Its website allows candidates to apply for endorsement and lists priorities ranging from reversing learning loss incurred in the pandemic, ensuring parental rights in education, and using biological sex instead of gender identity in bathrooms, locker rooms and school sports.
In the Miami Valley, the PAC has endorsed two candidates apiece for Miamisburg School Board (Chris Kielholz and Ryan Riddell) and Xenia School Board (Tyler Scott and Deborah Williams), and Dan Smith for Little Miami School Board.
In Miamisburg, the PAC’s involvement raised concern for some local parents. In a statement sent to this outlet, Miamisburg parent Allison Schuetze linked the board’s local endorsements to the 1776 Project PAC’s “national agenda.”
“Our school board should represent Miamisburg families — not a political committee based in Washington, D.C.,” Schuetze said.
The Dayton Daily News contacted all of the endorsed candidates for comment.
“I’m proud to have earned the endorsement and support of 1776 PROJECT PAC, which shares our commitment to quality education for Miamisburg students,” Kielholz said.
Kielholz said that the political attacks against himself and Riddell are misplaced, and noted that they both have children in the district.
“We’re running for the board of education because we care deeply about our schools, our children, and our community,” Kielholz said.
Kielholz tied the attack to Ohio’s education lobby. He noted that the Ohioans United For Public Education PAC endorsed his opponents in the Miamisburg race, including Chris Amsler, Shelbi Nunery, and Ann Niess.
Ohioans United for Public Education has contributed over $430,000 to the Ohio Education Association — the state’s largest teachers union — this year, according to state campaign finance filings. It has also endorsed a slate of Dayton-area board candidates outside Miamisburg.
The website for Ohioans United for Public Education is critical of candidates endorsed by the 1776 Project.
“The politicians below have been endorsed by special interests groups and are driving a dangerous agenda for our schools including voucher expansion, school privatizations, or get rich schemes where they care more about lining the pockets of their pro-voucher special interest supporters, rather than fully funding public schools,” the website reads.
The most recent federal campaign finance filings for the 1776 Project show the political action committee raised a total of $2.2 million through June 30 of this year, carried by hundreds of big-money donations from WinRed, a national fundraising PAC that raised $243 million over the same period to benefit GOP candidates.
The 1776 Project’s recorded spending this year is spread across the country, where it has endorsed over 70 total candidates in 10 different states. There are no clear direct contributions to specific campaigns in Ohio, though the PAC has paid for legal consulting with Columbus-based lawyers.
Riddell and Kielholz announced additional endorsements early Monday, one from local Rep. Tom Young, R-Washington Twp., who represents Miamisburg in the Ohio House, and one from Republican U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, who has longstanding ties to the Dayton region.
For more stories like this, sign up for our Ohio Politics newsletter. It’s free, curated, and delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday evening.
Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.
About the Author
