Conservative activists seeking to take over school boards around the country saw their momentum slow in this week’s elections after progressive groups organized rival campaigns targeting the normally sleepy local races.

Over the past two years, conservative groups such as Moms for Liberty have flipped control of some school boards nationwide by critiquing what they saw as excessive Covid-19 precautions and left-wing teaching about race and gender. Rallying around the banner of parental rights, the groups have called for limits on what is taught in classrooms or offered in libraries and parental notification of students’ gender transitions among other changes.