Dallas-area critical race theory opponents win big in school board election

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Two school board candidates in Texas have been elected amid a raging battle over critical race theory (CRT), prompting speculation about the issue's political saliency nationwide.

Southlake Style reported on Sunday that Hannah Smith and Cameron "Cam" Bryan, both of whom vocally opposed CRT, received nearly 70% of the vote in their respective races in the Dallas-area Carroll Independent School District. 

According to NBC News, the issue flared after a video surfaced in 2018 showing two students chanting the N-word. When the district responded with a "Cultural Competency Action Plan," parents revolted and the diversity issue reportedly became the focal point of typically low-key elections.

The plan controversially called for mandatory diversity trainings for teachers, something that has also sparked backlash in places like Loudoun County, Virginia. 

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Like Loudoun, Southlake, Texas, saw a new political action committee emerge to support candidates opposed to CRT. NBC News reported that candidates backed by the Southlake Families PAC won every race with three times as many voters casting ballots as in previous races.

"The voters have come together in record-breaking numbers to restore unity," said Smith, a Southlake attorney and former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.

"By a landslide vote, they don't want racially divisive critical race theory taught to their children or forced on their teachers. Voters agreed with my positive vision of our community and its future."

Meanwhile, her opponent, Erik Hernandez, worried about the impact on students. 

"I don't want to think about all these kids that shared their stories, their testimonies," Hernandez reportedly said on Saturday.

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"I don't want to think about that right now, because it's really, really hard for me. I feel really bad for all those kids, every single one of them that shared a story. I don't have any words for them."

CRT started gaining significant national attention last year as diversity trainings started popping up after George Floyd's death. 

The issue eventually caught former President Trump's attention after researcher Chris Rufo revealed leaked documents from controversial diversity trainings at federal entities. Opponents like Rufo argue that CRT is, in itself, a form of racism as it often stereotypes based on race and generally targets "Whiteness" or White people for criticism.

Rufo, on Monday, heralded the Southlake victories as a bellwether for future races. "In 2020, Joe Biden narrowly won this district. Today, anti-woke candidates won by 40 points. Plan accordingly," he tweeted.

He also retweeted satirist Andrew Doyle arguing that CRT was "electoral hemlock."

"It is always worth reminding our politicians that this obsession with identity is electoral hemlock," he said. "Critical Social Justice activists never win by force of numbers. They win by coercion and bullying. If more people in power stood up to them, the insanity would stop."

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Critics of CRT opponents generally argue that they're reinforcing White supremacist systems that benefit them.

"Critical Race Theory is basically an analysis of systematic white supremacy and how it dominates ALL areas of people activity," tweeted commentator Tariq Nasheed. "The people who want to maintain this system of white supremacy by pretending it doesn't exist, are the mains ones who oppose critical Race Theory."