Trends in the Nationalization of School Board Elections: Evidence from Spring 2022 Wisconsin Midterm
Mentor 1
Paru Shah
Start Date
28-4-2023 12:00 AM
Description
Recent work looking at the topic of down-ballot elections, the smaller elections which are voted for on the same ballot as a larger election, have increasingly aligned themselves with national-level issues. This trend is known as “nationalization.” Other researchers have found that nationalization seems to have heavily shaped elections from gubernatorial and senate races, all the way down to mayoral and city council elections. Increasingly, the issues which matter at the federal level, are also the main topics local candidates concern themselves with in their campaigns, often despite a lack of local power to act on those issues. Additionally, focus on federal issues can come at the expense of unique local concerns. As a result, nationalization is an important topic to understand in the context of our increasingly polarized political landscape, as local issues have historically been a place where Democrats and Republicans can come together. This paper seeks to expand the literature on the topic through an analysis of recent Wisconsin school board elections, school board elections being one of the furthest down-ballot races of all. Our research looks at the campaign issues emphasized by each candidate in recent Wisconsin school board elections—the period we are using as our sample is the Spring 2022 election cycle. We have a specific interest in a set of four key issues which saw widespread discussion in national media, and federal races. Those issues are Critical Race Theory, Parental Transparency /Control of school curriculum, Covid-19, and Sex-Ed/LGBTQ+ issues. Our goal is to analyze to what extent these issues were emphasized, as well as the extent to which candidates who emphasized those issues were successful in their bids for office.
Trends in the Nationalization of School Board Elections: Evidence from Spring 2022 Wisconsin Midterm
Recent work looking at the topic of down-ballot elections, the smaller elections which are voted for on the same ballot as a larger election, have increasingly aligned themselves with national-level issues. This trend is known as “nationalization.” Other researchers have found that nationalization seems to have heavily shaped elections from gubernatorial and senate races, all the way down to mayoral and city council elections. Increasingly, the issues which matter at the federal level, are also the main topics local candidates concern themselves with in their campaigns, often despite a lack of local power to act on those issues. Additionally, focus on federal issues can come at the expense of unique local concerns. As a result, nationalization is an important topic to understand in the context of our increasingly polarized political landscape, as local issues have historically been a place where Democrats and Republicans can come together. This paper seeks to expand the literature on the topic through an analysis of recent Wisconsin school board elections, school board elections being one of the furthest down-ballot races of all. Our research looks at the campaign issues emphasized by each candidate in recent Wisconsin school board elections—the period we are using as our sample is the Spring 2022 election cycle. We have a specific interest in a set of four key issues which saw widespread discussion in national media, and federal races. Those issues are Critical Race Theory, Parental Transparency /Control of school curriculum, Covid-19, and Sex-Ed/LGBTQ+ issues. Our goal is to analyze to what extent these issues were emphasized, as well as the extent to which candidates who emphasized those issues were successful in their bids for office.
