Mansfield school board candidate names trustee who wrote his public comments
The Mansfield school board candidate who admitted his public comments were written for him by a board member has named who wrote them, and a GOP PAC is fighting back.
Quintin Huckaby showed up to a March 7 joint meeting between between the Mansfield school board and City Council to make a public comment on the district’s book review policy.
He stumbled through his speech, and later admitted at an April 11 candidate forum that the comments weren’t his, but written by a sitting school board member.
“They were words from another person that I was, let’s see, I was trying to help get a point across,” Huckaby said at the forum. “The person wrote a speech for me and I just read the speech and after I read the speech and I didn’t feel like the words should’ve been my words, I felt like I was being duped.”
In a post on former president Donald Trump’s social media platform Truth Social, Huckaby said school board member Keziah Valdes Farrar and Myra Castles of Mansfield wrote the speech for him.
“We are still putting in work despite all hardships, Keziah Valdes Farrar & Myra wrote a speech and had me make a fool out of my self but it’s ok,” Huckaby wrote. “I take my wins just like I take my losses. I just keep moving forward.”
Huckaby, Farrar and Castles did not immediately return requests for comment.
Mansfield First PAC released a statement April 17 that said Huckaby was “spreading fallacies,” and that Huckaby had asked Castles to write him a speech for the March 7 meeting based on notes compiled from a meeting Farrar had with the PAC about the district’s book review policy.
“Unfortunately our PAC started to become highly concerned with Mr. Huckaby’s campaign once we started noticing the extreme fallacies, missed meetings, unprofessionalism and lack of competence prior and after the meeting on March 7th, the PAC’s statement reads.
“We want to take this opportunity to apologize to the trustees that currently sit on our MISD School Board for the disruption and drama that Mr. Huckaby’s deceptive comments have caused,” it read.
Representatives with the PAC did not immediately respond to a Facebook message seeking comment.
Huckaby faces off against Benita Reed, who lost her runoff to school board member Craig Tipping last June, for the position. Early voting for the May 6 election begins April 24.
