Kara Champion launches Hernando school board challenge with conservative message

Brooksville business owner Kara Champion is entering the Hernando County School Board race with a conservative message aimed squarely at parents who have spent years watching fights over books, curriculum and classroom rules dominate local schools. Her early campaign pitch centers on parental rights, transparency, stronger community access and a return to academic basics, with a June 3 kickoff planned at Coney Island Drive Inn.

That message lands in a district where education politics are already sharp and personal. Hernando County schools served 24,015 students in 32 schools last year, and the board has five members serving four-year terms in a nonpartisan race that will go to a primary on August 18, 2026, and a general election on November 3, 2026. Voter registration or party changes for the primary are due July 20, 2026, and general election registration closes October 5, 2026.

Champion’s strongest early appeal may be to parents who want more say over what happens inside Hernando classrooms and libraries. In May 2024, the board removed 19 book titles from school libraries after reviewing 23 challenges filed by Julia Thomas. That followed a May 2023 meeting that stretched more than eight hours and was dominated by complaints about books, classroom indoctrination and the superintendent. In Hernando, “family values” has become shorthand for those disputes, not just a campaign slogan.

Champion is also building her case around familiarity and local ties. She is presenting herself as a business owner many residents may already know from Brooksville, a pitch that ties her candidacy to the daily life of families who shop, work and raise children here. But because she has not yet released a detailed policy platform, the real test for voters will be whether her broad themes translate into specific changes on discipline, curriculum review, spending priorities and how much access parents get when concerns arise.

The race also points straight at the board’s current power structure. Susan Duval, the incumbent Champion is challenging, was elected in 2014 and moved to Hernando County in 1969, where she began teaching at Brooksville Junior High School before moving into administration in 1980. The board’s chair is Kayce Hawkins and the vice chair is Shannon Rodriguez, and meetings, workshops, public hearings and special meetings are streamed live by HITV, giving parents a clearer view of how those decisions are made.

Statewide school-book review changes and later lawsuits have kept library access and parental objection rules in the spotlight, and Hernando has already lived through the consequences. Champion is now asking voters whether the next phase should mean tighter parental control, a different classroom culture or simply a harder line against the controversies that have already defined the district.