1:43
When reached for comment by ABC News, Autumn Looijen, campaign co-lead at Recall the SF School Board, said over text that the reaction in her house was “total celebration.”
“It’s one thing to think you’ll win,” she said. “Quite another once it’s real.”
San Francisco’s recall has drawn widespread attention amid a year in which 25 recall efforts have been launched against 66 officials nationwide, according to tracking by Ballotpedia.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/san-francisco-unified-school-district-ap-220_hpMain_20220216-031107_4x3t_384.jpg\")
“School boards are where the rubber meets the road when it comes to Americans meeting their government,” ABC News Political Director Rick Klein said of the recall. “Schools, for better or worse, are the battlefront. They’re where the major issues of 2022 are colliding for so many Americans.”
Financial documents reviewed by ABC News show the effort in San Francisco has largely been bankrolled by big donors who don’t have children in the district.
According to campaign finance records, some of the biggest backers are 95-year-old billionaire Arthur Rock and PayPal COO David Sacks, who contributed nearly $400,000 and more than $74,000, respectively.
“You’d never think that a liberal member of a school board in San Francisco would have to worry about his or her job,” Klein said. “The power of the arguments that are being put forward and on display in this recall election, I think will animate so many campaigns up and down the ballot for state and national political office in 2022.”
ABC News' Zohreen Shah, Lalee Ibssa, Ashley Riegle and Knez Walker contributed to this report.
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