CARMEL, Ind. — In the hotly contested Carmel Clay Schools Board race, candidates endorsed by the Support CCS political action committee swept the two at-large seats up for grabs.
John Shapiro (27,765 votes) and Kristina Wheeler (26,113) topped candidates Robin Clark (20,530) and Dina Ferchmin (18,127) by a comfortable margin.
In a statement posted to his Campaign Facebook page, Shapiro wrote, “I will ensure that Carmel Clay Schools remains a top-performing district, and that students and teachers have the resources they need to be successful.”
FOX59/CBS4 was unable to reach Wheeler by the time this story was posted.
With yesterday’s victories, Support CCS, a non-partisan organization, has now endorsed four of five winning school board candidates elected in the last two contests.
The PAC’s chairperson Jennifer Cashin noted, “Public education isn’t either political party’s champion. It’s everybody in our community’s. That’s the biggest thing I worry about if they continue to come after our schools. What does that mean?”
Cashin is referencing back-to-back efforts by Republican forces in these school board races.
Two years ago, a trio of candidates were endorsed by the Hamilton County Republican party and three prominent GOP stalwarts; U.S. Senator Todd Young, Indiana Attorney General Todd Young, and Indiana House Member Jerry Torr.
In that 2022 contest, just one of the Republican-backed candidates was victorious, Greg Brown.
This year’s election featured a more subtle effort. The political action committee Carmel Excellence was created with the objective of assisting school board candidates that, in the organization’s view, better reflected the city’s values.
Endorsed candidates Robin Clark and Dina Ferchmin campaigned openly about their conservative credentials, acknowledging to voters they are Republicans. This is in a city where Republicans have long dominated elected offices.
There was even a late donation of $9,750 from the Hamilton County GOP made directly to Clark’s campaign. Overall spending in the contest seems likely to top $200,000 when post-election campaign finance reports are submitted.
With substantial victories in consecutive elections, Chasin anticipates no let-up by conservative forces.
“I would love if they would fold up their tent and go away. However, I’m not naive enough when someone is looking to have a political agenda that they would just stop,” Chasin said.
Confirming that suspicion is Carmel Excellence Chairperson Erik Young, who told FOX59/CBS4 in an Election Night text.
“We are in it for the right reasons and ran an honorable campaign,” Young said. “We’re in it for the long run and we learned a tremendous amount from this run, and the 2026 school board race begins tomorrow.”
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