A community near Hanford (if you’ve seen Oppenheimer, Hanford is the nuclear production complex that produced plutonium for the Manhattan Project) has voted to oust three school board members this week. Back in February of 2022, this trio of members voted to defy the mask mandate in effect in Washington State, throwing the school district into chaos and forcing the superintended to close all schools for two days.

What makes this kind of a big deal is that, while Washington State has been very blue for many years, this community is located in the much redder eastern side of the state, and votes consistently Republican each election. Now, school board elections are supposed to be non-partisan, but we all know how the Republican party has started endorsing candidates in these non-partisan elections, and the election where this trio was elected was no different.

As someone from this community, it often feels hopeless when the candidates I vote for lose by considerable margins. This particular election shows that there IS hope, given the right amount of motivation and turnout (this is a BIG turnout for a non-presidential election!). I’m proud of what this effort accomplished!