Voters in Texas resoundingly rejected book bans last weekend. Houston’s Chron described it as a “statement election” and as a “clear protest against titles flying off school library and classroom shelves.”
The Texas Tribune explains just how big a reversal the weekend schoolboard elections were:
Conservative school board candidates across Texas suffered an array of defeats in Saturday’s local elections, marking a clear setback for the Republican-aligned movement to shape how grade school curriculums and library books confront issues of race, sex and gender.
The sweeping losses for conservative school board hopefuls also served as an early sign of potential backlash to the nascent administration of President Donald Trump, ahead of a 2026 midterm in which a number of statewide offices will be on the ballot. Midterm elections historically have spelled trouble for the incumbent president’s party in down-ballot races.
