By Will Cornelius
The Surveyor

On Tuesday night, voters in Thompson School District (TSD) re-elected Berthoud resident Stu Boyd to the school district’s Board of Education. “I appreciate the support,” he said about his re-election win. As of Wednesday morning, Boyd led Elizabeth Kearney in the race by a 54% to 46% vote margin. Kearney said that she was proud of her campaign and believed it helped invigorate the race. “Knocking on doors in our community has been incredible,” Kearney said at her election night watch party. Boyd said it was gratifying “that people are going to give me another four years,” but emphasized he “still had work to do.”

Over the last few years, school board elections across the nation have become increasingly contentious and costly. In 2019, four candidates, including Boyd, ran for the TSD board unopposed and raised a combined $2,000. Two years later, 12 candidates raised over $52,000 in campaign contributions. This election cycle saw eight candidates raise nearly $80,000 in total, with Boyd and Kearney bringing in over $11,000 apiece.

The TSD election also saw two blocs of candidates campaign together. ‘Vote for balance’ was the slogan Kearney, Yazmin Navarro, Nancy Rumfelt and Ryan Wilcken campaigned under. While Boyd, Dawn Kirk, Denise Chapman and Briah Freeman joined forces under a ‘because education is about results—not politics’ banner. The latter’s strategy appears to have worked, as Boyd, Kirk and Chapman all won their races over candidates from the other bloc. In District C, the contest between Rumfelt and Freeman was still too close to call on Wednesday morning.

At the state level, Coloradans rejected Proposition HH with 60% of voters disapproving of the controversial measure. Prop. HH would have temporarily reduced property taxes by decreasing future TABOR refunds and possibly eliminating them entirely. Opponents of the measure called it a bait-and-switch while supporters highlighted the need for property tax relief but struggled to sell their message to voters.

“Another big win for our Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights! Politicians tried to fool us—but it didn’t work. Defeating Prop. HH will save Coloradans billions of dollars. Now, the politicians who broke our property tax system need to call a special session to fix it,” tweeted Michael Fields, president of Advance Colorado and a vocal Prop. HH critic on Tuesday night shortly after it became clear the measure had failed.

Colorado voters did approve Proposition II 67% to 33%. Prop. II allows the state to keep excess taxes collected from cigarette and nicotine companies to fund preschool programs in the state.

Across the nation, it was a strong night for Democrats. While off-year elections have no federal offices up for grabs and many states have no elections at all, they offer a glimpse into the current political climate. Voters in Ohio passed two ballot measures that protect abortion rights and legalize marijuana.

Incumbent Democratic Gov. of Kentucky, Andy Beshear won re-election with 53% of the vote. And in Virginia, Democrats dealt a blow to Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s rising political power and popularity by winning majorities in both chambers of the state legislature.