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She has disavowed the far-right platform she campaigned on after finding no evidence to support conspiracies.
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By
Investigative Reporter
and
Introduction
Weeks after winning a school board seat in her deeply red Texas county, Courtney Gore immersed herself in the district鈥檚 curriculum, spending her nights and weekends poring over hundreds of pages of lesson plans that she had fanned out on the coffee table in her living room and even across her bed. She was searching for evidence of the sweeping national movement she had warned on the campaign trail was indoctrinating schoolchildren.
Gore, the co-host of a far-right online talk show, had promised that she would be a strong Republican voice on the nonpartisan school board. Citing 鈥渟mall town, conservative Christian values,鈥 she pledged to inspect educational materials for inappropriate messages about sexuality and race and remove them from every campus in the 7,700-student Granbury Independent School District, an hour southwest of Fort Worth. 鈥淥ver the years our American Education System has been hijacked by Leftists looking to indoctrinate our kids into the 鈥榩rogressive鈥 way of thinking, and yes, they鈥檝e tried to do this in Granbury ISD,鈥 she wrote in a September 2021 Facebook post, two months before the election. 鈥淚 cannot sit by and watch their twisted worldview infiltrate Granbury ISD.鈥
But after taking office and examining hundreds of pages of curriculum, Gore was shocked by what she found 鈥 and didn鈥檛 find.
The pervasive indoctrination she had railed against simply did not exist. Children were not being sexualized, and she could find no examples of critical race theory, an advanced academic concept that examines systemic racism. She鈥檇 examined curriculum related to social-emotional learning, which has by Christian conservatives who say it encourages children to question gender roles and prioritizes feelings over biblical teachings. Instead, Gore found the materials taught children 鈥渉ow to be a good friend, a good human.鈥
Gore rushed to share the news with the hard-liners who had encouraged her to run for the seat. She expected them to be as relieved and excited as she had been. But she said they were indifferent, even dismissive, because 鈥渋t didn鈥檛 fit the narrative that they were trying to push.鈥
So, in the spring of 2022, Gore went public with a series of Facebook posts. She told residents that her backers were using divisive rhetoric to manipulate the community鈥檚 emotions. They were interested not in improving public education but rather in sowing distrust, Gore said.
鈥淚鈥檓 over the political agenda, hypocrisy bs,鈥 Gore wrote. 鈥淚 took part in it myself. I refuse to participate in it any longer. It鈥檚 not serving our party. We have to do better.鈥
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Gore鈥檚 open defiance of far-right GOP orthodoxy represents an unusual sign of independence in a state and in a party that experts say increasingly punish those deemed disloyal. It particularly stands out at a time when Republican leaders are publicly attacking elected officials who do not support direct funding to private schools.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a rare event to see this kind of political leap, especially in a world that鈥檚 so polarized,鈥 said University of Houston political scientist Brandon Rottinghaus. 鈥淵ou rarely see these kinds of changes because the people who are vetted to run tend to be true believers. They tend not to be people who are necessarily thinking about the holistic problem.鈥
鈥淲ith the presence of Donald Trump, fealty to cause has amplified, so this kind of action is much more meaningful and much more visible than it was a decade ago,鈥 Rottinghaus said about Gore.
In March, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, was victorious in unseating five lawmakers in his own party and forcing another three into runoff elections after they voted against voucher legislation that would allow the use of public dollars for students to attend private and religious schools. His efforts sent a message that those who did not unflinchingly support his priorities would face grave political repercussions.
Gore was part of a similar movement of hard-liners who in 2021 after determining that she was not conservative enough for the nonpartisan position. Now Gore and other disillusioned local Republicans have formed a group pushing against an 鈥渦ltra-right鈥 faction of the party that it says has become obsessed with 鈥渁dministering purity tests鈥 and stoking divisive politics.
The former teacher and mother of four was influenced by such politics when she decided to run for office. She was motivated to seek a school board seat after a steady stream of reports from the right-wing media she consumed and her social media feeds pointed to what she saw as inappropriate teachings in public schools. She, too, had been outraged by school mask mandates and vaccine requirements during the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But Gore said she feels that she was unwittingly part of a statewide effort to weaken local support of public schools and lay the groundwork for a voucher system.
And she said that unless she and others sound the alarm, residents won鈥檛 realize what is happening until it is too late.
鈥淚 feel like if I don鈥檛 speak out, then I鈥檓 complicit,鈥 Gore said. 鈥淚 refuse to be complicit in something that鈥檚 going to hurt children.鈥
Because of that outspokenness, Gore is facing backlash from the same people who supported her race. She has been threatened at raucous school board meetings and shunned by people she once considered friends.
School marshals escort her and her fellow board members to their cars to ensure no one accosts them.
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When things get particularly heated, a fellow trustee follows her in his car to make sure she gets home safely.
None of It Was Adding Up
Before Gore decided to seek office for the first time, prominent GOP operatives had been pushing for like-minded allies to take over school boards, framing the effort as necessary to maintain conservative Christian values.
In May 2021, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon told followers on his podcast that school boards were the road back to power for conservatives following the 2020 presidential election. Two months later, North Texas-based influential pastor Rafael Cruz, the father of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, amplified that message on social media, saying that getting candidates on school boards was critical.
鈥淲e need to make sure that strong, principled Americans, those who uphold our Judeo-Christian principles that have made America the greatest country in the world, are elected to school boards,鈥 Rafael Cruz said in a July 2021 video posted to his Facebook page. 鈥淏ecause I鈥檒l tell you the left is controlling the school boards in America.鈥
Those messages reached Granbury, where former Republican state Rep. Mike Lang and political consultant Nate Criswell asked Gore to run for the school board. Gore recalls hearing Cruz give a fiery speech while she was campaigning. In the speech, which reinforced her decision to run, she said Cruz boasted about flipping the school board in Southlake, Texas, by getting the churches involved in helping to install Christian candidates.
鈥淲hen you put in the minds of parents that there is an agenda to indoctrinate their children 鈥 and the only answer is to get conservative Christian people elected to the school board,鈥 Gore said, 鈥渋t鈥檚 a very powerful message.鈥
Gore, now 43, first became involved in local politics in 2016 when she campaigned door-to-door for Lang, a former constable who successfully ran for the Texas Legislature. She then served on a leadership committee for the Hood County GOP.
After Lang decided not to run for reelection in 2020, he asked Gore to join the 鈥淏lue Shark鈥 show, a web-based program he founded and co-hosted with Criswell that produced videos taking aim at local politicians and officials considered insufficiently conservative. Criswell later ran campaigns for Gore and Melanie Graft, another school board candidate who previously from the children鈥檚 section of the county library.
Soon after the women won their elections, the Granbury school district descended into a high-profile fight over school library books.
Administrators pulled 130 library books from the shelves after Matt Krause, a Republican representative from Fort Worth, published a list of 850 titles that he said touched on themes of sexual orientation and race. At the time, ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and NBC News , Jeremy Glenn, making clear to librarians that he had concerns about books with LGBTQ themes, including those that did not contain descriptions of sex. After the reporting, the Department of Education , which is ongoing, into whether the district violated federal laws that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender.
A volunteer review committee of parents and district employees eventually recommended returning nearly all of the books to the shelves.
Hard-liners wanted additional titles removed, claiming that the district was allowing 鈥減ornography,鈥 without offering evidence to support the assertion. But Gore backed the committee鈥檚 findings, saying she was satisfied with the handful of books the district had removed for explicit content. Glenn, too, drew the ire of his onetime allies after he also suppxcorted the committee鈥檚 recommendation. Lang and Criswell have since called for his ouster. Glenn declined an interview request through a district spokesperson.
The book debate, along with a series of other fissures, contributed to Gore鈥檚 growing belief that her former colleagues were more interested in misleading residents than in improving educational outcomes.
In early 2022, leaders of the rapidly growing district announced plans to ask voters for $394 million in bonds to build a new high school and renovate existing campuses. School board members established a community advisory committee that would counsel the district.
Gore chose Criswell as her representative on the committee. She thought that once Criswell saw the district鈥檚 needs firsthand, he would support the bonds. But the opposite happened. Criswell urged voters to reject the measure, claiming some parts, such as providing full-day pre-K programs for all students, were 鈥渃ommunist in nature.鈥
Gore said Criswell directed her and Graft, who did not respond to requests for comment, to post messages on social media against the bonds. When Gore pushed back, she said Criswell accused her of betraying the party. (The bonds ultimately lost by a wide margin.)
According to Gore, Criswell also pressured her to stop speaking with all of her fellow school board members, except for Graft. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e just lying to you. They鈥檙e not your friends,鈥 she recalled him saying.
鈥淚 was like, how am I supposed to do my job as a board member if I鈥檓 not talking to anybody?鈥 Gore said. 鈥淣one of it was adding up.鈥
Criswell, who has previously said that he supports public schools, declined to answer detailed questions. Lang did not respond to requests to comment. In April 2022, Gore rescinded her nomination of Criswell to the bond advisory board. She felt that he and Lang were misleading voters about the bond and its cost to taxpayers.
鈥淢ike Lang would call them snowballs,鈥 she said. 鈥淵ou just get as many little snowballs as you can so you鈥檙e attacking from multiple fronts. And then you see which ones start to stick and gather speed and get bigger and bigger.鈥
In June 2022, Lang and Criswell directed one of their snowballs in Gore鈥檚 direction, taking a veiled shot at the former co-host of their show. In a video, Criswell praised Graft for continuing the fight to remove books from the school district鈥檚 libraries, saying she was 鈥渢he only one that acts as the buffer right now on that board. Which is sad, because, you know, we鈥檝e had other people elected in recent elections that just haven鈥檛 lived up to the expectations.鈥
Three days later, Gore fired back.
鈥淚 refuse to be someone鈥檚 puppet,鈥 she wrote in a June 8 Facebook post. 鈥淚 refuse to be told what to do, what to say or how to vote. I refuse to participate in any agenda that will dismantle or abolish public education.鈥
“Extremism IS the Problem”
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A week after that post, Gore watched the livestream of a Granbury school board meeting on her laptop from a hotel room along Mexico鈥檚 Caribbean coast while on an anniversary trip with her husband.
Emotions ran high as about a dozen residents complained that board members had not removed enough books from the library. Some argued that the school board was stifling dissent from Graft by requiring the consent of two board members to place an item on the agenda.
During the meeting, Cliff Criswell, the grandfather of Nate Criswell, took the microphone, carrying what police would later describe as a black handgun in a leather holster. He accused board members of allowing pornography in school libraries and of trying to 鈥渞ip apart鈥 Graft, whom he had previously described as 鈥渢he only conservative on the board.鈥
鈥淲e have profile sheets鈥 on all the trustees except for Graft, Cliff Criswell shouted. 鈥淲e know what you do. We know where you live.鈥
Gore was shocked. Panicked, she started calling family members. 鈥淢y grandmother was home with our children,鈥 she recalled in an interview. 鈥淢y brother came over and slept on my front porch to make sure nobody showed up at our house in the middle of the night. I mean, my kids were terrified after that.鈥
Later that night, Gore addressed the incident on Facebook.
鈥淭onight, threats were made against me, every board member (except one) and our superintendent. We were individually called out by name, told we had profile sheets made on each of us and that we would be dealt with accordingly. THIS IS NOT OK. I take threats against myself and my family seriously, especially with all of the violence in today鈥檚 world. Will we be dealing with school board shootings next?!? WE MUST DO BETTER!鈥
In response to a commenter鈥檚 message of support, Gore wrote, 鈥渆xtremism IS the problem.鈥
According to a Granbury police , an off-duty officer spotted a black pistol in a holster in Cliff Criswell鈥檚 waistband and alerted school and city police. Possession of an unauthorized firearm at a school board meeting is a third-degree felony under , but because officers didn鈥檛 conclusively identify the weapon that night, and because Cliff Criswell declined to cooperate, prosecutors were unable to file charges, said Granbury police Deputy Chief Cliff Andrews. Cliff Criswell could not be reached for comment.
鈥淗ad we identified the gun at the very moment, yes, absolutely, we could have filed charges on it,鈥 Andrews said. 鈥淲e made a simple mistake.鈥
The incident forced the district to adopt tighter security measures, including clearly posting signs prohibiting firearms and bringing in additional officers during board meetings anytime administrators expect that certain topics could lead to heated exchanges.
鈥淭hat was the moment I saw how crazy it was, how unhinged it had become and how far some people were willing to go to prove their points,鈥 Gore said.
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Yet rhetoric over the school district only ratcheted up in the ensuing months.
That fall, Hood County鈥檚 far-right leaders backed the school board candidacy of Karen Lowery, who in May 2022 was one of two women who claiming they were providing pornography to children. A Hood County constable has declined to answer questions about the status of the complaint.
Lowery, who had served on the committee that reviewed library books but opposed returning them to the shelves, also received a key endorsement from Rafael Cruz. She went on to win her election in November 2022.
Her victory helped resurface the district鈥檚 book battles as she pressed to remove more titles. Then, in August 2023, Lowery snuck into a high school library during a charity event and began inspecting books using the light of her cellphone, .
School board members met to discuss censuring Lowery at an Aug. 23 public meeting for violating a policy that requires them to get permission from principals when entering a campus and for not being truthful when confronted by an administrator. Lowery claimed she had disclosed her visit to the library beforehand as required. She did not respond to calls or emails seeking comment. A district spokesperson said he was unable to pass along an interview request because Lowery has requested to only be contacted through her board email.
The board voted to censure Lowery, who opposed the symbolic measure along with Graft.
鈥淚t is clear that the actions Mrs. Lowery took, as evidenced by the community and the outcry that we have heard tonight, has broken some of that trust with our staff, parents and community members,鈥 said Gore, who motioned to censure Lowery. 鈥淭he only people that pay the price for this, no matter what happens tonight, are the kids of this district.鈥
Old Foe, New Friend
By November 2023, the battle lines over school vouchers were hardening in Granbury, and at the state Capitol in Austin.
Abbott had begun waging war against Republicans who had not supported voucher efforts and contributed to their failure during the last legislative session. One lawmaker who escaped Abbott鈥檚 wrath was Shelby Slawson, a Republican who represents Hood County. Unlike some of those now being targeted, Slawson had bucked a request spearheaded by Gore and supported by the school board majority that urged lawmakers to vote against a measure that would send public dollars to private schools. Slawson did not respond to questions regarding her decision to vote in favor of vouchers despite the local school district鈥檚 opposition to the legislation.
Meanwhile, Granbury was facing a tough election. The school district was asking voters to approve a $151 million bond measure to build a new elementary school in the rapidly growing and overcrowded district, as well as provide security updates and renovations to aging campuses. The balance of the school board was also at stake in the same election.
Bond opponents formed the Granbury Families political action committee. In advertising materials, the group cited library books as one of the principal reasons residents had lost trust in the board. 鈥淥ur community has lost faith in the board鈥檚 ability to conduct business,鈥 . 鈥淣ot another penny until GISD gets new leadership.鈥
Nate Criswell, Gore鈥檚 former co-host and campaign manager, loaned the PAC $1,750, according to filed with the district. The loan constituted about 40% of the PAC鈥檚 funding ahead of the November election.
Although a majority of the state鈥檚 school districts with bond measures scored victories, Granbury鈥檚 tax measure failed once again. (Voters rejected another bond measure this month.) Hard-line conservatives celebrated the loss, pointing to anger over the library books issue.
But even as they celebrated, the November election delivered a setback to those who wanted to take over the school board. The two candidates supported by hard-line conservatives lost by wide margins, denying the county鈥檚 far-right faction the majority on the board. Among the winners in that election was Nancy Alana, the school board member whom Gore ousted two years earlier. This time around Gore endorsed Alana, and the two former opponents have since become friends and allies.
鈥淪he let everybody know that she had been misled and that she has seen for herself the good things that are happening in our school district,鈥 Alana said. 鈥淭hat the school board can be trusted. That the administrators can be trusted. And she has spoken out on that. And that has made a big difference. And she is very well thought of in our community because of her willingness to step up and say, 鈥業 was wrong.鈥欌
Originally by , 05.15.2024, under a license.