Pendergraft Wins School Board Race, but Results Indicate Major Shift
Union backed candidate Haley Pendergraft has all but sealed her victory over parental rights advocate Kyle Meyers in what ended up being a nationally covered race due to a controvesy with Pendergraft’s campaign manager and close friend, Alicia Busch. Racist TikTok videos of Busch were leaked causing widespread, national outrage over the fact that an anti-white racist could serve on the district equity board. After Pendergraft doubled down and defended Busch, she eventually distanced herself temporarily, but eventually made public that Busch was still in her inner circle.
Photo from election night.
Bottom: Haley Pendergraft
Second From Right: Alicia Busch
While this loss is a major defeat for parental rights within the district, it is important to look at a few key facts.
In 2019 the district 3 union backed candidate (Howell) defeated the parental rights candidate (Fairbanks) with 59.69% of the vote.
In 2021 the district 1 union backed candidate (Pendergraft) defeated parental rights candidate (Meyers) with 54.21% of the vote.
There were 2,631 new school board race voters from 2019 to 2021.
Based on the percentages, Kyle Meyers picked up 70.1% of the new vote share.
So what does it all mean?
The pendulum is swinging towards parental rights in our district. Gone are the days of union funded easy coast candidacies for school board members.
Many speculate that if Meyers had more time, he would have won the race. The Meyers campaign did not seem to pick up steam until a month prior to election day. This is due to the fact that non-establishment candidates run without any knowledge of campaigning, while the union backed candidate has continuity of the election process carried forward from each election.
This fact is a major reason why Tahoma Parents was founded. Our goal is to carry forward the knowledge gained from each election so that the next parental rights candidate can hit the ground running, allowing for more time to raise awareness.
If parents continue to raise awareness and demand a voice, we may see an extremely different school board make-up come the next election based on the trends indicated by these numbers. It is imperative that parents continue to advocate and not give up. Though this election may have been a tough loss short-term, we must look at the positive indicators and carry our knowledge and momentum forward.
