A Florida school board candidate who lost his race in a county south of Jacksonville will get a seat on the board anyway, after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis tapped him to fill a vacancy.
Derek Barrs will take an open seat on the Flagler County School Board in northeast Florida, succeeding a member who resigned in September, allowing DeSantis to appoint a replacement rather than the seat going on the ballot for voters to decide.
The death of local news plays into this too as it becomes much more difficult to stay informed about the people and politics of those smaller local elections.
Case in point: my county had a bunch of judges up for election and when I did my reading on them I found out about a huge corruption scandal playing out right now. Nothing that will make national headlines, probably. If I’d just read the recommendations I’d not have heard, and voted those bastards back in. Local news is super important.