Democrats delivered a major shakeup to the Texas State Board of Education Tuesday night, breaking up the Republican supermajority.
Democrats appear in position to double their seats on the board from four to eight, according to unofficial election results from the Texas Secretary of State. According to the Secretary of State's results, Democrat Dana Van De Walker beat Republican incumbent Audrey Young for the District 8 seat by a little more than 500 votes. Young could request a recount over the incredibly close results.
Thursday morning, Van De Walker posted to social media celebrating her victory but said she was still tracking the results.
“I’m still processing it,” Van De Walker said. “Things are not official official until votes are certified. So we are kind of waiting with baited breath.”
Young did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding whether she would request a recount.
Board members set curriculum and choose instructional materials for more than five million public school students across Texas. The board also develops education policies, oversees the State Board of Educator Certification — which sets standards for teacher certification — and holds the power to veto charter school applications as their popularity grows.
Tuesday's election radically changed the Democratic voting power on the board. For several cycles, Democrats have had little recourse to counter ultra-conservative proposals pushed by their GOP board members.
The flipped board comes alongside major changes in political leadership across the state. As part of her campaign, Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa promised to remove Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath with an educator. As a result, the board will work with a new education commissioner and because democrats took control of the state house education legislation affecting the board’s proposals or policies may be very different.
“This is a very different world,” Tricia Cave, a lobbyist with the Association of Texas Professional Educators, said. “It’s going to require Republicans and Democrats to learn how to work together to get things done, and the only way to work together successfully to get things accomplished for the people of Texas is to find some consensus and some compromise, and that’s not something we’ve seen from this board in quite a while.”
Republican board member whose term ends in 2029 Brandon Hall posted to social media, in reaction to Tuesday’s blue wave, he’d continue to represent the Christian conservative values of North Texas and fight against mediocrity and woke classroom indoctrination.
In his post, Hall committed to fighting any democratic agenda.
“I will not collaborate with it, and I will not sit idly by and watch it pass,” Hall wrote. “I will not give Gina Hinojosa or her appointees one moment of passivity on the SBOE. Even if the vote count is not favorable, I will use every available procedural tool to make passing that harmful agenda as cumbersome and painstaking as possible. If a Democrat assumes leadership of the Board, that person should prepare for some late nights and long weeks in Austin.”
This summer, the board greenlit several controversial changes to curriculum, including rewriting social studies lessons for kindergarten through eighth grade to de-emphasize world history in favor of Texas and U.S. history. The board was also heavily criticized for its passage of the bible-infused Blue Bonnet curriculum. The learning program for use in kindergarten through fifth grade included biblical teachings in reading and language arts. It was also riddled with errors. The Texas Tribune reported that correcting the errors cost taxpayers millions of dollars.
Adopting the curriculum comes with financial incentives. Houston ISD, the state's largest school district, approved the curriculum in June, and the implementation earned the district more than $3 million in additional funding.
In September, after objections during public comment, the board approved changes to history lessons that portray Islam in a largely negative light. Those changes will take effect for the 2030-2031 school year.
According to the Associated Press, the new Democratic additions include Thomas Ray Garcia (D-2), Corretta Mallet-Fontenot (D-4), Allison Bush (D-5), Van De Walker (D-8) and Michelle Palmer (D-6). Democratic Incumbent Tiffany Clark won her re-election bid to round out the eight total seats that will now be held by Democrats.
Republican incumbent Julie Pickren (D-7) held on to her seat this year and will be joined by newcomers Kason Huddleston and Mindy Baumgarner.
Republican control of the board steadily increased over the last few cycles. Since 2020, conservative candidates have helped the Republicans pick up a seat each cycle. In 2022, the Texas legislature redrew the districts for board members, which helped Republicans flip District 2 covering the Corpus Christi area and much of the lower Gulf Coast. Before the new maps, Democrats controlled the district for more than three decades. This year Democrats flipped District 2 back.
Three Republicans — Huddleston, Tiffany Nelson, Victoria Hinojosa — received major campaign donations this cycle from ultra-conservative PACs. Texans for Educational Freedom donated hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of mailers and other advertising services, but Huddleston was the only one able to win their seat.
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