This DeSantis-Endorsed School Board Member Is Training Parents to Run for Office

Rob Bluey : Nov 14, 2022
The Daily Signal

"I believe so dearly in the governance structure that you are a public servant and I hold those foundational principles that I believe in limited government. I believe in the value and the importance of the nuclear family and that parents, in fact, are the primary decision-makers for their minor children and that government does not know better than parents..." -Bridget Ziegler

[DailySignal.com] Bridget Ziegler was among the 30 school board candidates to earn the endorsement of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis this year. (Screengrab image)

It was a novel approach for a governor to endorse school board candidates, but one that paid off big time for conservatives who support education freedom and parental empowerment. Nationwide, many first-time candidates won election to school boards. And in Florida, all six DeSantis-endorsed candidates on the November ballot won their school board elections. For the year, 24 of the DeSantis-backed candidates were victorious.

Even though Ziegler's election took place in August, she's continued to play an active role in school board elections nationwide as the Leadership Institute's director of school board programs.

She joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to talk about her experiences on the Sarasota County School Board and how she's leveraging what she's learned to help others through training programs at the Leadership Institute. Below are excerpts from the interview, Click Here and scroll down to listen to the full podcast.

Rob Bluey: Long before COVID or the current controversies in public education, you began serving on the Sarasota County School Board. It seems that for many people, school board elections were an afterthought and now all of a sudden they've risen to front-page news. What motivated you to get involved?

Bridget Ziegler: Way back in 2014, I had just become a new mother, we were newly married. I had an 8-month-old at the time, her name is Reagan. I worked in commercial insurance, but I was always active in a volunteer capacity for children's advocacy issues as early as high school and on.

My husband's very involved in politics. I followed politics. But like most people, I focused on gubernatorial and federal races. Very little at that time in my life—and I was 31—did I really look and focus on local politics, which is an oversight that I should have paid attention to more closely. And I know that's what many people are feeling right now.

But there was a vacancy on our five-member board. And I'll never forget, my husband mentioned, came home one day and he said, "Hey, you should run for school board." And I said, "You're insane," because we have an 8-month-old. And he said, "No, we're raising a family. Education is key. Government takes a long time to work and this is our opportunity to really put a voice for parents and give them a seat at the table"...

...as a parent of young school-aged children, now I have three, a 3-, 6-, and 9-year-old, you realize that these decisions that policymakers on school boards are making have a direct and immediate impact to families. And so often you don't have someone who's a voice for families that's not part of the establishment or the education institution, that's really an outsider.

And so I'm proud to say I've held that line. I haven't drank the Kool-Aid. I've maintained a distance from "central office" so that I could maintain objective. And now that we have a majority—so just for the listeners, Sarasota County is a very conservative county, but for decades we had a majority liberal board and since I've been serving, it was a 3-2 liberal majority. And then Aug. 23, my third reelection and final reelection, on the record for everyone to hear, we were able to flip the board to a 4-1 conservative.

So I am so excited. We get sworn in, the new school board members get sworn in Nov. 22. And as I tell a lot of people, it's a breath of fresh air, but now the real work begins...

Bluey: ...Why is it valuable for a parent to make this kind of commitment and what do you tell others that are involved in training or maybe who are thinking about doing this decision themselves?

Ziegler: ...When I say my children are my why, they are my why because it's not just them, it's their entire generation. It's their opportunity to leave them with a better tomorrow for their future to be successful, for their country to be rooted in the principles that was founded upon which we see getting eroded every single day ... I'm proud to say that I surprised myself and I think largely every single person, no matter what your circumstances, when you take a leap of faith, you will, guaranteed, surprise yourself because especially if you are passionate about it—and I can't think of anything that drives people when it comes to their children, the future of our communities and our country. And that drive is powerful... Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

Click Here to read or listen to this entire interview.