Alvero Tops Hughes For School Board Seat

The Moms For Liberty Candidate Wins Contentious Race

The race that started with four candidates has been whittled down to one, and Robert Alvero is the last man standing. Alvero topped Hughes by just under 9% or 9,967 votes.

The race was contentious from the beginning, with supporters of both candidates waging online campaigns to garner support for their candidate and find any way to diminish their opposition in the voters' eyes.

A retired teacher, Hughes appealed to voters by leveraging his experience and knowledge of the public education system. His detractors attempted to portray him as someone funded by and beholden to the teacher’s union, from which he received logistical and financial support.

Alvero, on the other hand, made a pitch to voters that his experience as a Cuban immigrant would equip him to protect students from being brainwashed by socialist ideals. Alvero opponents, however, attempted to smear him as a “Republican In Name Only” who was not equipped to do the job.

Alvero’s opposition wasn’t limited to Hughes’ supporters. Prominent Republicans in Clay County attempted to skew the race towards Hughes behind the scenes. These Republicans wanted a different Republican candidate to win, believing they could control how their preferred candidate voted. On multiple occasions, one went as far as to say that their preferred candidate could be told how to vote “with just a look” and would “do what the party wanted.”

One In the run-up to the primary election, a sitting school board member leaked misleading info about a lawsuit Alvero was party to. Alvero brought a suit against a company whose truck he claims hit and injured him. The school board member leaked a partial document of a filing by defense lawyers and attempted to paint the lawsuit as some sort of deceptive fraud. Prominent officials aided the school board member efforts in the Clay County Republican party.

Once the primary was over and the school board member’s candidate didn’t make the cut, the smears against Alvero became more mysterious and even sillier. Multiple people confirmed to Clay News & Views the school board member advised they had “damning evidence” of activities that would “disqualify Alvero.” When asked to produce the evidence, the board member said they could not because “no one other than me can have access.” The claims were primarily viewed as sour grapes by the board member due to their preferred candidate not winning the primary.

But that’s not to say Alvero’s supporters were blameless. One went as far as shopping around for unflattering or ugly pictures of Hughes to use when criticizing them. Another supporter dug up an old Facebook post from Hughes about a presidential candidate in an attempt to claim he was not a “real” Republican.

In the end, Alvero’s message resonated with more voters. His term on the school board will begin later this month.