Legge responds to a question during Tiger Bay Club forum. Credit: Kimberly DeFalco

Hillsborough County School Board Candidate Alysha “Aly Marie” Legge, an anti-vaxxer who gained support from Gov. Ron Desantis and the right wing group Moms For Liberty, has lost her election to incumbent Karen Perez.

Perez received 51% of the vote to represent District 6, while Legge pulled in 37% and Roshaun Gendrett got 12%.

During a phone call with Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, Perez said that she looks forward to continuing to support children and their mental wellness, along with holding the school administration accountable.

“If it wasn’t for this community supporting me, I wouldn’t be here,” Perez said. “When I sit in my seat at the dais, the entire community sits there with me. You know, it’s not just my voice. It’s the community’s voice.”

On Facebook, Legge thanked her family, volunteers and supporters, writing, “This has been such a phenomenal journey and I could not be more proud of what we have accomplished! The fight is not finished, this is just the beginning!”

On a phone call with CL, Legge initially declined to add more. But when asked if she plans to run again, she said, “We’ll see what God has in store.”

Legge is involved in multiple right wing anti-vaccination groups. She has taken a hard stance against CRT from being taught in grade school, even with no evidence of it being taught in public schools.

Across the country and in Florida, right wing groups and politicians like DeSantis are propping up candidates who share their ideals to run for local offices such as school board, with the focus often being on CRT and vaccines. Legge is known for speaking at an anti-CRT rally alongside DeSantis, who signed an anti-CRT bill into law in April. She claimed that teaching about such history would, “take a box of lit matches to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and our first and 14th amendments.”

In June, she defended her stance at a Tiger Bay Club political candidate forum, despite there being no actual evidence of CRT being taught in public schools.

Legge also publicly claimed that parents might have been lying about their children having COVID as cases spiked last summer.

“We’ve been forced masked, forced vaccinated, forced isolated,” Legge said in March during a North Carolina rally by the People’s Convoy, a right wing anti-vaccine group. More than one million people in the United States have died of COVID-19, with the numbers still climbing, and child hospitalizations soaring earlier this year.

While Legge lost this race, she wasn’t the only candidate that DeSantis threw his support behind, even though school board races are supposed to be non-partisan. Across Florida, at least 21 out of 30 of DeSantis’ picks won election, according to Politico.

Stacy Hahn, backed by DeSantis, defeated Damaris Allen in Hillsborough’s District 2 by earning 64% of the vote. Patti Rendon, who also earned support from the governor, defeated Hunter Gambrell and Danielle Smalley in District 4 with 53% percent of the vote.

In Manatee County, three of DeSantis’ school board picks won. In Sarasota, each of his three picks won election. In Polk County, two of DeSantis’ picks won.

It looks like DeSantis stayed out of Pinellas School Board races. In that county, Lisa Cane won in District 2 and Caprice Edmond won in District 6. The rest of the races are headed to a runoff election in November.