Laurie Lawson Cox nabs Gov. DeSantis endorsement for Leon County School Board reelection

Leon County School Board member Laurie Lawson Cox may have been left off a recent list of Gov. Ron DeSantis' Florida school board endorsements, but she nonetheless has the governor's backing.

DeSantis recently named 23 school board candidates he endorses this election cycle, but Cox wasn't on it. Cox, running for reelection to the District 4 seat, later sent a campaign text touting a DeSantis endorsement.

In the aftermath of the 2022 election, when Cox was first elected to the school board, DeSantis revealed that he "helped behind the scenes in Leon County." Cox on Monday confirmed to the Tallahassee Democrat that the same would be happening this year.

"My campaign team has connections with DeSantis, even though I have never met him personally, so he is endorsing me like he did in 2022," Cox said in an interview.

A representative for the governor on Monday confirmed the latest endorsement, saying it was in fact a "holdover endorsement" from 2022.

To be sure, DeSantis has championed a conservative overhaul of Florida's education system, cheering his right-leaning supporters and maddening opponents.

Among other things, he has expanded school choice, banned critical race theory, bolstered parental rights with the law referred to by its critics as 'Don't Say Gay,' and generally pushed a more conservative approach to K-12 curriculum. He has also pushed teacher pay raises, civics classes and increased financial literacy.

Cox's opponent, firefighter Jeremy Rogers , has placed her being a Republican at the forefront of his campaign. Cox also is endorsed by her predecessor, former school board member Dee Dee Rasmussen, and Republican state Sen. Corey Simon.

She said DeSantis' endorsement will not dictate her actions as a school board member, citing policies she's supported that don't conventionally align with conservative values.

"My opponent is the one bringing extreme politics in," Cox said. "Things that I've voted on, nothing has been a version of extreme, like the inclusive guide."

During their candidate forum with the Tallahassee Democrat, WFSU, and the League of Women Voters earlier this month, Rogers accused Cox of allowing extreme political agendas to infiltrate Leon County classrooms by accepting campaign donations from Republican political committees, like Friends of Corey Simon, and from members of Moms for Liberty, a conservative-aligned parental rights organization that began in Florida.

When asked by Cox if he would accept an endorsement from DeSantis during the forum, Rogers answered yes on account of their shared military service in the Navy.

“Our children deserve leaders who aren't pushing extreme politics into our classrooms,” Rogers told the Tallahassee Democrat.

Alaijah Brown covers children & families for the Tallahassee Democrat. She can be reached at ABrown1@gannett.com . Follow her on Twitter/X: @AlaijahBrown3

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Laurie Lawson Cox nabs Gov. DeSantis endorsement for Leon County School Board reelection