Nonpartisan School Board Candidates Garner Endorsements From a Cypress-Area Church

A church pastor called forward three people to the altar during a recent Sunday service. The trio wasn’t being baptized or sharing testimonies. They were receiving endorsements in a November school board election.

Glorious Way Church, east of Cypress, is backing Christian conservatives Natalie Blasingame, George Edwards Jr., and Radele Walker. The announcement came after a sermon in which pastor John Greiner preached on “the importance of signs and wonders.” Greiner then passed the mic to associate pastor James Buntrock.

Buntrock, the Harris County GOP’s Senate District 7 Chair, a precinct chair, and an advisory board member, also serves as the executive director of the nonprofit MyGodVotes.

So why would a religious institution tell people how to vote? At least a few of the Harris County GOP precinct chairs are regular attendees of Glorious Way Church and had a hand in the party’s endorsement of the three candidates, which was announced in August. Precinct chairs Bill Ely and Clark Denson came forward when the Cy-Fair ISD candidates were introduced at Glorious Way, offering their support.

Maybe it’s about control: putting the people who support a party’s agenda at the helm of local decision-making. But maybe, many said this week, it’s because local government, particularly when it involves the education of children, is of the utmost importance. Although this is the first time Glorious Way has endorsed candidates, it’s not uncommon for Houston-area churches to back their favorites in a local race.

Buntrock couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday but said in his remarks from the pulpit that “because we haven’t done it right in the earthly realms, the demonic is running rampant in the heavenly realm.”

“If we just start doing our job, we can turn this thing around,” he said, noting that if the three endorsed candidates are elected, they’ll have a majority on the seven-member board along with trustee Christine Kalmbach, who was in the congregation on Sunday.

“All authority in heaven and earth is given to Jesus and then he assigned it to us and told us to go to all the world,” Buntrock said. “He talks about those in governing authorities and he calls them ‘God’s ministers for righteousness.’ There’s a purpose. They are God’s ministers for good and when they cease to do good or operate with righteousness, they need to get out. That’s why we have candidates who are up here today.”

“Assuming you guys get elected, you are there to be an avenger against evil and to defend and protect our kids, to protect our families, to protect the covenant of marriage, and to do God’s work in this place,” he added.

The associate pastor pounded a gavel and told the trio they were officially endorsed by Glorious Way Church. “We are taking the fight up another level,” he said. “I don’t care what the IRS says about this.”

Edwards, a U.S. Army veteran and former Cy-Fair ISD board member, mentioned that he’s a church deacon and wants a forensic audit of district finances. Walker, a retired CFISD administrator, quoted scripture and talked about loving one another and being careful about the “antichrist among us.”

“We have to be careful, because they will tear down what we built,” Walker said. “I ask you to vote for the candidate whose values are shared by you, a candidate who believes that our school district should have traditional values and oppose rhetoric and things that are creeping into our schools that are dividing our nation.”

Blasingame, an incumbent who is running against board president Scott Henry, has recently been embroiled in a controversy over her secret recordings of community members. The board adopted a new policy barring trustees from recording conversations without the knowledge of all parties involved, and Blasingame tried to accuse the panel of violating the Texas Open Meetings Act.

Her recent behavior, and that of her close friend Damon “Bam” Lenahan — who threatened to release the tapes if one of the residents on a secretly made recording didn’t take down a Facebook post endorsing Blasingame’s opponent — prompted a Harris County GOP precinct chair to introduce a resolution rescinding Blasingame’s endorsement.

The resolution was withdrawn, and the Harris County Republican Party maintained its endorsement of Blasingame. The endorsements of Edwards and Walker were never called into question. The slate is also endorsed by the Texas Republican Party.

At the September 20 church service, Blasingame said she has done some good work over the past four years as a trustee, “trying to fight some of the culture wars.”

“This is a spiritual battle, and this group right here can come in with some spiritual authority to take care of things because the thief is real,” she said. “He comes to kill, steal, and destroy, but our kids deserve to have life and life abundantly. That’s what schools should be offering them.”

Blasingame spoke of an assignment from God she received years ago on an airplane. “He told me that my role was to tear down the over-interpretation of separation of church and state in our schools,” she said.

A slate of challengers calling themselves “pro-public education” candidates includes Lesley Guilmart, who is running against Walker; Cleveland Lane Jr., who is running against Blasingame and Henry; and Kendra Camarena, who is running against Edwards.

Buntrock said the Democrats are “very serious about this fight” and want to take the school board “back to a socialist, progressive, leftist, liberal, Marxist evil.”

The Harris County Democrats did not endorse candidates in the Cy-Fair school board election. Cypress-Tomball Democrats president Jennifer Lorenz said that race should remain nonpartisan, but it’s not stopping her from knocking on doors to remind her neighbors to cast their ballots on November 4.

“We need to get back to putting kids and teachers first and get away from the hyper-partisan political nature that has appeared on this board,” said Lorenz, who moved to Cypress-Fairbanks ISD 30 years ago because it was a “destination district” with a reputation for good schools. “Our public schools should not be the place to fight hyper-partisan battles. It really does come back to value statements.”

Lorenz said school board races matter, even for those who don’t have kids in public schools.

“They matter more than anything,” she said. “If you are unhappy with the federal government, there’s not a whole lot that can be done. I care about every kid’s education, whether they’re mine or not, period. For those who don’t have that same philosophy, if they live in this district, they should care about their appraisal values.”

“If the district goes downhill, your resale values are going to go with it,” she added. “That’s a fact. School districts mean a lot to communities.”

In 2021, it came to light that some of the conservative Cy-Fair candidates were being backed by Republican megadonors who added more than $1 million to the candidates’ war chests. That made the Democrats take notice, Lorenz said.

“So we’ve got outside money from very clear hard-right folks coming into the community. Maybe we need to pay attention,” Lorenz said. “This was not on our radar. We didn’t think we had to be engaged in this fantastic school district. We supported the candidates who made the most sense. We voted for the incumbents because they were doing such a good job.”

When Blasingame, Henry, and Lucas Scanlon were elected in 2021, followed by Todd LeCompte in 2023, the board gained a 6-1 majority led by Blasingame. The group supported book bans, reduced library services, and eliminated entire chapters from textbooks that referenced climate change and vaccines. They wiped out several bus routes, which led to accidents and prompted the board to reinstate the bus service.

“We want freedom of religion, which means not pushing a particular religion at the schools,” Lorenz said. “We’ve become very active because of what this current board has done.”