Despite GOP gains across the state, voters in the Austin-area suburb of Round Rock rejected conservative school board candidates

A visitor attending a Keller ISD school board meeting wears a shirt reading, “Please Don’t Politics, Porn, Prey” on April 25, 2022. During the midterm elections earlier this month, conservative school board candidates who ran on platforms against critical race theory lost every race in the suburban school districts of Round Rock, near Austin, and Wylie, near Dallas. (Credit: Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune)

The Round Rock Independent School District, north of Austin, had a tumultuous lead-up to Election Day. Debates over mask policies, teacher shortages and allegations of threatening behavior and assault against the superintendent pitted trustees, and their supporters, against each other in recent years.

The Texas GOP and other political groups sought to leverage those divisions to oust board trustees who have not been supportive of conservative policies. Even though school board races are nonpartisan, the Nov. 8 elections for Round Rock school trustees drew high-profile endorsements from the Republican Party of Texas.