Endorsements in Ohio school board elections, 2023

School Board Endorsements

2023

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Previous coverage: Conflicts in school board elections

Ohio held 688 elections for 1,486 of the state's 3,080 school board seats on November 7.

While Ohio's school board elections are officially nonpartisan, Ballotpedia identified ideological leans for every candidate who received endorsements based on the positions and policies supported by those endorsers.

Overall, of the 1,486 seats up for election:

• Candidates with a liberal ideological lean won 8%
• Candidates with a conservative ideological lean won 9%
• Candidates who received no endorsements won 82%

Those totals include uncontested and contested intra-ideological elections, which accounted for 46% and 31% of all seats up for election, respectively.

The remaining 23% of elections were between candidates who received endorsements from across the ideological spectrum, described as contested inter-ideological elections. In these elections, liberal and conservative candidates had win rates of 63% and 45%, respectively.

This page includes other analyses of Ohio's school board elections, including open seats and incumbent defeat rates.

Incumbents ran for re-election to 67% of the seats, leaving 33% of seats open, average compared to Ballotpedia's historical coverage.

Eighty-four percent of incumbents who ran for re-election won, but 48% ran unopposed. Of the 521 incumbents who faced opposition, 30% lost, average compared to Ballotpedia's historical coverage.

This report also includes a catalog of every endorsement identified, along with breakdowns among the groups that issued the most endorsements.

Republican and Democratic Party affiliates issued the most endorsements, with 160 and 130, respectively.

Of those totals, 131 Republican endorsees ran in contested races, 57 of whom won, giving them a 44% win rate. Among Democratic endorsees, 119 ran in contested races, 79 of whom won, resulting in a 66% win rate.

Use the links below to navigate to:

• Election results
• Ideological performance
• Open seats
• Incumbents defeated
• Endorsement information
• District information
• Methodology

Election results

Ohio held 688 elections for 1,486 school board seats in 2023.

• Candidates with a liberal ideological lean won 125 seats (8%)
• Candidates with a conservative ideological lean won 129 seats (9%)
• Candidates with a mixed ideological lean won 10 seats (1%)
• Candidates with some other ideological lean won one seat (0%)
• Candidates who received no endorsements won 1,221 seats (82%)

The table below shows election results based on the ideological lean of the winning candidate based on endorsements received. There are three types of elections:

• Uncontested, where the number of candidates on the ballot was less than or equal to the number of seats up for election, guaranteeing victory;
  
• Contested intra-ideological, where there was a contested election, but every candidate had the same ideological lean; and
  
• Contested inter-ideological, where there was a contested election between candidates with differing ideological leans.

Figures show how many seats were won by candidates of the given ideological lean or who did not receive any endorsements.

Ohio school board election winners, 2023
Ideology	Uncontested		Contested intra-ideological		Contested inter-ideological		Total
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Liberal	16	1.1%	5	0.3%	104	7.0%	125	8.4%
Conservative	42	2.8%	3	0.2%	84	5.7%	129	8.7%
Mixed	0	0.0%	0	0.0%	10	0.7%	10	0.7%
Other	0	0.0%	0	0.0%	1	0.1%	1	0.1%
No endorsements	629	42.3%	455	30.6%	137	9.2%	1,221	82.2%
Total	687	46.2%	463	31.2%	336	22.6%	1,486

Uncontested elections

There were 337 uncontested elections for 687 seats, representing 46% of all seats up for election.

Sixty of these elections had fewer candidates on the ballot than seats up for election, and 10 had no candidates on the ballot. Write-in candidates won 48 seats in these elections. Another 35 seats automatically became vacant because no candidates filed to run, either on the ballot or as a write-in candidate.

In total, these 83 seats with no candidates on the ballot accounted for 6% of all 1,486 seats up for election.

Endorsements are typically uncommon in uncontested elections.

Contested intra-ideological elections

There were 201 contested intra-ideological elections for 463 seats, representing 31% of all seats up for election. Intra-ideological elections are contested elections, meaning at least one candidate must lose, but every candidate on the ballot has the same ideological lean. This category also includes all contested elections where Ballotpedia did not identify an endorsement.

There were five intra-ideological elections between candidates with a liberal ideological lean, and three between candidates with a conservative ideological lean. The remaining 455 intra-ideological elections encompass those contested elections where Ballotpedia did not identify any endorsements.

Contested inter-ideological elections

There were 150 contested inter-party elections for 336 seats, representing 23% of all seats up for election. Inter-ideological elections are contested elections featuring candidates with different ideological leans.

Candidates with no endorsements won a plurality of seats in inter-ideological contested elections (41%), followed by those with a liberal ideological lean (31%), and those with a conservative ideological lean (25%).

Click on the tab below to view full Ohio election results

Show more

The spreadsheet below shows results from Ohio's November 7 general elections. The leftmost columns show district names, the offices up for election within those districts, and the number of seats up for election within those offices.

Winning and defeated candidates are shown under their respective columns and are highlighted based on their ideological lean as determined by the endorsements they received.

• Blue highlights indicate a liberal ideological lean
• Red highlights indicate a conservative ideological lean
• Purple highlights indicate a mixed ideological lean
• Dark gray highlights indicate the candidate received only neutral or unclear endorsements
• Light gray highlights indicate Ballotpedia identified no endorsements for the candidate

Winning candidates marked with (WI) are write-in candidates. Those marked NONE represent seats where no candidates filed to run, either on the ballot or as a write-in candidate, creating an automatic vacancy.

Incumbents are marked with a dark gray square to the right of their name.

Ideological performance

This section displays win and loss rates for candidates by ideological lean, showing how they performed in inter-ideological contested elections.

In these inter-ideological contested elections:

• 164 candidates with a liberal ideological lean ran, 104 of whom (63%) won;
• 186 candidates with a conservative ideological lean ran, 84 of whom (45%) won;
• 12 candidates with a mixed ideological lean ran, 10 of whom (83%) won;
• Two candidates with some other ideological lean ran, one of whom (50%) won; and,
• 285 candidates who received no endorsements ran, 137 of whom (48%) won.

Ideological performance in contested inter-ideological Ohio school board elections, 2023
Ideology	Candidates	Won		Lost
		#	%	#	%
Liberal	164	104	63.4%	60	38.6%
Conservative	186	84	45.2%	102	54.8%
Mixed	12	10	83.3%	2	16.7%
Other	2	1	50.0%	1	50.0%
No endorsements	285	137	48.1%	148	51.9%

Incumbency

Open seats

Of the 1,486 seats up for election, incumbents ran for re-election to 998 , leaving 488 seats (33%) open. This open seat rate was average compared to Ballotpedia's regular coverage scope over the preceding five years.

Between 2018 and 2022, on average, Ballotpedia recorded a 29% open seat rate within its regular coverage scope.

Overall, 608 districts held elections on November 7. Of that total, 247 districts (41%) had no open seats, 303 (50%) had some open seats, and, in 58 (10%), all seats were open.

Incumbents defeated

Of the 1,000 incumbents who ran for re-election, 842 (84%) won, and 158 (16%) lost. This overall loss rate was average compared to Ballotpedia's regular coverage scope over the preceding five years.

Between 2018 and 2022, on average, Ballotpedia recorded a 16% overall loss rate within its regular coverage scope.

The percentage of incumbents defeated increases to 30% when looking only at the 521 incumbents running in contested elections, those where an incumbent could have lost. This contested loss rate was average compared to Ballotpedia's regular coverage scope over the preceding five years.

Between 2018 and 2022, on average, Ballotpedia recorded a 26% contested loss rate within its regular coverage scope.

Overall, 608 districts held elections on November 7. Of that total, no incumbents lost in 415 districts (68%), some incumbents lost in 85 districts (14%), and all incumbents lost in 50 districts (8%). There were 58 districts (10%) where no incumbents ran for re-election.

Endorsements

Top endorsers

The table below shows the top 10 endorsers in Ohio in terms of the total number of endorsements made. It includes a hoverable column with information about each endorser, the number of candidates they endorsed, and the number of endorsees who won, both in terms of all endorsees and among only those in contested elections.

Top Ohio school board endorsers, 2023
Endorser	Info	All					Contested
		Endorsees	Won	%	Lost	%	Endorsees	Won	%	Lost	%
Republican Party of Ohio	About	160	86	53.8%	74	46.3%	131	57	43.5%	74	56.5%
Democratic Party of Ohio	About	130	90	69.2%	40	30.8%	119	79	66.4%	40	33.6%
Youth Prosperity Ohio	About	69	38	55.1%	31	44.9%	55	24	43.6%	31	56.4%
Matriots PAC	About	53	45	84.9%	8	15.1%	48	40	83.3%	8	16.7%
Red Wine and Blue	About	50	37	74.0%	13	26.0%	49	36	73.5%	13	26.5%
Everytown for Gun Safety	About	46	32	69.6%	14	30.4%	44	30	68.2%	14	31.8%
Ohio Value Voters	About	34	12	35.3%	22	64.7%	34	12	35.3%	22	64.7%
Ohio Education Association	About	33	23	69.7%	10	30.3%	33	23	69.7%	10	30.3%
Indivisible Central Ohio	About	25	19	76.0%	6	24.0%	24	18	75.0%	6	25.0%
Moms For Liberty	About	25	5	20.0%	20	80.0%	25	5	20.0%	20	80.0%

Top endorsees

The table below shows the 10 candidates in Ohio who received the most endorsements. It includes candidates, the offices they ran for, the total number of endorsements they received based on the partisan lean of the endorser, and their election results. Incumbents are marked with (i).

Top Ohio school board endorsees, 2023
Candidate	District	Endorsers			Result
		Liberal	Conservative	Other
Gil Martello	Mentor EVSD	0	22	1	Lost
Rose Ioppolo	Mentor EVSD	0	22	1	Won
Tina Pierce (i)	Columbus CSD	18	0	2	Won
Anthony Caldwell (i)	South-Western CSD	18	0	0	Lost
Sheena Barnes (i)	Toledo CSD	16	0	0	Won
Sarah Ingles	Columbus CSD	14	1	0	Won
Colleen Clark-Sutton	Lakewood CSD	14	0	1	Won
Lyndsie Wall	Mentor EVSD	14	0	0	Lost
Beryl Brown Piccolantonio (i)	Gahanna-Jefferson CSD	13	0	0	Won
Lauren Marchaza	Mentor EVSD	12	1	0	Won

Full endorsements list

The table below lists all endorsements identified by Ballotpedia among Ohio school board candidates in 2023. The list is sorted alphabetically by district name. Click the headers to adjust sorting or use the search bar to look for specific districts, candidates, or endorsers. If a source link is not functioning properly, all links were archived with the Internet Archive if possible.

District information

Student-to-teacher ratio

The map below displays the student-to-teacher ratio in all Ohio school districts. Hover for additional district characteristics.

Partisan balance

Using publicly-available voter registration information, Ballotpedia calculated the partisan balance of each of Ohio's 611 school districts.

Ohio uses an open primary system, meaning voters do not need to register with a party in order to participate in its primaries. As such, most voters are not registered with a major party.

• Unaffiliated voters make up a majority in 608 districts and a plurality in two.
• Registered Republicans make up a plurality of voters in the New Riegel Local School District.

Use the links in the table below to view the 10 school districts in Ohio with the largest percentage of either Democratic or Republican voters or with the largest percentage of voters registered as independents or with a minor party.

Methodology

Terms and definitions

Descriptive endorsements

This research focuses on descriptive endorsements, those that help describe the stances or policy positions of a candidate. This is based on the assumption that endorsers tend to endorse candidates holding one or multiple positions that align with those of the endorser. If an endorser's positions are not readily apparent, their endorsements are not considered descriptive endorsements.

Examples of endorsers whose endorsements might be considered descriptive include political parties, issue-based organizations with clear policy stances, unions, current or former elected officials, and current or former party officers.

Apart from this section, any mention of endorsements refers to descriptive endorsements.

Endorser

An endorser is an individual or organization that has made a descriptive endorsement. Examples of which include, but are not limited to:

Individuals:

• Elected or former partisan officials
• Current or former party officers
• Individuals associated with a clear policy stance

Organizations:

• Unions
• Issue-based organizations with clear policy stances
• Political parties

Process

Identifying endorsements

Ballotpedia gathers endorsements using four primary methods:

• Submissions: Readers can submit endorsement information to Ballotpedia directly using this link. Ballotpedia staff reviews all submitted information daily to determine whether it warrants inclusion. Reader-submitted endorsements must include a link to a source verifying the endorsement to be included.

• Candidate Connection Surveys: Candidates who complete Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection Survey are asked to share any endorsements they have received. Any submitted endorsements will appear in the candidate's survey responses. Ballotpedia staff also reviews every survey with endorsement information to determine whether those submissions include descriptive endorsements to add to our overall tracking process. Candidates are invited to submit links to sources for their endorsements, but this is not required.

• Outreach: Ballotpedia staff contacts endorsers directly to request endorsement lists. At the start of the election cycle, every endorser will receive an email requesting information. Ballotpedia staff also contacts endorsers to clarify information and, if we see they have endorsed one candidate, to determine whether they have also endorsed others.

• Direct research: Ballotpedia staff conducts direct research, regularly checking all identified endorsers and relevant news media in each state. This research might also include looking at specific districts or candidates where endorsement activity appears likely.

Recording endorsements

Once an endorsement has been identified, it is recorded along with the date it was made (if known), a link to the source of the endorsement, and the date Ballotpedia staff learned of the endorsement. If possible, Ballotpedia archives every web source used to identify an endorsement.

For every recorded endorsement, Ballotpedia staff prepare a brief summary of the endorser. For individuals, this might include the party they are affiliated with, their statements regarding a particular policy, or their electoral history. For organizations, this might include the standards by which they issue endorsements, their mission statement, or any other statements regarding a particular policy. When available, Ballotpedia uses direct quotes from endorsers in these summaries, which appear beside each endorsement to provide added context to readers.

Labeling

After identifying an endorsement, Ballotpedia applies a partisan ideology label based on the policies the endorser supports or affiliation with other partisan organizations. Those labels are:

• Liberal: the endorser is either affiliated with the Democratic Party, supports traditionally liberal education policies, or opposes traditionally conservative education policies without also opposing traditionally liberal policies.
• Conservative: the endorser is either affiliated with the Republican Party, supports traditionally conservative education policies, or opposes traditionally liberal education policies without also opposing traditionally conservative policies.
• Neutral: the endorser is not affiliated with either major party and does not take specific policy stances, supportive or otherwise, examples of which include local newspapers.
• Unclear: the endorser would be of interest to voters, but Ballotpedia could not identify a partisan ideology, examples of which include former school board members.

As part of this analysis, Ballotpedia then uses the labels applied to endorsers to determine the partisan ideology of the endorsed candidate. Those resulting candidate ideology labels are:

• Liberal: the candidate received an endorsement from a liberal endorser and none from conservative endorsers.
• Conservative: the candidate received an endorsement from a conservative endorser and none from liberal endorsers.
• Mixed: the candidate received endorsements from liberal and conservative endorsers.
• Other: the candidate received endorsements from either neutral or unclear endorsers and none from liberal or conservative endorsers.

While candidates can receive a mixture of endorsements, primacy is given to liberal and conservative endorsements. For example, if a candidate received endorsements from liberal and neutral endorsers, their ideology label would be liberal.

Timing

Ballotpedia tracks and gathers endorsement information throughout the election cycle. If a district holds primary elections, endorsements are only added on-site after the primary date.

Voter registration

While most school board elections are officially nonpartisan, meaning candidates appear on the ballot without party labels, the state makes voter registration information publicly available. Ballotpedia used this information to identify each candidate's party registration in Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota. Note: a candidate's party registration status does not necessarily indicate the candidate's personal ideologies. Many voters register to vote with one party and later find themselves more aligned with another party but do not update their registration as such. Understanding that their registration information is effectively public, voters may also choose a certain registration or affiliate with no party, with that in mind.

Ballotpedia first compared candidate names and school districts to the publicly available voter file to tie candidates with their party registration. The associated voter information was logged if the candidate’s name only appeared once in the school district. If the candidate’s name appeared multiple times in a single school district, Ballotpedia looked at each voter file entry to match the registration address with other identifiable information associated with the candidate. This method accounted for all duplicate entries.

If a candidate was registered under a different name than the one they filed to run with (i.e. registered as Robert Smith but running as Bob Smith), Ballotpedia used a variety of methods to pinpoint the candidate’s voter file information including:

• Looking for every person with the same last name as the candidate in the school district;
• Identifying known associates (i.e. children, spouses), and using public records to determine if any households had changed addresses;
• Utilizing publicly available social media information; or,
• A mixture of these three approaches.

Labeling

After identifying an endorsement, Ballotpedia applies a partisan ideology label based on the policies the endorser supports or affiliation with other partisan organizations. Those labels are:

• Liberal: the endorser is either affiliated with the Democratic Party or supports traditionally liberal education policies.
• Conservative: the endorser is either affiliated with the Republican Party or supports traditionally conservative education policies.
• Neutral: the endorser is not affiliated with either major party and does not take specific policy stances, examples of which include local newspapers.
• Unclear: the endorser would be of interest to voters, but Ballotpedia could not identify a partisan ideology, examples of which include former school board members.

As part of this analysis, Ballotpedia then uses the labels applied to endorsers to determine the partisan ideology of the endorsed candidate. Those resulting candidate ideology labels are:

• Liberal: the candidate received an endorsement from a liberal endorser and none from conservative endorsers.
• Conservative: the candidate received an endorsement from a conservative endorser and none from liberal endorsers.
• Mixed: the candidate received endorsements from liberal and conservative endorsers.
• Other: the candidate received endorsements from either neutral or unclear endorsers and none from liberal or conservative endorsers.

While candidates can receive a mixture of endorsements, primacy is given to liberal and conservative endorsements. For example, if a candidate received endorsements from liberal and neutral endorsers, their ideology label would be liberal.

Elections by county

Navigate to Ohio 2023 local elections overviews:
Adams | Allen | Ashland | Ashtabula | Athens | Auglaize | Belmont | Brown | Butler | Carroll | Champaign | Clark | Clermont | Clinton | Columbiana | Coshocton | Crawford | Darke | Defiance | Delaware County, Ohio | Erie | Fairfield | Fayette | Franklin | Fulton | Gallia | Geauga | Greene | Guernsey | Hamilton | Hancock | Hardin | Harrison | Henry | Highland | Hocking | Holmes | Huron | Jackson | Jefferson | Knox | Lake | Lawrence | Licking | Logan | Lorain | Lucas | Madison | Mahoning | Marion | Medina | Meigs | Mercer | Miami | Monroe | Montgomery | Morgan | Morrow | Muskingum | Noble | Ottawa | Paulding | Perry | Pickaway | Pike | Portage | Preble | Putnam | Richland | Ross | Sandusky | Scioto | Seneca | Shelby | Stark | Summit | Trumbull | Tuscarawas | Union | Van Wert | Vinton | Warren | Washington | Wayne | Williams | Wood | Wyandot

See also

• Endorsements in school board elections, 2023
• School board elections, 2023

Footnotes

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