Industry & Advocacy News
November 6, 2025
While book challenges reached historic highs in 2024 and 2025, voters responded decisively. Beginning with pivotal Texas school board races in May and continuing nationwide through November, voters repeatedly chose candidates who opposed censorship and supported respecting the discretion of professional librarians and parental freedom over district-wide bans.
On May 3, 2025, Texas held statewide school board elections that delivered a clear message about book bans. Voters in some of the state’s largest districts, spanning from the Houston area to the Dallas-Fort Worth region, decisively rejected incumbents who had championed restrictive library policies. These early results energized advocacy groups and set a template for anti-censorship campaigns nationwide. Here are the key independent school district results:
Fort Bend: Voters rejected supporters of one of Texas’ most restrictive book policies, which had previously passed by a 5-2 vote. Incumbent Rick Garcia, who advocated for the policy, lost his seat. Cheryl Buford, the hand-picked successor of retiring trustee David Hamilton (the architect of the policy), also lost her race. Both defeats removed support for the restrictive policy from the board.
Katy: Board president Victor Perez, who championed book restriction and transgender notification policies that triggered a federal civil rights investigation, lost his seat. Under his leadership, the board passed policies in August 2024 banning books addressing gender fluidity and LGBTQIA+ issues and requiring staff to notify parents if students identify as transgender. Hundreds of LGBTQ-themed books were pulled for administrative review. In mid-2024, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation into whether the district’s transgender notification policy violated Title IX—the federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in schools receiving federal funding. The investigation examined claims that the policy discriminates against LGBTQ+ students.
Grapevine-Colleyville: In the Fort Worth region, voters removed board member Tammy Nakamura, who had been part of a 4-3 majority that passed highly restrictive policies targeting library books, classroom discussions, and LGBTQIA+ students. In 2022, the Grapevine-Colleyville ISD board passed sweeping policies that gave the board substantial control over library content, banned titles addressing LGBTQIA+ topics, restricted bathroom use based on biological sex, and prohibited classroom discussions on critical race theory and what the policy termed “systemic discrimination ideologies.” The policies also addressed pronoun use and the teaching of race and gender topics. The controversy drew national attention to the district, which serves more than 14,000 students between Dallas and Fort Worth, as critics warned the policies created a chilling effect on discussions of gender identity and race.
Mansfield: Mansfield ISD initially implemented strict book bans targeting LGBTQIA+ themes and “gender fluidity,” but, facing strong public backlash, revised the policy in 2023 to remove explicit theme-based bans while retaining board authority to remove materials through appointed committees. The three defeated incumbents had all supported the stricter measures. Their challengers ran on platforms promising greater transparency and balanced review of challenged materials. Education advocates viewed Mansfield’s trajectory—from harsh bans to community pushback to electoral defeats—as one of the first successful cases of resistance against restrictive book policies in North Texas.
Cy-Fair (November): While most Texas school board elections took place in May 2025, some districts—including Cy-Fair ISD, the state’s third-largest—hold trustee elections in November. The November results in Cy-Fair reinforced the May trend: Voters rejected conservative board majorities and restrictive book policies. These staggered elections demonstrated how local calendars can create waves of change throughout the year, with November outcomes reaffirming and amplifying the momentum set in May.
Additional sweep victories for candidates opposing book and curriculum restrictions were reported in several high-profile Texas districts. In Lake Travis ISD, for the first time in a decade, voters elected a majority of trustees who are on record opposing restrictive library policies. In Keller ISD, all three open board seats went to new trustees who defeated candidates aligned with incumbent, pro-restriction officials—effectively flipping board control. In Plano ISD, a full reform slate prevailed, meaning every candidate endorsed opposing book bans was elected, establishing a clear majority. Likewise, in Pflugerville ISD, reformist candidates won all three contested races, ensuring a strong anti-censorship board majority.
Ohio saw similar voter sentiment across multiple districts in November, with over 1,800 school board seats on the ballot.
In Akron, three newcomers—all opposed to restrictive book and curriculum policies—were elected, joining one incumbent and defeating candidates aligned with groups advocating for book removals. The races reflected organized grassroots mobilization by advocacy groups like Honesty for Ohio Education and the Columbus Education Justice Coalition, which focused on supporting candidates who trusted librarian professionals and opposed censorship.
Across suburban and urban Ohio districts, voters showed skepticism toward candidates backed by PACs promoting book restrictions, favoring instead those who supported maintaining diverse library collections under professional educator oversight.
In Bucks County’s Central Bucks and Pennridge school districts, school boards implemented policies that restricted both books and LGBTQIA+ representation. These included banning library books with LGBTQIA+ themes, prohibiting Pride flags and displays in classrooms, and limiting what teachers could say or do in support of LGBTQIA+ students. The intent and effect of these policies were to remove LGBTQIA-related books from shelves and to suppress visible support and discussion of LGBTQIA+ issues within schools. In the November 2025 election, voters rejected the remaining board members who had backed these restrictive measures, instead electing new majorities pledging to restore inclusive practices and library access.
These local results align with broader national trends that reveal a significant disconnect between book challenges and voter preferences. Public sentiment does not favor organized censorship efforts when voters can directly influence school board composition.
According to PEN America’s annual report, book challenges reached historically high levels in the 2024-2025 school year, with activity concentrated primarily in Florida, Texas, and Tennessee. Despite this surge in challenges—often driven by organized groups—public opinion surveys consistently show widespread opposition to book bans across the political spectrum.
The data reveals what one report called a “disturbing normalization” of book bans in certain regions, yet when voters in those same states had the opportunity to elect school board members, they frequently chose candidates opposing such restrictions.
National advocacy groups like Unite Against Book Bans documented coordinated efforts by parents, educators, and students pushing back against censorship campaigns. Their organizing proved particularly effective in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Ohio—states that became focal points for both book restriction efforts and anti-censorship organizing. These grassroots coalitions focused on messaging around professional librarian expertise, individual parental choice, and maintaining diverse educational resources.
In western states, the pattern proved more mixed. Washington state saw organized efforts by various political groups to influence school board races, though results suggested resistance to hardline restrictive policies in many districts. Oregon and California’s large urban and suburban districts have generally maintained policies favoring library access and diversity, with most boards resisting attempts to impose broad restrictions.
These results indicate that when given the opportunity to weigh in directly on school library policies through board elections, voters in diverse communities, from suburban Houston to Ohio’s urban centers to Pennsylvania suburbs, consistently chose candidates who opposed censorship in school libraries, trusted the professional judgment of librarians and educators, and believed parents should make reading decisions for their own children without restricting access for all students.
The margins in many contested races often came down to narrow board votes (4-3 or 5-2), and in each case, voters shifted those balances decisively toward maintaining open library access.
We encourage all authors and lovers of books to be active in school board meetings and engage with the Authors Guild’s book ban toolkit and NCAC’s Challenge Resource Center for information on how to have an impact locally.
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