On Tuesday, the Florida Phoenix published a story about the Florida Democratic Party’s efforts to invest in school board races across the state.

The Florida Democratic Party recently unveiled the August “Take Back Local” slate — 11 school board candidates who will receive grassroots organizing and fundraising support from the state party. 

At a press conference outside an early voting location in Leon County on Monday, Chair Nikki Fried and Leon County School Board candidate Jeremy Rogers — one of the 11 Take Back Local candidates — detailed the importance of fighting back against the attacks on school boards led by Ron DeSantis and Moms for Liberty. 

READ MORE: “Fried: ‘Partisan politics should not be in our school districts’” — Florida Phoenix

– “Walking into the Leon County Courthouse to cast an early ballot, Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said Monday that ‘attacks on our school boards’ have led the state party to put more emphasis on down-ballot races.

– “Fried was voting alongside Jeremy Rogers, a candidate for Leon County School Board, one of 11 school board candidates who have been endorsed by the Democratic Party statewide. He’s running against incumbent Laurie Lawson Cox, endorsed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

– “‘We have been really leaning in, for the first time in a really long time, if potentially ever, into our down ballots, into our school boards,’ Fried told reporters Monday. ‘Because unfortunately we have seen for the last six years the attacks on our school boards, the attacks on our public education system. And so, it’s time for us to regain that nonpartisan but equal balance that’s coming into our school districts.’”

– “Fried insisted that school board elections are not meant to be partisan, though….”’Partisan politics needs to be out of these conversations; it shouldn’t matter whether you’re left or you’re right or up or down or center, it’s about teaching our kids, and we’ve got to get back to those basics.’”

– “‘This race is about reading, writing, and arithmetic and getting kids outside. The rest of that nonsense is just noise,’ Rogers, a firefighter and military veteran, said.”

– “‘You’ve got to get out there and work, you’ve got to execute, you’ve got to knock on doors. You can’t sit at home, can’t go on vacation in the summer and miss out on meetings. You’ve got to show up, you gotta work. As a firefighter and as a veteran, and just as a dad, man, you gotta participate in this process. And that’s what Jeremy Rogers is all about, and that’s what we’re going to do in District 4,’ Rogers said.”