Chesterfield County school board race raises questions over candidates’ experience, social stances

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. – On a recent Saturday, volunteers from Chesterfield County’s Republican and Democratic parties spent the crisp autumn morning handing out yard signs, sample ballots and campaign flyers outside the North Courthouse Road Library, a space temporarily transformed into a political battleground. 

Two women, Christina Brady and Elizabeth Schultz, are facing off in a special election to represent the Clover Hill District seat on the county school board, which the former representative vacated last year after posting a controversial social media message following the shooting death of right-wing activist and media personality Charlie Kirk.

The board is composed of five members, each representing one district. The Clover Hill district includes 13 schools. The winner will serve the remainder of the term, which ends Dec. 31, 2027. 

Schultz warmly greeted the Republican volunteers outside the library who supported her race against Brady for the school board seat, one of more than 300 up for grabs across Virginia this November. 

“(School board members) are directly impacting the lives of students, teachers, school leaders, community stakeholders, everybody that’s invested in what’s going on in their local schools,” said Kimberly Bridges, a Virginia Board of Education member and education professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. “It’s an important role, but it’s often an overlooked role in elections.”  

Five miles from the library, the Brady campaign handed out canvassing assignments to volunteer groups at its headquarters. Settling into a couch, Brady recounted her family’s move to Chesterfield to provide her 3-year-old daughter a strong education. She said she’s been eyeing the school board seat since it was vacated. 

“I am committed to ensuring that Chesterfield County Public Schools continue to get better because I am going to be in that public school system for the next 15 years,” Brady said. “I’m directly impacted by every positive and every negative thing that happens.” 

Brady said the district needs to fully fund its school infrastructure, pointing to crumbling structures, mold and portable trailers serving as classrooms. Her other top issues include balancing classroom technology use and ensuring accessible resources for students, including 504 plans, individualized education programs and mental health support. 

This is Brady’s first time running for elected office. Her uncontested campaign took a turn in August, when her opponent joined the race just days before the filing deadline. 

Schultz — who previously served for eight years on the Fairfax County school board and worked as a U.S. Department of Education official and a Virginia Department of Education assistant state superintendent — said she was called back into politics, literally.  

Local Republicans phoned her on a Sunday morning, asking her to join the race. Glancing down at the gold crucifix around her neck, Schultz recalled her response: “I’ve got to go to Mass and I’ve got to pray about it.”

Ultimately, she saw the election as an opportunity to give back to the district from which her son recently graduated. If elected, Schultz said she will focus on parental rights, building maintenance and students’ privacy in locker rooms and bathrooms.

“I have the ability with the background and experience that I have to maybe lend something to the Chesterfield School Board that gave so much to us,” Schultz said. “I felt like I had a duty and so I responded.” 

Mahdi Dublin, a middle school administrator with children enrolled in the Clover Hill district, said he respected Schultz’s credentials. 

“As a lifelong educator, I’m not a big fan of people who are not familiar with public education coming in and making a whole lot of decisions that affect public education when they haven’t lived that life and haven’t walked that walk,” Dublin said. 

Schultz’s experience didn’t relieve other concerns for Cynthia Losen, a retired teacher and Brady campaign volunteer. 

“The other lady’s a nut,” Losen said, citing a now-deleted tweet featuring a 2017 photo of Schultz with Gavin McInnes, founder of far-right neo-fascist group the Proud Boys. 

The photo was taken at the “DeploraBall,” an event celebrating President Donald Trump’s first inauguration. Another of Schultz’s posts in 2017 mentioned McInnes and included “#proudboys.” Schultz has since deleted her account.

When asked about the posts, Schultz said looking back, she wonders whether she “should have posted things or not posted things.” 

Referring to the photo with McInnes, she said, “This was before he was involved in — or there was any other — things that surfaced.” 

Proud Boys members attended the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville that left one woman dead, and “clashed with Black Lives Matter protestors across the country” after the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in 2020, George Washington University’s Program on Extremism reported. 

The group also participated in breaching the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 following former President Joe Biden’s election and Republican candidate Donald Trump’s loss, with several members convicted of seditious conspiracy for their actions that day. 

Outside the Clover Hill High School homecoming football game on Oct. 23, Jason Spoon handed out flyers for Shultz’s campaign. Spoon is the director of Speak Up! Chesterfield, a faith-based group advocating for parental rights in school systems, among other issues. 

While Spoon said he homeschools his own children, he praised Schultz’s state-level work regarding gender identity in schools. 

“She helped write some of the transgender policies keeping students who feel that they are a different gender out — if they’re biologically a male — keeping them out of a female space,” Spoon said. 

Inside the stadium, many parents said they weren’t familiar with either candidate. 

Suzy Juhase, a small-business owner and Clover Hill parent, hadn’t been following the race but said an ideal school board member would be open-minded, regardless of political affiliation. Her top concern is technology use, and she said she teaches her children to respect all gender identities. 

“Anything that has to do with the kids is important to me, because they’re the future,” Juhase said.

Virginia localities weigh 1% sales tax for school construction as voters decide on expansion

Bridges said even taxpayers without ties to schools will “feel the impact” of the school board’s work. She pointed out a 1% sales tax referendum on the ballot that would provide additional funding for school maintenance and construction, if voters approve. Whomever is elected will be “at the forefront” of allocating those dollars, she said. 

Races that receive less attention, including school board elections like the one in Chesterfield, often result in small victory margins, Bridges added. 

“Even in these lower turnout races, because they are lower turnout, every individual vote can really make a difference,” Bridges said. “A lot’s on the line for Chesterfield.”

Editor’s note: This story was produced in partnership with the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University in Washington, D.C.