Braun won a June 5 runoff election for Place 1 against incumbent Mindy McClure with 52.28% of the vote.
“Running for office wasn’t even in the top 10 of hardest things I’ve ever done,” Braun said. “I worked full-time in high school and played four sports. So, you know, I do hard stuff.”
At the same meeting, board secretary Jorge Rodriguez was elected president of the board of trustees. Rodriguez previously served as president from 2012-13. Becky St. John was elected vice president, a position she held in 2017-18. Coley Canter, who was elected to the board in December, was elected secretary.
Braun is a graduate of Grapevine High School, as are her husband and daughter. She also has a son who graduated from Grapevine Faith Christian School, according to her candidate Q&A with Community Impact Newspaper.
Braun said that she considers GCISD home, but she believes the district was on the decline before the COVID-19 pandemic—something that she said can be countered with new perspectives. Her priorities are increasing teacher pay and enhancing existing programs, she said.
Braun acknowledged that the election was controversial, and she said she was disappointed to see community members arguing unproductively.
“All I'm gonna say about that is that we have to be better,” Braun told Community Impact Newspaper. “I mean, we have to demand more of ourselves. And, you know, we have generations that are watching how adults act ... even with people [they] disagree with.”
At times, the campaign also put her at odds with district leadership, such as when she said in a May Facebook video that she would work to remove critical race theory from the district’s curriculum. Two days later, GCISD sent out a statement recognizing that many community members had reached out asking about critical race theory, but that critical race theory is not a part of the district's curriculum.
