Conservative school board candidates saw sweeping wins across Maryland this week, defying expectations in the largely blue state and solidifying the influence of the 1776 Project PAC, the Republican-aligned organization that endorsed 19 candidates statewide.
In total, 11 of the political action committee’s endorsed candidates either won or narrowly led their races as of Friday morning. Candidates backed by the PAC won control of the school boards in Somerset and Calvert counties, while appearing poised to win in Talbot County. Final results await the counting of some mail-in and provisional ballots, which must be counted by Nov. 15.
Campaign finance records show that the Maryland State Education Association Fund for Children and Public Education — the political arm of the state’s teachers union — spent $516,999.57 during the 2024 election cycle. And the 1776 Project PAC clearly sees the teachers’ union as its defeated rival in the election.
“Even outspending us by $450,000, the teachers’ union couldn’t beat us in deep-blue Maryland—their message is just too extreme,” said Stefano Forte, executive director of the 1776 Project PAC. “Voters chose raising test scores and graduation rates over their far-left culture war. On Tuesday, common sense won, and that has no price tag.”
A fourth school district with candidates targeted for defeat by Democrats – Washington County – also flipped to conservative control without the aid of the 1776 Project PAC.
Of those 11 winners endorsed by that conservative PAC, six had also been targeted for defeat by the Maryland Democratic Party, which selected 24 “extreme” conservative school board candidates in the state to directly invest against – a move the party referred to as “unprecedented.” Of those 24, only nine have been lost thus far. The remaining 15 all won or are leading their respective races.
“We are proud that we pushed out some of the most extreme elements in these races,” said Luca Amayo, spokesperson for the Maryland Democratic Party. “It’s clear, however, that we must continue to bolster our grassroots efforts and make Marylanders aware of the far-right agenda encroaching into Maryland’s public schools, especially as they are emboldened under a Donald Trump presidency.”
The party considers the 1776 Project PAC a “radical ring-wing group,” and helped defeat five of its endorsed candidates from winning office. Ryan James Girdusky, the committee’s founder, wrote on the PAC’s website that he created the organization “to change public education by reforming school boards and electing reform-minded conservatives who wanted to improve public education in this country.”
As of Oct. 16, the PAC had pumped $90,580.50 toward the campaigns of 13 candidates across Cecil, Queen Anne’s, Talbot, Calvert, Somerset and St. Mary’s counties. Of those 13, seven have won their elections and one remains too close to call.
In Calvert County, candidates endorsed by the 1776 Project PAC won all three school board seats.
Retired principal Mike Shisler lost his bid for the board. He said he fears that the new conservative leadership, all of whom were targeted by the state’s Democratic Party as well, would create inequity and fear within the county’s education system.
“I’m very disappointed in the results,” Shisler said Wednesday, “It’s not going to be inclusive of everybody. It’s going to target folks. It’s going to try to undo the work of previous boards of education when it came to stressing equity and diversity, and I think they’re trying to roll back the clock.”
Joseph Marchio, who defeated Shisler, said he expected a close race going into Tuesday night. His margin was the closest of the three 1776 Project PAC-backed victors in Calvert County.
In Washington County, on the state’s panhandle, all four candidates that Democrats targeted for defeat won their election, flipping the county’s school board into conservative control. All three non-targeted incumbents lost reelection, while April Ann Zentmeyer, the only targeted incumbent, defended hers.
“I look forward to working with new board members and faithful colleagues to maximize opportunities for students, faculty, staff, and parents; and to identify solutions that will strengthen WCPS,” Zentmeyer said in a statement.
Washington County has a county-wide school board election process, as opposed to the school districts where candidates are elected by district. Instead of one-on-one races, all school board candidates in Washington County face each other in a crowded pool, with the top four vote-getting candidates winning seats. Carroll, Allegany and Frederick counties have similar systems.
The success of conservative school board candidates around Maryland reflects a larger trend from this year’s election cycle: the state’s rightward shift. According to data from the Associated Press, every county in Maryland shifted rightward this year compared to the 2020 election – from two points in Charles County and Baltimore City to eight points in Cecil County.
Some races remain too close to call. In Frederick County, two conservative candidates targeted by Democrats led the race for three seats as of Friday, but two other candidates trailed close behind. Talbot County, which flipped conservative this cycle, saw two 1776 Project PAC-endorsed candidates win seats, while a third trailed by a narrow margin as of Friday.
Somerset County, the third district flipped by 1776 Project PAC-endorsed contenders, saw massive margins of victory for the conservatives, with Mary Beth Bozman securing about four-fifths of the vote in her race. Her opponent was Alverne “Chet” Chesterfield – who, the Local News Network reported last month, had a peace order initiated against him in 2022.
The Local News Network also reported that Brandie Edelen, a 1776 Project PAC-endorsed candidate in St. Mary’s County, had a state tax lien filed against her in 2019. Edelen handily lost her race to Josh Guy.
In deep-blue Howard County, Andrea Chamblee is in a tight race with Trent Kittleman, an early supporter of the county’s Moms for Liberty chapter. Even though Democrat Kamala Harris carried over two-thirds of the votes cast in the presidential race in the county, Chamblee led Kittleman by only 3.5 points as of Friday morning.
Mail-in and provisional ballots, which have leaned in favor of Chamblee this far, are still being counted.
The founder of Moms for Liberty in Frederick County, Jaime Brennan, appeared headed to victory. She said that despite the Maryland Democrats’ campaign against her and Colt Black, the other conservative in the race, that effort didn’t appear to be all that effective.
“They spent a lot of money in opposition to me and Colt, and to prop up the other side, but I didn’t hear from a single person who said, ‘Oh, I heard about this and I’m not voting for you,’” Brennan said.
In neighboring Carroll County, where Moms For Liberty lobbied for the removal of 60 books from school libraries – 21 permanently – conservative candidates secured their hold on the board. Greg Malveaux and Kristen Zihmer defeated Amanda Jozkowski and Muri Lynn Dueppen, who together ran an underdog progressive campaign called the Slate for Student Success, which was endorsed by the Carroll County Educators Association.
“It’s really a shame that a lot of voters in our county chose to kind of take their marching orders from their political party, rather than considering the opinions of the educators,” Jozkowski said. She previously ran and lost in 2022.
Jozkowski said the race was a reflection of the national results, which saw an overwhelming rightward shift in nearly every state and in many down-ballot races. Malveaux and Zihmer were both targeted by the Maryland Democrats.
That rightward shift could also be seen in the school board race in Anne Arundel County’s District 3. There, the conservative candidate, Chuck Yocum, fell only 2.76 points behind his opponent, Erica McFarland, despite weeks of controversy over Yocum’s 1994 acquittal on child sexual abuse and perverted practices charges.
Local News Network reporters Sasha Allen, Marwa Barakat, Ela Jalil, Colin McNamara and Tolu Talabi contributed to this report.
Corrections: An earlier version of the story said 10 candidates endorsed by the 1776 Project PAC had won their races. The correct number is 11. In addition, an earlier version identified Trent Kittleman as the founder of the Howard County chapter of Moms for Liberty. While she was an early supporter of the group, Lisa Geraghty is the group’s founder.