craig Thompson.
WisRed, an organization that emerged four years ago in the country to influence local elections, endorsed Thompson’s opponent. The group is a wing of the Waukesha County Republican Party and has helped over 400 conservative candidates win local elections in the last four years, including nonpartisan school board races, according to County Party Vice Chair Chris Slinker.
Thompson considers himself a conservative, but feels strongly that school board candidates should be nonpartisan.
"I am a conservative; I have been for 40 years. But I’m not a WisRed conservative, nor do I want to have them tell me how to vote," Thompson told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in spring 2024.
Going into elections this April, GOP-backed candidates held majorities on almost every school board in the county. Following the election, WisRed increased their control to 80% of the county’s seats, including Thompson’s.
Democrats, Republicans successfully oust nonpartisans
In Wisconsin, many county-level party organizations publish endorsement lists or voter guides. The Dane County Democratic Party endorsed seven school board candidates this spring. The Republican Party of Waukesha and WisRed’s Spring voter guide included 42 endorsed school board candidates.
All school board candidates backed by the Dane County Democratic Party secured seats. In Waukesha County, 38 out of 42 school board candidates endorsed by WisRed won, including 15 nonincumbents.
School board elections are nonpartisan and, therefore, do not have a party primary. With party endorsements in some communities all-but-guaranteeing a candidate’s victory, Arrowhead parent John Norcross told Cardinal he and other parents worry the quality of their child’s education rests in the hands of unelected county party leaders.
"They're going to lose because it's a machine. It's like David against Goliath. That's what they're up against,” Norcross said. “They are selecting who gets to run and they are backed with the might of the Republican Party and install them.”
The Republican Party of Wisconsin has a “vetting board” that privately choses candidates, according to Norcross. And with the support of the party, these candidates have the resources to send out postcards, make signs and advertise on social media.
Jill Underly, superintendent of Public Instruction of Wisconsin, told the Cardinal she believes nonpartisan school board elections should stay nonpartisan.
“I strongly believe that public schools are for everybody,” Underly said. “At the end of the day, Republican, Democrat, Independent, we all want good schools. We all want good teachers. We all want people who will represent our interests, and that public education is the bedrock of democracy.”
Majority of PAC contributions come from out-of-state
A Cardinal review of PAC Spring Election financial reports found contributions to 72 school board candidates statewide totaling $99,083 in 2024.
WI PEOPLE Conference, a left-leaning organization, provided direct monetary support to Maia Pearson and Savion Castro, candidates for Madison Metropolitan School Board (MMSB). Both candidates, uncontested in their races, each received $1,000 from the PAC.
Additionally, the PAC provided $5,000 each to two candidates in last year's election. After the spring 2024 election, a majority of the seven elected MMSB members have received financial support from the PAC.
Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC), a left-leaning union, is organized into seven regions, each having their own PAC. In total, WEAC provided monetary support to 25 candidates, totaling over $9,800. WEAC Region 6 PAC supported candidates in Middleton, Beloit, Evansville, Waunakee and Monona Grove, spending $4,000. All 10 candidates they backed won seats, five of whom were nonincumbent.
Blue Sky Waukesha spent over $7,000 on three candidates in Waukesha County. Despite their efforts, only one candidate managed to retain their seat. The candidates endorsed by Blue Sky Waukesha also received endorsements from the Waukesha County Democratic Party, but the organization also endorses candidates in local Republican primaries.
1776 Project PAC, a hard-right organization, spent over $58,900 statewide, including $6,518 in support of Anne Angeli, who ousted Thompson from Arrowhead School Board. This was all out-of-state money, as the PAC is based in Florida. Most of the candidates endorsed also received endorsements from county-level Republican parties.
Roughly 61.82% of the PAC contributions and independent expenditures in support of school board candidates originated from out-of-state sources (percentage of funds originating from PACs organized out-of-state, some PACs organized in-state received out-of-state contributions, but were not counted in this statistic).
Underly said out-of-state influence draws focus away from what is really the local cause for concern.
“We have outside people trying to bring in their outside interests from out of state,” Underly said. “It completely deludes the causes that people who are local are concerned about.”
Underly said school board elections are local for a reason, because they're the ones that are closest to the issues.
Editor's Note: The graphs for this story were updated on Aug. 26 at 5:32 p.m. CDT
Ty Javier is a senior staff writer and photographer at The Daily Cardinal. He is an Economics major and has specialized in university and campaign finances, economic policy and transit.
