Blue County Blunders Left GOP Voters in Florida County Without Ballots, Seeking Investigation

LAKELAND, Fla.—Florida’s Alachua County school board in 2020-21 repeatedly tangled with Gov. Ron DeSantis in a bitter battle over local school board autonomy versus the state’s preemptive authority in managing responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was one of two Florida school boards—along with Broward County’s—where members’ salaries were docked by the state and the districts fined hundreds of thousands of dollars for imposing mask mandates, in defiance of a DeSantis executive order and a state Department of Health rule that banned such actions.

While the fines were rescinded in court rulings, the Alachua board’s actions sparked controversy, which invited scrutiny. One of its five members was removed by DeSantis because she lived outside her district. His appointee, Mildred Russell, then cast the deciding vote when the board fired Alachua School Superintendent Carlee Simon.

With four Alachua board seats on the Aug. 23 ballot—two open seats and two incumbents, including the governor’s appointee—area Republicans seized on the parents’ rights movement, hoping to generate enthusiasm in support of three conservative candidates and Russell.

DeSantis has certainly been riding parents’ anger over pandemic mask mandates and critical race theory. For the first time ever, a Florida governor formally issued endorsements in non-partisan local elections, backing 30 candidates in 19 school districts and campaigning on behalf of several before the Aug. 23 elections.

Among those 30: Russell, who was being challenged by Diyonne McGraw, who she had replaced on the board after McGraw’s home was found to be 328 feet outside the district she was elected to serve in 2020.

But enthusiasm among Republican voters can only be so efficacious in Alachua County, where the University of Florida dominates its largest city, Gainesville. It’s one of just 15 of Florida’s 67 counties where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans—and, in this case, significantly so.

According to

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases