Republican Party has won 80% of school board seats in Waukesha County

Craig Thompson, a two-decade veteran of the Arrowhead School Board, tried everything short of a carrier pigeon to get ahold of WisRed, an organization that arose four years ago in Waukesha County to wield enormous sway in the outcomes of local elections.

The group, an arm of the Waukesha County Republican Party, has helped over 400 conservative candidates win local elections in the last four years, including school board races, according to party vice chair Chris Slinker.

Thompson had watched as WisRed candidates replaced his colleagues on the school board. He hoped the group wouldn't come for him. He considered himself a conservative, but also felt strongly that school board candidates should be nonpartisan.

"I am a conservative; I have been for 40 years. But I’m not a WisRed conservative, nor do I want to have them tell me how to vote," he said. "That just rankles the hair on the back of my neck."

Thompson filled out the contact form on the WisRed website, he mailed a letter and he paid a visit to the office in downtown Waukesha, where he left behind his business card.

"I was inquiring why, if we have run our board fiscally conservatively, why are you trying to remove us?" Thompson said. "I never got an answer, and I still haven’t to this day."

In April, Thompson lost his seat to a WisRed candidate by less than 2 percentage points.

Thompson and other long-serving school board members in Waukesha County said they've seen a dramatic transformation in how school board campaigns are run. Dwindling are the days when they could win elections by knocking on doors and running on their records. The pressure is high to align with a party to secure their voter lists, mailers and ideological endorsements.

The pattern in Waukesha County may be particularly extreme, but Michigan State University political science professor Sarah Reckhow said party politicking and big donors have turned up the heat on school board elections nationwide.

Over 100 school board candidates across the state were backed by a political party or political action committee this spring, a Journal Sentinel review of finance reports found.

"It raises the bar for how much money you need to raise to wage a viable campaign," Reckhow said.

Angelique Byrne, who ran for school board in the city of Waukesha, was one of four candidates in the county who were supported by the Democratic party, which sent out mailers supporting them. Byrne said she had spent two years working with other parents to try to keep school board races nonpartisan, but she felt she had to accept help from the Democrats to reach as many voters as her opponent.

Ultimately, the four candidates in Waukesha county backed by the Democrats lost their races.

WisRed-backed candidates now hold over 80% of school board seats in Waukesha County districts

Going into elections this April, WisRed-backed candidates already held majorities on nearly every school board in the county.

While the group celebrated 37 "wins" in school board races April 2, most of those victories were for seats already held by WisRed candidates. The group gained 10 new seats and lost four seats that had been held by WisRed candidates, according to a Journal Sentinel analysis of election results, which was confirmed by Slinker.

Looking at districts that are predominantly located in Waukesha County, about 95 school board members holding seats post-election were supported by WisRed — comprising just over 80% of board members, the Journal Sentinel found.

Slinker said the party launched WisRed because it thought school boards in the county weren't representative of the electorate, which leans Republican. About 60% of county voters backed Donald Trump for president in 2020 and Tim Michels for governor in 2022.

"School boards had gone a direction that was not in line with the communities that they served," Slinker said. "Waukesha is a red county; their people deserve to have red representation."

Some school board members feel it's gone too far, with Republican-backed school board members holding every seat in some districts, including Menomonee Falls, where about 45% of voters supported Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in 2022.

"It doesn’t feel like the current makeup of the board is listening to the whole community," said Keri Duce, who was the last non-WisRed school board member in Menomonee Falls before stepping down this April. "I’m very concerned maybe only 50% of the community’s voices are taken into account. It’s created a terribly divided community."

Soon after the election, Slinker confirmed WisRed was behind a text-message poll that asked Menomonee Falls residents whether they would support changing the district mascot back to the "Indians" — a name that was retired in 2019 as organizations like the National Congress of American Indians have said such mascots are derogatory.

"There’s a lot of unrest from people who believe that was a mistake," Slinker said. "Every single board member that was there (in 2019) has now been removed. All seven."

Slinker said about 59% of about 2,000 respondents said they wanted to revert to "Indians." He said he hadn't shared the results with board members but "figured they would find out."

What it means to get support from WisRed

To get support from WisRed, candidates have to pass muster with a vetting board. Slinker said he and other WisRed board members usually meet with a candidate for about 15-20 minutes and ask open-ended questions about the candidate's priorities.

"It's important to know the philosophy of these candidates," Slinker said. "The philosophy is important because there is a true divide in the current political realm, the progressive versus the conservative. Everybody knows this; it's no secret. And we go to battle to try to get our voters to agree with the issues that we believe are important."

Slinker said the first big campaign driver for WisRed candidates was opposition to COVID-preventive measures like remote learning and masking. Now, there is more of a focus on curriculum, policies and taxation, he said.

Two school board members who interviewed with WisRed told the Journal Sentinel they were asked what they would do if a boy wanted to play girls sports. One of the school board members said they were told the question was about transgender students. Both of the school board members were ultimately not endorsed by WisRed and lost their elections this April.

Slinker said the group doesn't have a template set of questions or ask candidates to agree to do anything. "We just have a conversation," he said.

Candidates who get support from WisRed are featured on mailers that introduce voters to their "conservative" candidates. They're often endorsed by other WisRed candidates, attend joint campaign events and get featured on the Facebook page.

Chris Adsit, a WisRed-backed candidate who won his race for the Hartland-Lakeside School Board this April, said he thought the partisan stamp of approval was helpful for voters.

"If 60-75% of community are not directly involved in the school district, and people don’t know more than seeing a name on a sign, that association with a group at least provides someone with no knowledge an idea of where someone leans in ideology," Adsit said. "I was proud of that association because it communicates my belief system."

After candidates are elected, Slinker said WisRed encourages them to "stay involved with the party," attend sporadic meetings and collaborate with other WisRed candidates. In 2022, WisRed tried to start a "Waukesha County council" with a member from each elected board in Waukesha County. Slinker said that didn't get off the ground because of scheduling difficulties.

Elmbrook is only school district in Waukesha County without WisRed majority

There's only one school district left in Waukesha that doesn't have a majority of members supported by WisRed: the Elmbrook school district, which includes Brookfield and Elm Grove.

Two candidates there who ran nonpartisan campaigns fended off WisRed candidates this April.

One of them was Jean Lambert, who has been on the board for 15 years. Like Thompson, Lambert tried to dissuade WisRed's opposition. She said she talked to Sam Hughes, an Elmbrook School Board member supported by WisRed.

"I said, 'Sam, I've been a Republican my whole life,'" Lambert recalled. She said he asked her if she would be willing to support a parental rights policy. Lambert said no, because parental rights are already outlined in many other district policies.

"I showed I wasn’t going to sign on to what the WisRed affiliates want, so they went out and recruited an opponent," Lambert said. Hughes didn't reply to an interview request from the Journal Sentinel.

Lambert said she didn't consider seeking support from WisRed or Democrats, because she wanted to run a nonpartisan campaign. She said it seemed like voters were happy to see that: "I heard a considerable amount from those who felt WisRed has no place in our school district, and we need to work very hard to keep them out."

Lambert knew she would have to step up her campaigning. In her first election in 2019, she spent $350 on yard signs, mostly her own money.

"My campaign manager said we are going to have to spend $5,000 (this time); I about choked on that," Lambert said. Lambert hit that number with donations from individuals, and she won her election by 1 percentage point against the WisRed candidate, Peter Machi. Machi had raised over $11,000, campaign finance reports show.

The other winner in Elmbrook was Mary Wacker, who was running to replace board member Mushir Hassan, who was not a WisRed candidate and had decided to step down. Wacker ran a nonpartisan campaign against WisRed-backed Nicole Hunker, who raised about $7,700. Wacker raised about $10,000 from individual donations and, like Lambert, won by 1 percentage point.

After announcing her campaign, Wacker said she received several emails with near-identical questions about transgender students and DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) — topics that have been raised by many WisRed candidates. She answered the questions on her blog, but said the topics seemed more hypothetical than related to actual issues in Elmbrook.

"When we take the time to talk about things that don’t have impact here, we’re not allowing time for the things that are really important to stay top school district in the state," Wacker said.

What does the future hold for school board elections?

Reckhow, the Michigan State University professor who has studied how outside campaign funding has influenced school boards, said there has been a trend toward national talking points in local campaigns.

She said part of that could be caused by donors who are more interested in national issues. It could also be because voters now are more primed to latch onto national issues. With declines in local news sources, voters may be more educated on topics from the national stage, like curriculum and policies about race, gender and sexual orientation, Reckhow said.

"People are relying on different media sources, and national politics is polarized, so the more you look to that for the messaging the more it seems to reinforce it," she said. "The antidote is the truly local candidates who want to emphasize other issues that are not the polarized ones."

In the Hamilton School District, the two WisRed candidates appeared to avoid taking a stance on one of the central local issues: a referendum to raise local taxes for the district. The two non WisRed candidates, both incumbents, supported it. The longer-serving incumbent, Dawn Van Aacken, won her race, while Ashlie Schaffner lost hers.

"I sometimes felt like David trying to beat Goliath," said Van Aacken, who recruited her daughters to design her flyers and webpage. She spent much of her time knocking on doors. She said many voters wanted to know where she stood on the referendum.

"If I was going to lose because I believed in the referendum, it was still a stand I had to take," said Van Aacken, who has been on the board for 34 years. Now one of just two non-WisRed candidates on the board, she said she hopes discussions don't become more partisan.

"In all the years I was on the board, I never gave one thought to whether someone was Democrat or Republican," she said. "Even when someone voted differently, I knew it was not politically motivated, I knew it was their belief. I hope a year from now, I can still say that."

In some districts, parents have launched their own groups that have worked to support nonpartisan candidates. The only non-WisRed candidate left on the Kettle Moraine school board, Jay Crouse, is a self-identified conservative who was supported by the nonpartisan Kettle Moraine Alliance. The group raised over $10,000 to support Crouse and another candidate against WisRed opponents last year.

In Mukwonago, Cheri Winchowky relied solely on her own funds. The 12-year incumbent did an interview with WisRed, which asked her whether she would take money from Democrats.

"I said no, I’m not taking money from either; I just don’t want you smearing me," Winchowky said. "Why would you take down someone who’s doing good work?"

Winchowky said she decided she didn't want to affiliate with any party. She spent $686 of her own money on yard signs. She said it was painful when she received a postcard in her own mailbox encouraging people to vote for her "conservative" opponent.

"I got the card in my mailbox, and it just broke me," she said. "I worked so hard. People just took that card and voted straight across."

Winchowky said she has voted alongside her WisRed colleagues on the board on about 95% of issues. She disagreed when the board voted to remove student representatives from the board table. Winchowky lost by 22 percentage points to Wisred-backed Eric Shwartz.

"My concern is that a board that has one mind is not a healthy board," Winchowky said. "Conflict is not bad. Conflict is a way to get all the opinions at a table. The goal is to compromise and come up with something that is good for everyone."

Contact Rory Linnane at rory.linnane@jrn.com. Follow her on X (Twitter) at @RoryLinnane. 

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Waukesha County Republican party's WisRed takes over school boards