This is Part 12 of a 14-part series on how to confront leftist indoctrination in your child’s school. If you want to be part of the parental revolution, this series will help you learn how to reorient school systems back toward biblical ethics to ensure our kids can safely learn, grow, and be nurtured in environments that prioritize knowledge over dogma, truth over lies, and virtue over vice.

 

Step 1: Identify the Candidate

Identify a potential candidate or candidates to run for school board seats that current members use to perpetuate radical ideologies and practices like DEI in the system. Perhaps that’s you, or perhaps someone in your support network is a good candidate. If not, work with your network to find and recruit candidates.

Ensure that any potential candidate can legally accept campaign donations and has the ability to get on the ballot. Make sure he or she is willing to solicit donations, understands how to contact voters, and can meet the necessary deadlines.

Step 2: Develop the Campaign Infrastructure

Before you or your preferred candidate file the necessary paperwork, organize your campaign with the following elements: 

Branding

Candidates need a social media presence. Create one but keep it hidden until you are ready to roll it out. Use whatever platforms you think will help, but have a strategic plan for their use and a plan to engage followers. These options include Facebook, X, Parler, Instagram, Truth Social, YouTube, and/or Rumble.

You need a logo. Keep it simple. Use darker backgrounds and lighter lettering to draw eyes naturally toward the name. This logo will be on all your materials, including yard signs. It must be easy to read. Consider its legibility on signage at speed and distance.

You also need yard signs. If you cannot afford yard signs, consider moving resources into less expensive forms of advertising.

You need a campaign website. Obtain the domain name and set it up. Make your message its forward-facing element!

Campaigning

You need to organize and manage the canvassing of neighborhoods in your district and knock on doors to turn out the vote. Recruit individuals to help with this responsibility. 

• Take advantage of your support network to organize volunteers.
• Sometimes voter contact software is helpful for local campaigns. Look into CampaignSidekick, i360, and Nation Builder to determine which makes the most sense for you. 
• Sending text messages can effectively reach voters. 
• Showing up at local events and community gatherings is essential.

You may want to send mailers, and should at least print push cards to hand out to people as those in your network knock on doors to raise awareness during the campaign season. You can prepare these after you file the campaign formally.

Get-Out-the-Vote Efforts

You will need to have someone who keeps track of your supporters during the campaign so you can get them out on Election Day. The best campaign managers keep a database of support, complete with phone numbers and emails, so that they can contact people on Election Day and remind them to vote.

Have volunteers or supporters offer to drive those who need transportation to the polls.

Look at past data in these races to understand how many people you will likely need on your side to guarantee victory!

Step 3: Delegate Authority

Get someone you trust to help run the campaign and organize volunteers. Ideally, this individual has experience in previous campaigns. Do not be afraid to outsource the day-to-day details to someone you trust!

Step 4: Spend Money

Raise the money. Stick to your budget. Campaigns always cost money. While school board races typically cost less than others, be prepared to spend thousands of dollars (perhaps many tens of thousands) to effectively challenge a sitting member of your school board.

Some of the things that cost money:

• Filing fees
• Website
• Campaign materials (mailers, yard signs, etc.)
• GOTV infrastructure (voter contact software, text reminders to vote, etc.)
• Paid media advertisements (radio ads, TV ads, etc.)

Take advantage of free social media to spread your message and connect with people in your district. You can also spread your message at local events where public speakers are allowed. 

Your network should include dozens of passionate parents and neighbors who will volunteer to canvas your district with materials and reach out to future voters so that you can build the list of people you’ll want to contact later. Volunteers (of the unpaid variety) are crucial to your success, as that shows significant support.

Tap into local college or university networks to find like-minded students who may want the campaign experience.

And of course, fundraise. It’s always helpful to have a base of financial support. School board candidates can do this through direct appeals, but community fundraising events (often hosted in supporters’ homes) can cheaply and effectively raise the money necessary to win the race.

Bear in mind that for a local school board race, even a small individual contribution of $25 to $40 makes a huge difference. Do not be afraid to ask your friends, supporters, and family members to contribute! Their contributions give them a sense of ownership and involvement in the race.

Step 5: Implement the Strategy

Understand how your school board operates. That will guide your ability to frame how you or another candidate will provide the leadership necessary to eliminate radical ideologies and practices from the classroom. Expect the media and your opposition to impugn, malign, and attack you from all possible angles. They will likely categorize you as an “extremist,” or perhaps they will attack your relative inexperience. 

If you understand the process and procedural mechanics of how the board operates, it will go a long way toward nullifying those attacks. And as you continue to expose how CRT, DEI, radical gender theory, and the grooming culture present in the schools harms done to kids, it will favorably define your campaign.

Here are some ways to make that a reality:

1. Prepare data about these ideologies (and their existence in the schools) beforehand that you can release in a steady cadence to overwhelm the opposition. Put the opposition on the defensive by demanding to know why your opponent has done nothing to address these issues.
2. Localize your message by highlighting the great things about your community and how these ideologies threaten its integrity and values as a whole.
3. Hammer the message. Do not deviate too far into other issues or allow your opponent to move the campaign into different territory. This is about protecting our kids from harmful and destructive ideologies that indoctrinate them to hate their classmates, their families, their country, and themselves.
4. Work with your support network to maintain a steady presence at local events. Have individuals host meet-and-greets in their homes on your behalf. Keep the word of mouth going. In a school board race, every vote counts!
5. In the final push before Election Day, work with any other like-minded candidates for higher office that could help bring in more votes. Try to hold a major event or two where you can hammer home the message. Remind people that you will end the pornographic material, the state-sanctioned racism of DEI, and the harmful lies of gender theory in the school system.

How to Succeed

The most important part of running for any office is staying on message. Fortunately, school boards have very specific functions, and therefore messaging is far simpler than other elected positions.

The school board shapes the priorities and policies of a particular school or district. Those priorities and policies should aim to nurture and grow children in a safe learning environment to become virtuous and productive citizens who love God, love their families, love their neighbors, and love their country. Through their K-12 education, they should receive the tools to reach their God-given potential no matter what profession, purpose, or path they pursue.

In other words, it’s about our kids. Your purpose for running for the school board is to protect kids, improve the quality of their education, and dismantle radical ideologies that will ultimately harm them.

 

John K. Amanchukwu Sr. is the Amazon bestselling author of Eraced: Uncovering the Lies of Critical Race Theory and Abortion (Salem Books, 2022). He currently serves as the first assistant and youth pastor of Upper Room Church of God in Christ in Wake Forest, North Carolina, where he lives with his wife, Crystal, and their three children.

This article has been adapted from his resource, The Cyclone 400 Tool Kit: Protecting Our Children and Reclaiming Our Communities.