The conservative candidates running for North Smithfield School Committee
It's important to know who you're voting for.
North Smithfield is no stranger to weird expressions of right-wing politics. In 2018 the North Smithfield Town Council passed a resolution against Nike products as a symbolic rebuke of Nike and Colin Kaepernick, a professional football player in the news because he refused to kneel for the National Anthem. I covered that vote here.
The North Smithfield School Committee is technically a nonpartisan elected position, but in today’s politics, with national efforts by conservative organizations to infiltrate down-ballot elected positions, nonpartisanship should not be taken for granted. Today, three conservative candidates are seeking a seat on the North Smithfield School Committee, and I’d like to talk about who they are.
Evangelical Pastor David de la Cruz, the husband of Rhode Island State Senator Jessica de la Cruz (Republican, District 23, Burrillville, Glocester), is running for a seat on the North Smithfield School Committee. According to the Awakening Church website, “David de la Cruz is a pastor and teacher at Awakening Church. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Secondary Education and a Master’s in Theological Studies.”
It's not hard to understand Pastor de la Cruz's politics. On X he is a reliable echo chamber for the right-wing Republican politics of Senator de la Cruz, a strong supporter of once [and future?] President Donald Trump, and is an opponent of abortion, vaccine mandates, and D.E.I. policies.
What I find most confusing about Pastor de la Cruz is his adoration of Rhode Island founder Roger Williams. Roger Williams was the first person in history to enshrine the principle of the separation of church and state into law when he established Rhode Island in 1636. How Pastor de la Cruz balances his appreciation for Williams with his active work to incorporate evangelical religious beliefs into state law is a bit baffling. Pastor de la Cruz's podcast on Williams sheds some light on why he finds Williams a compelling historical figure but does not address what I see as his fundamental differences with Rhode Island's founder.
My guess? Pastor de la Cruz is working through a process to understand Williams in a way that allows for the exact kind of church/state mixing that Williams so adamantly opposed, in a sense reforming Williams for modern right-wing evangelical audiences.
Also running for North Smithfield School Committee is Evan Masse, a 22-year-old Walmart employee with conservative leanings. It would be hard to understand how conservative Masse is if you look at his platform, released on Facebook earlier in July. Some of his ideas, such as evaluating student performance in a way that goes beyond standard test scores, seem like a good direction to go, but his support for “school choice” is troubling.
School choice (which is having a moment right now) is most often manifested as voucher programs. In a voucher system, instead of allocating money to public schools, money for schooling is allocated to families of students who can then use that money to “choose” a school for their students. This benefits religious schools - which are typically priced out of reach for middle- and lower-income families - and funnels money from the government to religious institutions.
It also benefits the corporatization of schools, allowing private companies to enter the education “market.” Instead of financially supporting public schools, supporters of school choice would channel money into private school tuition - even for high-income families that can easily afford private tuition. In the meantime, public schools would find themselves slowly defunded.
In addition to his support for school choice, Masse also strongly supports the once [and future?] President Trump.
The last North Smithfield School Committee candidate I want to write about is Bradly Trenchard. I can't do better than Nancy Lavin at the Rhode Island Current, so I'll quote her piece at length:
Brad Trenchard, chairperson of the North Smithfield Republican Town Committee and a candidate for the town’s school committee, called Trump’s conviction “a joke.”
Trenchard attended the Jan. 6, 2021, rally - although he did not enter the Capitol - and maintained that it was a peaceful demonstration.
“Trump supporters have been painted as extremists and terrorists, but it can be just as scary with all the violence from Antifa and the BLM riots and all the cities that have burned to the ground,” Trenchard, 39, said, repeating disinformation spread by the GOP.
Not that he feels unsafe as a Republican in his town. Trenchard abstained from flying a Trump flag in his yard only because the school committee race he’s a part of is nonpartisan.
“I don’t want to be painted a certain way,” he said.
But, he acknowledged, “It’s a nonpartisan race, but it is a partisan country.”
Also running are Jean Meo, who currently serves as the Vice-Chair of the North Smithfield School Committee, and Christopher Simpkins.
This piece is part of a series on conservatives running for school committee seats across Rhode Island. It’s important to know who you’re voting for. See:
Megan Reilly is running for North Kingstown School Committee and it's not simply about banning books
Who are the candidates that signed the Moms for Liberty Pledge in Rhode Island?
Book banner Jeffrey LeBlanc is running for Smithfield School Committee
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