Category: Political / Governments / Nations / Countries /

Boebert: “Church Is Supposed To Direct Government”

Boebert: “Church Is Supposed To Direct Government”

“The reason we had so many overreaching regulations in our nation is because the church complied. The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church. That is not how our Founding Fathers intended it. And I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk that’s not in the Constitution. It was in a stinking letter and it means nothing like what they say it does.” – GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert, presumably referring an 1802 letter from Thomas Jefferson to a Baptist group.

Boebert’s primary is today.

 

SkokieDaddy – wiener dog dad • an hour ago

If we had a functioning government, this would be grounds for expulsion from Congress (and no doubt not her first qualifying utterance). This statement violates her oath of office.

tomcor SkokieDaddy – wiener dog dad • an hour ago

You’re right – the key word is a “functioning” government not a junta of 6 rogues on the Supreme Court!

Gigi • an hour ago

Doesn’t matter how many times you tell them the Founding Fathers didn’t want America to be a theocracy they chime in with “show me where the words ‘separation of church and state’ are in the Constitution!”

Q: Are they stupid or lying liars?
A: Yes.

Makoto • an hour ago

Some brave newsperson needs to ask her “which is ‘the‘ church?” Make her specify. Drill down. What flavor of which branch? Get to which version of ‘the‘ bible is the correct one as well. And definitely don’t let her get away with the garbage “Judeo-Christian” term, which is nonsensical anyway. One of those groups thinks the other is hellbound, the other thinks that the other folks don’t know how to read prophecy right. And it’s mostly used to ignore the third major Abrahamic religion in a rather deliberate way so they can be, pardon the term, demonized.

But knowing how the media works, I doubt such a brave interviewer will step up.

Makoto Gustav2 • an hour ago

Of course. Many of whom belong to churches which are hyper-evangelical, very conservative, and scary. And they never, ever want to admit which church they belong to, since it’s “a relationship” not “a religion” and other such garbage to avoid answering.

The_Wretched • an hour ago

The Federalist Papers, the commentary at the time of the founding on the Constitution wanted as much separation between church and State as possible. Like even more than you’ll hear from people today.

Boobert is painfully wrong and so is SCOTUS in Bremerton.

TexasBoy • 42 minutes ago • edited

So, Lauren, WHICH church/Religion is supposed to run the government? There are literally thousands of different Christian sects with different canons and beliefs, then there is Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Satanism, Wicca, and so forth. Plus, many if the Founding Fathers were Master Masons, and many religions disagree with Freemasonry.

Mark Née Fuzz • an hour ago

This is what happens when you elect someone who flunked her GED courses several times before they gave her a degree out of pity.

Happy_Housewife mikeiver • an hour ago

You usually have to go to a Christian school to find someone as dumb as Lauren. Or a homeschool. Or some private school for rich children who will never have to work.

clay Raging Bee • 29 minutes ago • edited

Just among Protestant Christians in the US, there are about 3000 denominations (not counting independent congregations). That’s about one per county (or county equivalent, looking at you, Louisiana, Virginia cities, and DC). Seriously, I think a lot of “under-educated” Americans have trouble imagining a country any larger than their school district was back when they lost their virginity and found alcohol.

It’s time to say it: the US supreme court has become an illegitimate institution

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/25/us-supreme-court-illegitimate-institution

With its decision on Roe v Wade, the court has signaled its illegitimacy – and thrown the American project into question

Abortion rights demonstrators gather outside the US Supreme Court<br>WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES - JUNE 24: Abortion rights demonstrators hold signs outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., United States on June 24, 2022. A deeply divided Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and wiped out the constitutional right to abortion, issuing a historic ruling likely to render the procedure largely illegal in half the country. (Photo by Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
‘Can a country be properly understood as a democracy if it subjugates half of its population?’ Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

As of 24 June 2022, the US supreme court should officially be understood as an illegitimate institution – a tool of minority rule over the majority, and as part of a far-right ideological and authoritarian takeover that must be snuffed out if we want American democracy to survive.

On Friday, in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health, the supreme court overruled its nearly 50-year precedent of Roe v Wade, the 1973 case that legalized abortion nationwide. It is difficult to overstate just how devastating this is for pregnant people, for women as a class and for anyone with even a passing interest in individual freedom and equality.

 
 
 
 

But it’s also devastating for those of us who care quite a bit about American democratic traditions and the strength of our institutions. Because, with this ruling, the supreme court has just signaled its illegitimacy – and it throws much of the American project into question. Which means that Democrats and others who want to see America endure as a representative democracy need to act.

Of the nine justices sitting on the current court, five – all of them in the majority opinion that overturned Roe – were appointed by presidents who initially lost the popular vote; the three appointed by Donald Trump were confirmed by senators who represent a minority of Americans. A majority of this court, in other words, were not appointed by a process that is representative of the will of the American people.

Two were appointed via starkly undemocratic means, put in place by bad actors willing to change the rules to suit their needs. Neil Gorsuch only has his seat because Republicans, led by Mitch McConnell, blocked the ability of Barack Obama to nominate Merrick Garland – or anyone – to a supreme court seat, claiming that, because it was an election year, voters should get to decide.

And then Donald Trump appointed Amy Coney Barrett in a radically rushed and incomplete, incoherent process – in an election year.

And now, this court, stacked with far-right judges appointed via ignoble means, has stripped from American women the right to control our own bodies. They have summarily placed women into a novel category of person with fewer rights not just than other people, but than fertilized eggs and corpses. After all, no one else is forced to donate their organs for the survival of another – not parents to their children, not the dead to the living. It is only fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses that are newly entitled to this right to use another’s body and organs against that other’s will; it is only women and other people who can get pregnant who are now subject to these unparalleled, radical demands.

This raises a fundamental question: can a country be properly understood as a democracy – an entity in which government derives its power from the people – if it subjugates half of its population, putting them into a category of sub-person with fewer rights, freedoms and liberties?

The global trend suggests that the answer to that is no. A clear pattern has emerged in the past few decades: as countries democratize, they tend to liberalize women’s rights, and they expand abortion and other reproductive rights. Luckily for the women of the world, this is where a great many nations are moving.

But the reverse is also true: as a smaller number of countries move toward authoritarian governance, they constrict the rights of women, LGBT people and many minority groups. We have seen this in every country that has scaled back abortion rights, reproductive rights, and women’s rights more broadly in the past several years: Russia, Hungary, Poland, Nicaragua and the United States.

The same week that the supreme court issued its decision in Dobbs, the US House of Representatives has been holding hearings to inform the public about what actually happened during the attempted coup of 6 January 2021, and to ideally hold perpetrators, traitors and seditionists to account. We are only a year and a half past that disgraceful day, when an angry mob decided that they, an authoritarian, patriarchal, white supremacist minority, should rule – that any other outcome, no matter how free and fair the election, was illegitimate.

The supreme court decision stems from that same rotted root: the idea that a patriarchal minority should have nearly unlimited authority over the majority. The conservatives on the court rightly understand that individual rights and women’s freedoms are incompatible with a system of broad male control over women and children, and a broader male monopoly on the public, political and economic spheres.

But that authoritarian vision is also incompatible with democracy.

And so Democrats now have a choice. They can give speeches and send fundraising emails. Or they can act: declare this court illegitimate. Demand its expansion. Abolish the filibuster. Treat this like the emergency it is, and make America a representative democracy.

  • Jill Filipovic is the author of OK Boomer, Let’s Talk: How My Generation Got Left Behind

Study Finds That Anti-Trans Republicans Love Trans Porn

https://www.intomore.com/breaking/study-finds-anti-trans-republicans-love-trans-porn/

A new analysis has found that in areas with high Republican support—particularly those that have supported the current wave of anti-trans laws—the search volume for transgender porn is also exceptionally high.

The analysis comes from Lawsuit.org, who researched Google search trend data between June 1 to 19, 2022, segmented the search volume results by metro area, and compared this to voting patterns during the 2020 election and public opinion polls on LGBTQ+ rights.

According to Ahrefs.com, there are 4.7 million searches for trans-related porn each month. Lawsuit.org found that the top twenty states in the nation with the highest volume of searches for trans porn were all (except 5) red states in 2020. Texas, where Gov. Abbott’s directive seemingly began the wave of anti-trans legislation earlier this year, scored number 1.

In addition to looking at geographic distribution, the researchers plotted the data using linear regression trend lines. These graphs show a (literal) left-to-right correlation between the popularity of trans porn and political conservatism.

To look beyond the blue/red divide and compare the data with specific anti-queer sentiment, the group referenced data from the American Values Atlas, an organization that surveys Americans on social and religious attitudes.

The survey question they examined specifically was: “Do you support religiously based refusals to serve gay and lesbian people?” The researchers explain, “We felt this survey question was a decent proxy for baseline LGBT prejudice, though we recognize some may support the question on Libertarian or Personal freedom grounds that do not have to do with the specific demographics of others.”

The resulting graph also shows a correlation between supporting discrimination against LGBTQ+ businesses and a high volume of trans porn searches.

According to the HRC, there have been more than 300 anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced this year, the majority of them in red states. These have disproportionately attacked the transgender community. Some supporters of these measures have been caught up in scandals involving trans porn, including Alabama State Sen. Tom Whatley and queerphobic radio host Alex Jones. No one of course is knocking their porn preferences: it’s the hypocrisy we find unsurprising and exhausting.

Anti-LGBTQ+ protesters crashed Glasgow Pride – but queer people gave them a deserving welcome

Anti-LGBTQ+ protesters crashed Glasgow Pride – but queer people gave them a deserving welcome

Pride Glasgow was gate-crashed by a small group of counterprotestors

Pride Glasgow was gate-crashed by a small group of counterprotestors. (PinkNews)

On Saturday (25 June) afternoon, Glasgow was decked in the colours of the rainbow for the first Pride Glasgow in three years due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

But a small group of less than a dozen counter-protesters bearing signs saying homosexuality is a “sin” as they set up camp in George Square.

 

“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out,” read one sign.

The thousands of Pride-goers – many protesting against the British government’s refusal to ban trans conversion therapy – quickly circled the group. They drowned out the counter-protesters as they carried rainbow flags and kept spirits high.

Among them was Glasgow’s Metropolitan Community Church, an inclusive church founded by and for LGBTQ+ people, that stressed it is “fundamentally opposed” to what the counter-protesters stood for.

It didn’t take long for the religious demonstrators to get the message.

 

By around 3pm, the picketers took down their signs and walked away from the Pride to a chorus of cheers and whoops by Pride attendees.

The thousands of Pride-goers marched from Glasgow Green to the Broomielaw.

They certainly had their reasons to be there. The British government have torn apart trans rights in recent years, scrapping crucial reforms to gender recognition law and leaving the community behind in its long-sought conversion therapy ban.

Scotland, however, may do things a little differently. Though riddled by delays, drafted legislation from the ruling Scottish National Party proposes that trans Scots should no longer have to receive this diagnosis before changing their legal gender.

 

This would mean they could more easily obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate and have their identity legally acknowledged. This move comes as part of the country’s ongoing discussions around reforming its gender recognition laws. 

The Scottish government is also hoping to go ahead with its own trans-inclusive conversion therapy ban. As much as Boris Johnson’s proposals only apply to England and Wales, Scottish ministers have committed to legislating a ban that includes trans people regardless.

“We don’t fit into your boxes – we make our own,” said Glasgow’s first trans councillor, Elaine Gallagher, at Pride Glasgow.

Speaking to the crowd from atop a double-decker bus awash with rainbows, she said: “That’s why the people and the pundits and paid-for opinions all demand that trans people be eradicated. Starting with the kids that are excluded from sports, toilets, schools and life.”

“Conversion is torture,” she added, “it is child abuse. We don’t condone or practise child abuse no matter what the bigots say – it’s them who do.

“And after the trans people and the rest of the queer alphabet, who’s next? We’ve seen whose next. Women who wear their hair short or stand too tall, or don’t wear clothing a man approves of or, God forbid, want to have their own opinions or govern their own bodies.”

 

Contraception, gay marriage: Clarence Thomas signals new targets for supreme court

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/24/clarence-thomas-roe-gay-marriage-contraception-lgbtq

Rightwing justice appears to offer preview of the court’s potential future rulings after decision to remove US abortion rights

Donald Trump with Clarence Thomas as Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed to the supremne court in October 2020.
Donald Trump with Clarence Thomas as Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed to the supreme court in October 2020. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP
 

Many Americans reacted to the supreme court’s decision to reverse Roe v Wade and remove federal abortion rights in the US with shock, but many also asked a terrified question: what might be next?

The conservative justice Clarence Thomas appeared to offer a preview of the court’s potential future rulings, suggesting the rightwing-controlled court may return to the issues of contraception access and marriage equality, threatening LGBTQ rights.

“In future cases, we should reconsider all of this court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion to the ruling on Roe.

Griswold v Connecticut established a married couple’s right to use contraception without government interference in 1965. The court ruled in the 2003 case of Lawrence v Texas that states could not criminalize sodomy, and Obergefell v Hodges established the right for same-sex couples to marry in 2015.

In the decision written by Justice Samuel Alito, the conservative majority makes it clear that the decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization should not be interpreted as a threat to other major precedent cases. But the court’s three liberal justices – Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan – dismissed that logic as a farce in their fiery dissenting opinion.

“Either the mass of the majority’s opinion is hypocrisy or additional constitutional rights are under threat,” the liberal justices wrote. “It is one or the other.”

Thomas’s concurring opinion confirmed what many progressive lawmakers and reproductive rights advocates have feared for years. The end of Roe marks the beginning, not the end, of judicial overreach by the court’s conservative majority, they say.

“It is important that Americans understand that this supreme court and Republicans in Congress will not stop here,” said Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. “It is clear [Thomas] and the court’s majority have no respect for other precedents that have been won in recent decades.”

Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, warned that the court’s decision to overturn Roe would only intensify its “giant legitimacy crisis” with millions of Americans.

“Five Republican justices appointed by presidents who lost the popular vote are routinely making hyper-partisan decisions that take away the rights of Americans,” Green said.

For now, Thomas does not seem to have the support of his conservative colleagues in overturning other major cases, as they did not join his opinion. But the majority decision written by Alito could lay the foundation for discarding decades-old precedents that have become central to the American way of life, said Paul Schiff Berman, a professor at George Washington University Law School.

“The logic of Justice Alito’s opinion, as the dissent pointed out, would absolutely threaten the constitutional legitimacy of all constitutional privacy rights,” Berman said. “It goes against the institutional obligation to respect precedent. And it also goes against, as Chief Justice Roberts pointed out in his opinion, the principle that you don’t decide in a given case, more than you have to resolve in that case.”

Berman expressed concern that the Dobbs decision could weaken public trust in the supreme court, which has already been waning in recent years. According to a Gallup poll taken this month, only 25% of US adults say they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the supreme court. That is the lowest reading in Gallup’s nearly 50-year history of polling public perception of the court.

“I think this opinion reflects the fact that a radical faction of the supreme court is moving in a maximalist direction, despite the fact that the American people as a whole are becoming increasingly progressive on this issue,” Berman said.

For the millions of Americans dismayed by the reversal of Roe, they have few options to change the composition of the court in the near future. Justices are appointed to lifelong terms, and the three conservative judges confirmed during Donald Trump’s presidency – Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett – are all under 60.

Democratic lawmakers are instead looking at legislative ways to protect Americans’ fundamental rights, and demands for action will probably only intensify now that Roe has been overturned.

The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, issued an urgent demand for Americans to support Democrats in the midterm elections this November, thus giving them an opportunity to codify the right to abortion into federal law and protect other crucial freedoms.

“Termination of pregnancy is just the opening act,” Pelosi said on Friday. “A woman’s right to choose, reproductive freedom is on the ballot in November. We cannot allow [Republicans] to take charge so that they can institute their goal, which is to criminalize reproductive freedom.”

But some progressives are looking beyond legislation to significant reform of the court itself. Immediately after the decision in Dobbs was announced, a number of progressives reiterated their calls to expand the court, which would allow Democrats to confirm more liberal justices.

“As we fight to make abortion legal at the federal level, I continue to reject the legitimacy of such an undemocratic institution,” the progressive congresswoman Ilhan Omar said on Twitter. “Expand the court.”

 
01:47
‘A slap in the face to women’: Nancy Pelosi condemns overturning of Roe v Wade – video


As of now, Democrats do not have the votes in the Senate needed to expand the court. That could change after November, if the American people decide to give Democrats the chance to do so.

Supreme Court Permits Prayer at School Events in Latest Theocratic Ruling

Anti-Gay Conservative Pundit Jesse Lee Peterson EXPOSED as Closeted Homosexual

Liberal Redneck – Not So Supreme Court

Well SCOTUS is on a serious Make Things Worse kick lately, and I ain’t fer it.

McIlravy resigns as Pilot Point mayor after child solicitation arrest

https://www.cbsnews.com/dfw/news/mcilravy-resigns-as-pilot-point-mayor/

I have to remind everyone the current Republican / GOP attack on the Democrats is they are groomers and child abusers.   Just saying.   Hugs

Matt McIlravy formally resigned from his position of Pilot Point mayor this morning after being indicted earlier this week for online solicitation of a child.

Britt Lusk, the City Manager of Pilot Point, said that on Friday, the city received a letter from MacIlravy announcing his resignation immediately. Because MacIlravy’s resignation comes after the city posted its agenda for the week, the city will act on it at a later date in accordance with state law and the city charter.

For now, the city’s Mayor Pro Tem will serve as the acting mayor. Lusk did not name who that person is, and the Pilot Point City Council’s web page simply had a blank space under “Mayor.”

MacIlravy was arrested on Tuesday, June 21, 2022 in an undercover operation conducted by Dallas police. He is accused of arranging to meet up and engage in sexual activity with a girl he believed was 13 years old.

 

Ed B • 8 hours ago

Consider this. If this keeps happening (and it will, because duh), the girls who end up pregnant will HAVE to carry their babies to term.

Florida Republicans turn school elections into new political battlegrounds

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/27/florida-republicans-school-elections-00042380

Dozens of political committees with ties to Florida conservatives are funneling thousands of dollars toward candidates who share Gov. Ron DeSantis’ priorities.

Poll workers at the Miami-Dade County Elections Department deposit peoples' mail in ballots.
 

Poll workers at the Miami-Dade County Elections Department deposit peoples’ mail in ballots into an official ballot drop box on primary election day on Aug. 18, 2020 in Doral, Fla. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images

By ANDREW ATTERBURY

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Republicans are capitalizing on the national movement surrounding parental rights and education by jumping into local school board races with crucial endorsements and much-needed cash.

Dozens of political committees with ties to Florida conservatives are funneling thousands of dollars toward candidates who share Gov. Ron DeSantis’ priorities by campaigning against issues like critical race theory. DeSantis endorsed a slate of 10 school board candidates — a rare, if not unprecedented, move for a Florida governor that could help Republicans capture more support in the midterms from parents energized by contentious issues such as masking students during the pandemic.

“People are frustrated with the business-as-usual on these school boards,” said Christian Ziegler, vice chair of the Republican Party of Florida whose wife, Bridget, is running to keep her seat on the Sarasota County school board and has been endorsed by DeSantis.

 
 

“Payback is coming in August” when the school board elections are held, Ziegler said.

School board races in Florida are traditionally nonpartisan, sleepy down-ballot races. But Republicans, led by DeSantis, are getting more involved this year after the Covid-19 pandemic inflamed interest in education and what students are learning in schools, particularly about race and gender identity. Democrats have not shown similar levels of funding.

The candidates backed by GOP-tied cash and endorsements from DeSantis show that Republicans are gunning to unseat incumbent school leaders and reshape boards in key spots across Florida. The effort could help Republicans control nearly all levers of government in the state, from the governor’s mansion, Cabinet, state Legislature down to local school boards.

In Miami, for instance, one race is heating up between a career educator with support from GOP leadership and a longtime school board staple.

Monica Colucci, an elementary language arts teacher with 26 years of experience, claims in campaign material that she has “seen firsthand the detrimental impact of liberal policies” in Miami-Dade County schools. Colucci, who also spent a year serving as special assistant to GOP Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, was among the first candidates endorsed by DeSantis in her race against Marta Pérez, a school board member who has served for 24 years and considers herself a conservative.

“I know the challenges that parents are facing and teachers are facing day in and day out,” Colucci said in an interview. “You can be on a board for 24 years but if you’re not day to day facing the challenge yourself, you get a bit removed.”

 
 

Colucci has raised less than half as much cash as her incumbent opponent at this point in the race. But campaign finance reports show Colucci’s first fundraising haul came in May to a tune of $53,000 fundraising and included some $15,000 from committees linked to state Republicans. She followed that up by raising more than $31,000 between June 1-17, records show.

To that end, Colucci scored $1,000 donations from Nuñez as well as from state House members from south Florida and beyond, including Reps. Thomas Leek (R-Ormond Beach), Alex Rizo (R-Hialeah), Daniel A. Perez (R-Miami), Demi Busatta Cabrera (R-Coral Gables), David Borrero (R-Sweetwater) and Bryan Avila (R-Miami Springs).

Another Miami Dade school board candidate endorsed by DeSantis, Roberto Alonso, also has received $1,000 donations from committees led by Republican lawmakers such as outgoing Senate President Wilton Simpson and Sen. Ray Rodrigues (R-Estero), campaign finance records show.

And Colucci and Alonso each landed $1,000 from a committee led by state Sen. Ben Albritton (R-Wauchula), who represents some eight counties in Central Florida but not Miami-Dade, where the races are located. Albritton said in a written statement that he’s “proud to support candidates who share my values, particularly those who will have a voice on the school board.”

Alonso, who DeSantis in 2020 appointed to the Miami-Dade College trustee board, has raised more than $83,000 in his race while the candidate with the next highest contributions, Kevin Menendez Macki, is sitting on $16,555 for the wide-open seat. Alonso’s campaign is closely aligned with the Republican governor and promises to “oppose attempts to impose Critical Race Theory and other extreme liberal agendas in K-12” and “protect female athletes and female sports.”

Pérez, meanwhile, has raised $188,000 in her Miami-area race against Colucci, including $100,000 of her own money, records show. She raised nearly $23,000 between June 1-17, including $4,000 from committees tied to the local teachers union. Yet even with a financial lead, more than two decades experience and the power of incumbency behind her, Perez acknowledges that an endorsement from DeSantis would aid her reelection.

As a conservative, Pérez said she was “very puzzled” to see her opponent, Colucci, earn a stamp of approval from DeSantis. She touted improved graduation rates and workforce programs under her tenure on the board and how she opposed proposals that could have been linked to critical race theory.

 

“I just don’t understand,” Pérez said in an interview. “Because I have never had a conversation with the governor and he’s supporting someone whose agenda seems to be my agenda.”

Elsewhere in Florida, other candidates that have been — and could soon be — endorsed by DeSantis are collecting money from state Republicans.

Incoming House Speaker Paul Renner’s political committee, for example, donated $1,000 each to five school board candidates in four separate counties, including two in Duval County that were endorsed by DeSantis. These two Duval candidates — April Carney challenging an incumbent and Charlotte Joyce seeking reelection — also landed $1,000 apiece from state Rep. Clay Yarborough (R-Jacksonville), records show.

Carney, a conservative mother who “believes that families know what is best for their children — not bureaucrats or elected officials,” holds a slight financial lead over Elizabeth Anderson, a former educator and board member since 2018, with both raising more than $65,000. Joyce, who earlier this year proposed a proclamation in support of DeSantis and recent legislation that prohibits educators from leading classroom instructions on sexual orientation or gender identity for kids in kindergarten through third grade, has raised nearly $30,000 compared to almost $8,000 by her challenger, Tanya Hardaker.

“We need strong school board members who will set Florida’s children up for success, ensure parental rights in education, and combat the woke agendas from infiltrating public schools at the local school board level,” DeSantis said in a statement accompanying his endorsements.

Some candidates are linked to political committees that have donated to candidates backed by DeSantis, a possible sign of another round of contenders that could eventually get a blessing from the governor.

Jessie Thompson, a Volusia County mother, was endorsed by Renner and Republican Congressman Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), and is in a three-person race to fill a vacated seat.

And in Lee County, a GOP stronghold that’s home to Fort Myers, there have been no endorsements from DeSantis and yet at least a dozen political committees have invested a total of $22,000 in four different candidates. Among this spread are donations from committees led by Republicans like Albritton and state Reps. Jenna Persons-Mulicka (R-Fort Myers), Sam Garrison (R-Fleming Island), Lawrence McClure (R-Dover), Josie Tomkow (R-Polk City) and Mike Beltran (R-Lithia), records show.

 
 

One of those races features two challengers who are raising more cash than an incumbent and both could earn DeSantis’ endorsement.

Jason “Big Mama” Jones, a radio host and parent, is leading the pack by eclipsing $32,000 so far without donations from political committees. Jones proudly bills himself as the only parent vying for the seat and contends his local school board is missing the needs of students, something he believes puts him in line with the governor.

Jones said he would welcome an endorsement from the DeSantis, whose campaign is pushing for candidates to complete surveys gauging how they closely they align with him on issues like critical race theory and parental rights.

Jones is facing an incumbent in Debbie Jordan, the current chair of Lee’s school board, and Dan Severson, a former “Top Gun Fighter Pilot” and ex-Minnesota lawmaker.

Severson, who spent eight years as a representative of the Minnesota House, including a stint as Minority Whip, appears well aligned with DeSantis by vowing to put “parents back in control of their children’s education” and grapple with “out of control spending, infighting, and liberal policies [that] have taken the focus away.” His campaign, which has raised nearly $21,000 compared to $6,100 for the incumbent, also has ties to state Republicans, receiving $1,000 donations from Rodrigues, state Rep. Spencer Roach (R-North Fort Myers) and another committee that also donated to Colucci in Miami.

The endorsements from DeSantis are expected to shake up races leading to the Aug. 23 primary elections when school board contests — labeled as nonpartisan statewide — unfold. His name and surging political popularity attached to candidates could also help them raise cash in the coming weeks. The effects of DeSantis’ backing are already being felt, like in Miami, where Perez worries about fundraising now that DeSantis threw his support behind her opponent

“Funding for me is like I’m a pariah,” Pérez said. “I’m working like I’ve never worked in my life.”

 

Ščŏŧŧ Ċ – 🇺🇦 🕊 • 3 hours ago

West Virginia is the least educated U.S. state, with an overall score of 23.65. West Virginia ranks last for Educational Attainment

Florida: Hold my beer. I wanna try something.

Other Michael Ščŏŧŧ Ċ – 🇺🇦 🕊 • 3 hours ago

10-15 years from now, people will be wailing about why Florida can’t attract high-tech jobs. This will be why.

Paula • 3 hours ago • edited

Payback for what? What exactly have the schools done that is horrible Good luck getting teachers, Florida. Wait until the teacher retirements start en mass.

Bambino🇺🇦🌻 Paula • 3 hours ago

Teachers, nurses, doctors, they should just leave for another states and let Florida crumble into a shit hole state. Not a place for anyone to raise children.

Randy503 Paula • 3 hours ago

They will ruin the education system. First, they will set up all these rules for teachers to follow, and they will chafe under them and leave. They won’t be able to fill a lot of the positions, and will lose the best teachers.
Next, they won’t want to deal with boring stuff like budgets and maintenance, so the system will get wrecked from negligence, lack of any over sight, and so on. Spending will get out of control. Except corruption, and funds being channeled to bizarre things instead of maintenance and salaries.
Once they have screwed it up past the hopeless point, they will declare victory over the liberals and step down. Then someone else will have to pick the pieces by raising taxes.

Posthumously Randy503 • an hour ago

You forgot the part about diverting taxpayer funds to right-wing Christian schools.

Pizza Rat King • 3 hours ago

Wait till they find out destroying the quality of your schools is a great way to tank the value of your homes.

Serene Pumpkin • 3 hours ago

Florida politics: the perfect career for people who are underqualified for prostitution or drug dealing.