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Updated: August 16, 2026 @ 2:47 pm
Joe Saunders of Equality Florida addresses a news conference at the Florida Capitol on Jan. 16, 2024. Flanking him, l-r, are Senate members Shevrin Jones and Tracie Davis. (Photo by Michael Moline/Florida Phoenix)
Equality Florida’s political committee and the SPLC Action Fund are investing $400,000 in mail, digital advertising and voter outreach targeting 13 Florida school board races. Islander News graphic.
Joe Saunders of Equality Florida addresses a news conference at the Florida Capitol on Jan. 16, 2024. Flanking him, l-r, are Senate members Shevrin Jones and Tracie Davis. (Photo by Michael Moline/Florida Phoenix)
Two organizations say they’re investing a quarter of a million dollars to support “pro-equality, pro-academic freedom” school board candidates this election season.
The Equality Florida Political Action Committee and Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund announced Friday morning that the $250,000 will go toward 300,000 pieces of mail to reach more than 200,000 voters.
The mailers are for “candidates in critical Florida school board races,” which include four in Orange County, three in Sarasota County, two in Seminole County, and one each in Hillsborough, Palm Beach, Pinellas, and Osceola counties.
Equality Florida’s political committee and the SPLC Action Fund are investing $400,000 in mail, digital advertising and voter outreach targeting 13 Florida school board races. Islander News graphic.
“The program aims to help voters identify which candidates are committed to getting politics out of the classroom and to recentering schools away from censorship and back toward student success,” a news release announcing the effort reads.
Highlighting Gov. Ron DeSantis’ and Moms for Liberty’s focus on school board races in resent years, the organizations are looking to counter those efforts.
The Florida Trib reported last month that Moms for Liberty, a Florida-born organization with nationwide reach, had not invested in any school board races this cycle.
“Moms for Liberty’s influence has been on a long decline in its home state as the organization faced a wave of resignations, chapter dissolutions and scandals among Moms for Liberty leadership,” the Trib reported.
The Moms for Liberty website does list nine endorsements for school board candidates in Florida, although it seems outdated given that three are not running for reelection and one lost her 2024 race. According to its own count, the organization’s endorsements in Florida in 2022 won at a rate of 80%.
In 2022, most DeSantis backed school board candidates won. In 2024, 11 of his 24 endorsements lost in the primary elections, six won, and seven faced runoffs.
Joe Saunders, director of Equality Florida’s PAC, said that this year the organization is “bringing an end to the extremism and sideshows.”
“Together, we can fire Moms for Liberty, get politics out of our classrooms, and elect public school champions who believe in our teachers and will fight for the safety and dignity of every student,” Saunders said in the news release.
Another $150,000 is dedicated to digital ads and direct voter contact, the organizations say.
DeSantis’ time in office has been marked by “culture war” issues like more strictly regulating what books students may read in school, punishing teachers who do not stick to pronouns for students according to their gender assigned at birth, and the Florida Board of Education formally adopting a conservative vision for education in the state.
This report appeared on the website of the Florida Phoenix, a nonprofit news organization dedicated to coverage of state government and politics from Tallahassee.
The campaign will send 300,000 mailers to more than 200,000 Florida voters ahead of the Aug. 18 election.
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