MAGAs Win in Lake Travis and Georgetown ISDs

Candidates who campaigned on education issues straight from the Fox News headlines swept Lake Travis ISD and Georgetown ISD school board races Satur­day. In Lake Travis ISD, three candidates endorsed and funded by the powerful Lake Travis Families PAC, with help from some players in the Texas GOP political apparatus, came out on top by wide margins. Incumbent Trustees John Aoueille and Kimberly Flasch each retained their seats with 57% and 61% of the more than 10,000 votes cast; newcomer Erin Archer won her open-seat contest, also with 57%. All three opposed masking and vaccine mandates for LTISD students and staff, and promised to crack down on teachers whose lessons skirted too close to the dreaded "critical race theory" now banished from Texas schools by state statute.

In Georgetown, three candidates from the same political territory swept to victory, though by narrower margins, against candidates endorsed by progressive groups in the Williamson County seat. Incumbent Eliza­beth McFarland prevailed over challenger Allen Brown with 57%, while James Scherer and Cody Hirt edged out challengers Eric Lashley (the recently retired Georgetown library director) and Tania Easton (a community educator) in three-way races that may still end up in run-offs once the votes are canvassed.

While other Saturday school board elections in Pflugerville, Del Valle, Hutto, Elgin, and Eanes ISDs did not have such sharp political divides, the results come amid a far-right crusade in suburban Texas school politics. All three of the Georgetown winners were clients of Victory Insights, a Trump-affiliated polling and consulting firm that also worked for Ohio Senate nominee J.D. Vance. Earlier this year, far-right trustees in Round Rock ISD attempted to hound a too-progressive (for their tastes) superintendent out of office with lurid charges about his personal life; their opponents on the RRISD Board will face tough elections in November.