Oregon School Board Races Become Political
June, 2021 –– In a marked change from past decades, school board races in Oregon have become politically supercharged and expensive. The Republican Party has targeted these non-partisan positions for well-funded, coordinated campaigns featuring slates of candidates running on seemingly innocuous and popular platforms, such as “opening schools,” “serving our students” and similar vague generalities. Many candidates involved with these campaigns refused to participate in community voter education forums or to be interviewed by local media, instead using networks of conservative churches, Fox News, and direct voter outreach like mailers, robocalls, texts, and social media.
Republican backed slates won board majorities in Albany and Tillamook and mounted a strong challenge in Bend-LaPine and across Marion and Washington Counties. Republican slates’ campaigns were funded by independent Political Action Committees with a few major donors.
Progressives were successful in school board races in Bend-LaPine, Salem-Keizer, Corvallis and in most Portland Metro school districts, including the state’s largest districts: Portland and Beaverton. Only the candidates for Bend-LaPine ran as a slate, coordinating voter outreach and sharing other resources, most progressive candidates informally coordinated and supported each other in their races. The results show that voters will elect candidates of color with progressive visions if they conduct aggressive outreach and encourage voting in what are typically low turnout elections. For example, the Bend-La Pine School District, located in Deschutes County, had the highest turnout of Oregon’s larger counties at 31.45%.
A sampling of results from around Oregon:
Salem-Keizer: About 44% of the more than 40,000 students in Salem-Keizer Public Schools identify as Hispanic/Latino. Despite that, the board has been largely white and conservative for years. With 4 progressives, including 3 people of color, winning seats this year, control over the board flips to progressive and becomes the most racially diverse it has been. Story here.
Portland: With the addition of Herman Greene and Gary Hollands, both Black men, the PPS Board will now have 3 Black members. Greene and Hollands joined forces on voter outreach. News coverage here.
Albany: Come July, a majority of the board of Greater Albany Public Schools will be replaced. All three winning candidates were supported by the Albany First PAC and ran on a platform of reopening schools. These Republican candidates ran as a slate, coordinating activities and mailers. For more information on how these races were funded read this article.
Beaverton: More than half of students in Beaverton schools identify as people of color. Four positions were up for grabs this year, with two incumbents running for re-election. Only Susan Greenberg won re-election. In the other 3 seats, women of color handily won their races. Even though Perez-Da Silva will replace Donna Tyner, and African American women who did not run for re-election, the shift will make Beaverton’s board also more diverse than any time in recent memory. Article covering Beaverton races.
Bend-LaPine: These races were some of the most contentious in Oregon this year. There were slates on both sides of the political spectrum, with the conservative slate running against critical race theory and even appearing on Fox news. In the end, voters backed the progressive slate, with almost all of those candidates winning with a 2-1 margin. Two people of color will join the board, providing much needed diversity on the body. Article here.
Tillamook: While the overall turnout increased by 7.14% (1,850 votes) in Tillamook County, Republicans won nearly all the school board races. The Republicans began an early, well organized campaign. In addition to being well funded, the Republican candidates coordinated a series of newspaper ads and flyers as well as used critical race theory and keeping schools open as hot-button issues to turn voters against their Democratic opponents. Democrats won one out of the three contested school board races in the county.
