Grapevine, Texas — Ahead of the usually boring spring school board elections, masses of flyers appear on doorsteps in suburban Fort Worth, warning and instructing rampant “wake-up” and “sexually explicit books” in schools encouraged replacement. .
The flyer was part of a broader effort to change the ideological direction of the school board in a politically significant corner of Texas. This was made possible by her $420,000+ campaign injection from an unlikely source. Communicate conservative Christian values.
All 11 of the company’s sponsored candidates won races in four school districts, including one in Grapevine, Texas. Grapevine, Texas, home of the company, is a conservative town whose highly regarded schools are the main draw for families. In August, the board approved new policies to limit aid to transgender students, crack down on books deemed inappropriate, and allow elections to school boards without a majority vote. We have introduced a new rule to
Texas cell phone companies’ entry into the national tug-of-war over schools is part of a much broader battle for Texas’ future that is being waged in the northern suburbs of Dallas and Fort Worth.
The company’s efforts have been viewed as a model by Republican candidates and conservative activists who are trying to capitalize on parental outrage against public schools to keep suburban areas alive.
“If we lose Tarrant County, we lose Texas,” Patriot Mobile chief operating officer Jenny Story said. “If we lose Texas, we lose our country.”
Tarrant County Chief Executive Glenn Whitley said the company plays an important role in the politics of this part of the state. ,” said Whitley, a Republican. He said the company appears to have set its next target in next year’s city council elections.
“They are after Fort Worth,” Mr Whitley said.
Patriot Mobile representatives frequent conservative political circuits around the country, receiving praise from Steve Bannon at conservative political action conferences, buying tables at non-profit fundraising events, and meeting with candidates in and out of Texas. I am joining.
Modeled after a progressive California-based cell phone provider founded in the 1980s, the company unabashedly embraces partisan agendas, including donating funds to anti-abortion and other conservative causes. I’m here. More recently, it has started spending money on behalf of Republican candidates.
Peter Barnes, who helped found Credo Mobile, a California-based mobile phone company that funds progressive movements, said he had long expected other companies to follow a similar path.
“The business model is very simple and we expected something similar to show up on the right side,” he said of the plan to politicize profits. “But it hasn’t — until now.”
In North Texas, Patriot Mobile’s political spending has supported digital advertising, door hangers, campaign mailings, and campaigns on behalf of elected candidates.
Its political activism has already turned the tide on the ground in Grapevine, home to the nine-year-old company. A new policy on books and transgender issues was passed 4-3, and his two candidates, backed by Patriot Mobile, made the difference.
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This increasingly diverse array of high school students in the area responded with strikes from classes led by transgender and nonbinary students. I was.
With a grapevine harvest and wine theme downtown, upscale coffee shops and restaurants sit near displays of ‘Ultra MAGA’ sweatshirts, and Patriot Mobile is headquartered in a cluster of discreet offices.
The company logo adorns the conference room where Senator Ted Cruz’s father, Raphael, leads a packed Bible study every Tuesday. One of his cubicles carries a Texas flag with the silhouette of an assault rifle and the words “Come and take it,” after a famous slogan of the Texas Revolution.
“We just said, ‘Look, we’re going to put God first,'” sitting in his office with a guitar signed by Donald Trump Jr. hanging on the wall on a recent afternoon. , said Glen Story, founder and CEO. “That’s why I haven’t crossed it off the board,” he said, pointing to a list of core values written on a whiteboard beginning with “Missionaries vs. Mercenaries.”
“Our mission is to uphold our God-given constitutional rights,” said Storey, the chief operating officer and Mr. Story’s wife.
“And always to honor God,” said Leigh Wambsganss, the company’s vice president and head of Patriot Mobile Action, a political action committee founded by company executives.
Corporations regularly donate to state and local political campaigns, but regional corporations founded with a partisan mission and willing to spend money on backyard competition are rare. School boards across the country are increasingly becoming political battlefields, attracting larger sums of money and national groups to local contests that were once largely invisible.
Patriot Mobile’s political activities are concentrated in Tarrant County, a suburb north of Fort Worth. This is largely due to the county’s blue trend, which was narrowly endorsed by 2020 President Biden and former Democratic congressman and current gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke. , during the 2018 Senate elections.
A long bastion of reputable schools, conservative churches, and mostly wealthy white neighborhoods, the area fostered a powerful Tea Party group during the Obama administration and, more recently, on the right side of Governor Gregg. It cultivated a group that supported the Republican Party’s major challengers. Abbott. Among some within the party, it has a reputation as a hotbed of far-right politics.
A new policy voted in the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District has divided parents and caused concern among some teachers. Some teachers said they feared being targeted by the new school board.
One of the new board members proposed something similar at the summer Republican forum, asking the board to include a “list of teachers” she believes are activists promoting progressive ideas about race and equity. ‘ said there is.
“They are just poison and they are destroying our school,” said Director Tammy Nakamura.
Rather than comply with new rules that require books to be posted online for public review, some teachers have begun removing books from their classrooms. The school district has canceled its annual Scholastic Book Fair following previous concerns that the books were “mis-commercialized” and not age-appropriate, a district spokesperson said.
“Now the school board approves books in the library, but I think it’s completely micromanaging the administration,” said Jorge, a member of the school board who voted against the new policy. Rodriguez said, adding that more than a quarter of the district’s 14,000 students were well off financially. underprivileged. “We are here to educate our children, but this is useless.”
A top spokesperson for the district resigned months after being hired, citing a “divisive” atmosphere.
“I’ve always been a staunch conservative,” said Christy Horne, a parent whose two children attend the district’s primary school. But the attack on her teacher was too much for her, Ms. Horn said. “It became personal.”
But for Mario Cordoba, another parent in the district, the new school board leaders have given parents more control over the curriculum and reading materials. Many parents were disappointed to see their children learning in remote schools during the pandemic.
“Parents across the district voted for board changes last May and are delighted to see them following through,” Cordova wrote in an email. wolves that are out there,” he added. “This crowd is convinced that we cannot teach our children about sex and gender without constant discussion.”
For many parents and teachers, an early sign that their school had become a political battlefield was a complaint last year against Colleyville Heritage High School’s first black high school principal.
Some parents claim school principal Dr. James Whitfield was promoting “critical racial theories” and solidarity with Black Lives Matter protesters days after George Floyd’s death and equity.
“Is he going to start a diversity advisory board? At our school? Is he going to say Black Lives Matter?” Dr. Whitfield said, describing the reaction he encountered. made national headlines and the school district eventually reached a settlement with Dr. Whitfield, which included his resignation as principal.
The mayor said the decision was not about race.
Months after Dr. Whitfield left, opponents of the diversity plan in neighboring Southlake, with the help of the Southlake Family, a political action committee, seized control of the local school board. Earned. One of his founders was Mr. Wambsganss, a Southlake school parent and former TV news anchor for him. Another of his was Tim O’Hare, the Republican candidate to lead Tarrant County in the November election.
Parents in both Southlake and Grapevine-Colleyville are offended by sexual content, including explicit descriptions of sex acts. but also,. .
“Parents don’t believe that gender issues should be discussed from K to 12,” she said. I don’t want to talk to you.”
She added: It’s not about heterosexuality. Please do not sexualize children in either arena. ”
The victory of the Patriot Mobile-backed candidate surprised some parents who disagreed with the district’s new direction.
A dozen parents and community members gathered at the local botanical garden on a recent morning. For many, they first met after finding each other through one of the many burgeoning Facebook pages dedicated to school district disputes.
Katherine Parkes, who moved to the area from France, said, “I ask myself every day what I took my children to.
Tom Hart, a former Republican city councilor for Collieville, said, referring to the political attacks that helped sink John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign, “We ship these people out quickly. We can’t compete with $400,000 in funding from outside sources.”
As parents gathered to strategize, some students at Grapevine High School, whose gay straight alliance club closed due to lack of faculty sponsorship, are already finding ways to protest. Students have started a book club to read books. A group of friends organized a strike.
“We can find solidarity and we can find safety in each other,” said Marceline, who asked to use only first names out of fear of possible retaliation, “because adults cannot be trusted.” ”
About 100 students went on strike. There have been no similar protests at nearby Collieville Heritage High School, and the start of the school year is going more or less as usual for many students.