Our incumbent (conservative) school board candidates (Kimbrell, Bates, Illingworth) are opposed by candidates who are adamant that their campaigns are non-partisan. Seth Bryant’s latest guest column states that support for his campaign has come from a diverse group of supporters. The financial contributions made to each of the three candidates tells a different story.

Teller County’s voter roll is made up of 41% Republicans, 12.8% Democrats, and the remainder unaffiliated. The contributions to Keegan Barkley, Seth Bryant and Mike Knott follow a different model, 34% of their total dollar contributions are from registered Democrats and a meager 4% are from registered Republicans. The top financial contributors to each of the three campaigns are two registered Democrats, Gail Gerig and Matt Gawlowski, who both donated $1,000 per candidate. Gerig wrote an LTE to the Courier in January expressing concern over the current board, Ken Witt, and a ridiculous concern about “The influence of Christian nationalism and conservative charters…”. Matt Gawlowski is a self-proclaimed public-school activist, admin of the censorship-heavy TC Concerned Parents Facebook page, and vocal critic of Merit Academy. He has publicly advocated for children to play on sports teams specific to the gender they identify with and has advocated for the use of preferred pronouns to be used in schools.

In an online exchange Matt defended telling children they can choose their gender by stating: “Telling kids they can be any gender? I think it comes down to HOW you tell them.” With 22% of their total campaign contributions coming from these two Democrats, it’s clear these candidates are the left-wing’s clear choice, and their most fervent supporters have very progressive ideologies.

Additionally, $5.2k in financial contributions have come from out-of-state donors including from the liberal bastions of Los Angeles, Seattle, NJ, and NY. The majority of Teller County residents don’t share the “morals” of those cities and states, and it is disappointing to see so much influence from these places in this election.

Out of state donations account for another 20% of their total financial contributions. This is on top of the critical non-monetary contribution provided by the teacher’s union for get-out-the-vote software, a contribution that these candidates have tried in vain to explain away. Teacher’s unions, including the CEA and NEA lean heavily towards donating and supporting left-wing candidates that they know will align with their objectives. These candidates want us to believe that they are the exception and the union simply provided them access to their elections platform despite having no assurances that these candidates would best represent their interests. Unlikely indeed.

The opposition candidates want the voters of RE-2 to believe they are non-partisan and have a diverse group of supporters, but the data shows the opposite is true.

It’s apparent that the opposition candidates are the preferred choice of the far-left and of the teacher’s union. It’s also apparent that Kimbrell, Illingworth, and Bates are the right choice for the parents of Re-2.