Two DeSantis-backed Miami school board candidates win, one edging out a longtime incumbent
The two candidates Gov. Ron DeSantis endorsed for the Miami-Dade School Board were poised to win their primary election Tuesday night, with Roberto Alonso winning by a wide margin in the seat to succeed the board’s outgoing chairwoman and Monica Colucci moving forward to unseat longtime incumbent Marta Pérez in a very tight race.
Alonso, 41, a businessman and Miami Dade College Board of Trustees member whom DeSantis appointed to the board in 2020, won against two challengers in the open seat vacated by former School Board Chair Perla Tabares Hantman, who had been the District 4 representative since 1996 and the board chair for 14 terms (nonconsecutive). The district covers a large swath of northwest Miami-Dade, including Hialeah and Miami Lakes.
As of 11 p.m., Alonso, who does not come from the classroom, had garnered about 57.3% of the vote, with all 69 precincts counted, but some mail ballots were still being tallied. His challengers, Maribel Balbin, the former president of the Miami-Dade chapter of The League of Women Voters, and Kevin Menendez Macki, a former district teacher and the principal at Horeb Christian School, garnered about 25% and nearly 18%, respectively.
As of 11 p.m., Colucci, 49, in a surprising win, garnered about 54%, while Pérez, 71, earned about 46%, with all 85 of the precincts reporting and some mail-in ballots yet to be counted, according to the Miami-Dade elections department. Pérez has been in the seat since 1998. The district goes from a slice of northern Coral Gables to West Miami to southwest Miami-Dade.
READ MORE: 24-year incumbent faces DeSantis-backed teacher in School Board race
To win Tuesday’s primary, school board candidates had to win 50% of the vote, plus 1 additional vote, or face a runoff on Nov. 8.
Colucci, an elementary school teacher in the district for 26 years, worked in the governor’s executive office from February 2019 to August 2020 as the special assistant to Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, who campaigned for Colucci. She also garnered support from Moms for Liberty, a DeSantis-aligned parents’ group whose political action committee has been funded by the Publix heiress.
Nuñez’s aligned political committee, Jobs for Prosperity for Florida, paid for political mail advertisements that were sent to voters to promote Colucci’s candidacy, and the committee contributed $1,000 to Colucci’s campaign, according to campaign finance records.
DeSantis endorsed more than 30 school board candidates across the state. Historically, a Florida governor has not endorsed candidates in countywide school board elections because local property taxes fund public schools and candidates run in nonpartisan races.
On Tuesday morning, DeSantis told reporters in Tallahassee he thought it was important he endorse school board candidates this election cycle — something he said was new for Republican leaders.
“I think you’re gonna see a lot of them be able to be successful,” DeSantis said, referring to his endorsements “I think more parents are interested, some of our [Republican] voters are interested.”
Overall, the school board members who were endorsed by DeSantis did fairly well. Of the 29 endorsed, at least 22 of them beat their opponents. A handful lost, and a few others are gearing up for a runoff.
READ MORE: DeSantis gives late boost to his favored school board candidates in nonpartisan races
Two other incumbents win
Miami-Dade School Board incumbents Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall and Maria Teresa Rojas also won their races in District 2 and District 6, respectively.
As of 10 p.m., Bendross-Mindingall, 79, was poised to defeat La-Shanda West, 50, a teacher at Cutler Bay Senior High, with more than 75% of the vote, with all 192 precincts counted but some mail ballots still not counted. West, 50, earned almost 25%. Rojas, 68, won about 64% of the vote, defeating Sandra Manzieri, 56, also a teacher, who garnered about 36%.
Bendross-Mindingall has been on the board since 2010 and this year’s election marks the second time she’s faced a challenger. Prior to joining the board, she served as a state legislator, teacher and school principal. District 2 encompasses Liberty City, Overtown, Little Haiti, Wynwood, Morningside, El Portal and Miami Shores.
Rojas, a former principal at Sunset Elementary School, is the sister-in-law of Rep. Carlos Gimenez, the former mayor of Miami-Dade County and now a Republican U.S. House representative. She was elected to the board in 2016. District 6 takes in Coconut Grove, Key Biscayne, Coral Gables, South Miami, Little Havana and parts of southwest Miami-Dade.
DeSantis’ education agenda
This year’s school board elections follow a legislative session and summer where DeSantis made education a top priority and central to his political platform. Last spring, he signed into law rules that bar discussions of sexuality and gender identity in kindergarten through third-grade classrooms, limit how race and racism is taught and boost parents’ role in education.
The result, for many teachers, has been an environment of fear of possibly overstepping the new rules, and one that strips away their creativity.
Nevertheless, some candidates in the Miami-Dade School Board races, including those who didn’t receive the governor’s endorsements, campaigned on a platform that aligned with his.
In the District 6 race, for example, Manzieri, who was supported by Moms for Liberty, a conservative organization that argues for more parental rights in schools, told the Herald in July that teachers should focus on reading, math and science and any discourse or debate surrounding social issues should be removed from the classroom. The Publix heiress, Julie Jenkins Fancelli, has donated $50,000 to Moms for Liberty’s political action committee to support conservative candidates in some of the state’s most competitive school board races, including donating $250 each to Alonso, Colucci and Manzieri.
The district is “wasting precious time bickering” about topics that “don’t have a place in the classroom,” Manzieri told the Herald, particularly when some students can’t read on grade level — a common sentiment among DeSantis and his supporters.
Rojas, for her part, agreed an emphasis should be placed on civics, and from the School Board dais, often reiterates her support for parental involvement.
READ MORE: Teachers alarmed by state’s infusing religion, downplaying race in civics training
On Sunday, the strengthening relationship between politics and education — and DeSantis’ influence — came into sharper focus, when the governor launched his “Education Agenda Tour” in Doral alongside school board candidates from several South Florida school districts, including Alonso and Colucci.
The tour, aimed at supporting local school board candidates, was the latest step in the governor’s efforts to make education issues central to his political platform. Last spring, he signed into law rules that bar discussions of sexuality and gender identity in kindergarten through third-grade classrooms, which DeSantis named the “Parental Rights in Education” bill, and which critics have dubbed the ‘Don’t say gay bill.’
DeSantis also signed a law that limits how race and racism is taught in workplace training and in Florida’s state universities. A federal judge last week blocked the restrictions in the law pertaining to race-related workplace training, saying they violate the First Amendment.
READ MORE: Come November, two DeSantis allies could be sitting on the Miami-Dade School Board
Speaking from a podium draped with a “Protect Parents’ Rights” sign, DeSantis said his administration has “been able to do a lot in the state of Florida, but we also recognize how important these issues are on the local level. You need people on these school boards who are going to be responsive to you, not [to] special interests.”
Source: Miami-Dade County
