The Role of Endorsements in School Board Elections

• In Event: School Board Elections and Governance in a Changing Political Environment

Abstract

School board elections have long been understood as low-information contests. Voters are often asked to evaluate candidates in elections characterized by limited media coverage (Henig et al., 2019), minimal campaign spending (Hess & Meeks, 2011), and, most often, the absence of partisan labels (Collins, 2024). In these environments, scholars have consistently argued that voters rely on informational shortcuts, such as endorsements, to guide their decisions (Crowder-Meyer et al., 2020; Lupia, 1994; Downs, 1957). Endorsements from trusted organizations, newspapers, or political actors are theorized to help voters infer candidate quality, policy positions, or ideological alignment, particularly when other sources of information are scarce (e.g., Mason, 1973; Erikson, 1976). 

At the same time, school board elections are undergoing a period of transformation. Once viewed as insulated from national political conflict, recent work suggests that education politics has become increasingly nationalized and polarized along partisan lines (Henig et al., 2019; Houston, 2024; Gensterblum et al., 2026). Political parties, interest groups, and national advocacy organizations are becoming more involved in school board campaigns through endorsements (Hartney & Kogan, 2024; Arnzen & Jacobsen, 2026). These developments raise questions about whether endorsements function in local elections in the ways that existing theories predict. 

This paper examines the role of endorsements in school board elections from the perspective of voters, candidates, and endorsing organizations. We investigate four questions: (1) how voters encounter and interpret endorsements, (2) how these dynamics differ between partisan and nonpartisan elections, (3) how organizations decide who to endorse, and (4) why board candidates choose to align with endorsement granting organizations, and what benefits and challenges they perceive this involvement brings to local politics.  

We conducted a comparative mixed-methods case study design across six school districts in Michigan and Rhode Island. We draw on an original exit-poll of 839 voters in the November 2024 election and 20 semi-structured interviews with candidates and endorsement granting organizations. Exit-poll data is analyzed using descriptive statistics, such as linear probability models.  

Our findings challenge several assumptions in the literature. First, we show that voter awareness of endorsements is limited and often inaccurate. Many voters claim awareness of endorsements even when none were made, suggesting that endorsements do not reliably reach the electorate. Second, both issuing and receiving endorsements was a mixed experience because of nationalization and polarization creeping into board elections. Third, institutional context shapes both the visibility and perceived importance of endorsements, with endorsements playing a more prominent, though still limited, role in nonpartisan elections. This paper has several important implications. Our findings call into question the assumption that endorsements function as reliable informational shortcuts in low-information environments, particularly as local elections become increasingly nationalized and polarized. Our results suggest that the effectiveness of endorsements is contingent on both institutional context and voters’ perceptions, highlighting the need to reconsider how information flows in local democratic processes. Moreover, these findings are particularly relevant for the ongoing debates about adding partisan labels to school board elections, as the introduction of partisan cues may intensify polarization without meaningfully expanding information for voters.

Authors

• Ariell Rose Bertrand, Texas Tech University
  Presenting Author

• Cameron Arnzen, North Central College
  Non-Presenting Co-Author

• Rebecca Jacobsen, Michigan State University
  Non-Presenting Co-Author