PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA – JULY 1: Philadelphia Police officers stand guard as people protest the Moms for Liberty Joyful Warriors National Summit outside the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown on July 1, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. the self-
PHILADELPHIA – Moms for Liberty, a “parents’ rights” group that has tried to take over school boards in several states, is looking to expand those efforts nationwide and to other educational sites in 2024 and beyond. The effort is bracing for a showdown with teachers unions and others on the left who see the group as a toxic presence in public schools.
The group’s co-founder, Tiffany Justice, said at its annual summit over the weekend in Philadelphia that Mothers for Freedom will use his political action committee next year to get involved in school board races across the country. It will also “begin to endorse at the state board and elected superintendent level.”
Their comments confirm that Moms for Liberty, which has passed its first two years inflaming school board meetings with aggressive complaints about instruction about systemic racism and gender identity in the classroom, is developing a broader strategy to overhaul education infrastructure across the country.
As the group has amassed broad conservative support and donor fundinghis focus on education ensures that even as voters turn their attention to the 2024 presidential race, school council elections will remain some of the most contentious political fights in the coming year.
Moms for Liberty started with three Florida moms upset about the COVID-19 restrictions in 2021, but has quickly ascended as national actor of republican politics. His support for school choice and the “fundamental rights of parents” to direct their children’s education has attracted allies such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a leading GOP presidential candidate, and the conservative Heritage Foundation.
The group has been labeled an “extremist” organization by the Southern Poverty Law Center for allegedly harassing community members, advancing anti-LGBTQ+ misinformation and fighting for scrub diverse and inclusive material of the lesson plans.
Justice said in an interview that she and her co-founder, Tina Descovich, were two mothers who “had faith in American parents to take back the public education system in America” and that they “fully intend to take back and reform” this system.
So far, the group has had mixed success in electing its preferred candidates. In 2022, just over half of the 500 school board candidates he endorsed across the country won. In the spring of 2023, less than a third of the nearly 30 candidates endorsed in Wisconsin they were elected.
Focusing on state-level candidates could give Moms for Liberty a chance to assert its influence in some of the positions that have more control over curriculum, said Jon Valant, a senior member from the Brookings Institution who has studied education policy.
A close partnership with the conservative training organization, the Leadership Institute, and added money from a growing donor base could also help Moms for Liberty field more eligible candidates and help them win in 2024 .
Monty Floyd, vice president of the Moms for Liberty chapter in Hernando County, Fla., knows what it’s like to have the group’s support in a political campaign. He ran for school board in 2022 and received the group’s endorsement, as well as $250 from his Florida-based PAC.
Floyd lost that race but plans to run again in 2026, he told The Associated Press at the summit. He hopes to see the group’s political influence grow and said that even more than money, Moms for Liberty’s national network offers a “great resource” to a candidate.
“The wealth of knowledge that they have and the support network and just the advocacy tips that we’re learning from the speakers today,” he said. “They have good advice to give. So you learn a lot about what you can improve in your messages.”
However, Moms for Liberty may encounter obstacles growing national presence has spurred a countermovement of activists who oppose it, Valant said.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said she believes groups like Moms for Liberty have “created more action and more energy” among teacher unions.
“We have 41 new units that we’ve organized as AFT this year. We’ve never had that,” he said. She said the union will “do what we have to do” during the election to show the contrast between its endorsed candidates and Moms for Liberty’s candidates.
Beyond unions, Moms for Liberty is likely to face opposition from grassroots groups and voters who “don’t agree with their vision of what public education should be,” Valant said.
Martha Cooney, a Pennsylvania educator who was one of about 100 protesters dancing and holding signs outside the summit Saturday afternoon, agreed. She said that as Moms for Liberty tries to assert more political power, she and others will continue to stand in their way.
“They’re a very small minority who are trying to act like they represent this entire nation, and they don’t,” Cooney said.
Moms for Liberty did not respond to questions about which races it would focus on in 2024, and made clear that it would not endorse in legislative or presidential races.
But while the group says it won’t get involved in the race for the White House, Republican candidates have tried to leverage Moms for Liberty’s influence and broad network of more than 120,000 members in 45 states to woo their voting bloc and benefit their primary campaigns.
Five GOP candidates gave speeches during the gathering in Philadelphia, which ended Sunday. They include DeSantis and former President Donald Trump. Rivals tried to outdo each other with claims that “wokeness ideology” had overtaken education and that pronouns and “critical race theory” should be removed from classrooms.
“I think moms are the key political force for this 2024 cycle,” DeSantis said in her speech to attendees Friday.
Other Republican presidential candidates who appeared at the summit included former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who brought his wife and two children on stage Saturday. He pledged to prioritize parents’ rights and shut down the US Department of Education if elected.
“Membership in this organization is just a small tip of the iceberg of a larger movement for parents and children in our country,” Ramaswamy told reporters at the summit. “And how important is that? You better believe it’s very important.”
