DeSan­tis faces school board set­back as endorsed can­di­dates suf­fer defeat

Gov. Ron DeSantis‘s (R‑FL) goal of elect­ing con­ser­v­a­tive school boards across Flori­da hit sev­er­al road­blocks Tues­day night, with near­ly half of his endorsed can­di­dates suf­fer­ing defeat.
DeSan­tis, who has made nation­al head­lines for his stance on edu­ca­tion in the Sun­shine State, endorsed 23 can­di­dates for Tuesday’s elec­tions, and 11 appear to have lost, per Florida’s unof­fi­cial counts. Only six of DeSantis’s endorsed can­di­dates won out­right, while the remain­ing six are head­ing to runoff elec­tions in Novem­ber.
This is a dra­mat­ic change from 2022, when only five of the governor’s 30 endorsed can­di­dates suf­fered defeat.
Though Florida’s school board elec­tions are non­par­ti­san, con­ser­v­a­tive can­di­dates have nabbed endorse­ments from Repub­li­cans like DeSan­tis and groups such as Moms for Lib­er­ty. State Democ­rats and the Flori­da Edu­ca­tion Asso­ci­a­tion have rolled out endorse­ments to their pre­ferred can­di­dates, as well.
Flori­da Democ­rats endorsed 11 can­di …