PHILADELPHIA – They call themselves merry warriors, but this group of conservative moms is crazy.
They are angry with their teachers, their principals, their president. And now they’re fighting their way through school boards, local elections and, if they make it, their next president.
This weekend’s Moms for Liberty conference shows how local issues like education can have tremendous and galvanizing national influence, as Gov. Ron DeSantis, former President Donald Trump and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley they tried to attract nearly 700 attendees from the group of more than 150,000 members. Friday.
Several key work sessions at the heart of the group’s mission, including “Protecting Kids from Gender Ideology” and “Getting Reverse School Boards to Act,” were held behind closed doors, with media access forbidden But even so, the enthusiasm at the open events was palpable, almost bouncing off the walls of the ballroom.
Moms for Liberty founders Tiffany Justice, right, and Tina Descovich speak at the Moms for Liberty meeting in Philadelphia on June 30, 2023.
Matt Rourke/AP
Nearly everyone in the audience stood in cheers as DeSantis denounced puberty blockers while touting the various policies he has enacted to empower Sunshine State parents.
“I think what we’ve seen across this country the last few years has awakened the most powerful political force in this country — the mama bears and they’re ready to roll,” DeSantis told the crowd in the ballroom at the Philadelphia Marriott .
While the group was founded by three Florida women, one of whom is married to Florida’s GOP chairwoman, and may seem like fertile ground for parents’ rights warrior DeSantis, the crowd appears to be Trump’s to lose
A Florida mother told ABC News that she wished she could stay at the Florida governor’s mansion and feels a little betrayed that her governor is spending so much of his time on the campaign trail.
Moms for Liberty isn’t tied to a particular candidate, and the group isn’t sure of its plans to pass in 2024. Still, there are signs of MAGA everywhere, from glittery “TRUMP” lanyard pins to in the classic red and white headboard. Lines to hear the former president’s keynote address wound through the mezzanine by the escalator.
Before he began speaking, mixed chants of “LET’S GO BRANDON” and “WE LOVE TRUMP” echoed across the aisle as the day’s only candidate received a standing ovation of several minutes before his speech.
Former Republican President Donald Trump speaks during the Moms for Liberty Joyful Warriors National Summit at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, June 30, 2023, in Philadelphia.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Love is mutual.
After the civil rights watchdog Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) recently labeled the group an anti-government group, saying they spread “hateful imagery and rhetoric against the LGBTQ community” Moms for Liberty leaders denounced previously to ABC News as “nonsense.” Trump responded to the characterization.
“The radical left is even slandering Moms for Liberty as a so-called ‘hate group’ … but Moms for Liberty is not a ‘hate group.’ You are joyful warriors and fierce patriots,” she said. Trump said to applause.
“You are not the threat to the United States; you are the best thing that ever happened to america. Joe Biden and the Democratic Communists are the threat to the United States. And together, we will throw them out of office on Election Day 2024,” he continued.
The Republicans will need this group to recover the ground lost in the legislatures of the last cycle.
“Mothers are the key political force for this 2024 cycle — we have an opportunity to harness all the energy, all the concern,” DeSantis said.
And that power is borne out in the data, according to FiveThirtyEight election analyst Geoffrey Skelley.
“Different groups of women voters — and women as a whole — were quite instrumental to Biden’s victory. Women make up a solid majority of the Democratic Party’s voter base — about 58 percent of Biden voters, according to the ‘exit poll – and the party would struggle to win the election if only men voted,’ explained Skelley.
“If Trump had done even a little better among suburban women, it’s easy to imagine that he would have carried out some of the tight races in states like Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin,” Skelley says.
Becky Mccarron, a mother and grandmother from Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, finds herself as a small part of a much larger movement, fearful but ready to fight.
“If you don’t stand up for your children, who else will?” he told ABC News. “I am very worried about my grandchildren. And it seems to me that there is more of an ideology [in schools] and parents no longer have a say in what their children are taught.”
And McCarron, who has voted twice for Trump, is still in favor of the former president despite not being completely sold on his availability. She attributes her bravado to her roots: “New Yorkers are a different breed,” she added.
Chris Birde, a mom from Brevard County, Fla., where the organization started, was taken with Moms for Liberty from the jump, attending last year’s summit in Tampa and vowing not to miss another meeting in the future . She brought her daughter, Reagan, and her daughter’s friend, Ryleigh Seibel, both high school juniors, along for the ride and to join the ranks of the mission.
She sees education at the “cutting edge” of this cycle and believes the mom’s vote will be make or break next November.
“They know that mothers have the power. In most elections, women are the influencers,” said Birde.
When it comes to her choices for Election Day, Birde said she would rather DeSantis stay in Florida and is optimistic for another Trump term, saying she sees the former president as the “fighter” that she and the country needs
Florida GOP Chairman Christian Ziegler of Sarasota, Fla., whose wife Bridget co-founded the group Moms for Liberty before leaving to focus on her duties as a school board member in Sarasota, told ABC News that the group’s surge over the past two and a half years reflects how the issue is developing politically. This conference in Philadelphia is “probably doubled” in size from the group’s meeting last year in Tampa.
“Frankly, it’s one of the biggest problems if not the biggest problem in the country,” Ziegler said.
Ziegler added that parental rights, along with lax COVID-19 restrictions, were major factors in his party’s decisive victories in Florida, a perennially purple state that trended overwhelmingly red during the midterms. 2022.
“I don’t think you have to look any further than Florida. We have evidence,” Ziegler said.
The Democratic National Committee criticized the group and participating Republicans Friday morning ahead of the remarks.
“Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, and Vivek Ramaswamy are celebrating the Fourth of July weekend with one of the nation’s most well-known anti-freedom, history-erasing, and book-banning groups,” the DNC said. “While President Biden and Vice President Harris are running to safeguard the rights and freedoms of Americans, MAGA Republicans are more concerned with catering to right-wing extremists than addressing the real issues facing working families “.
Katie Gorka, wife of controversial Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka, told ABC News that the presence of key Republican candidates is a testament to how powerful conversations about education will be in the next cycle, and the growing influence of Moms for Liberty shows that the group “had touched a nerve” in the national pulse.
“Parents’ rights and education in general will be a key electoral factor, both this November in the local elections and next November in the presidential elections,” Gorka said.
ABC News’ Isabella Murray, Hannah Demissie and Abby Cruz contributed to this report.
