In many election cycles, there’s a quick acronym used to describe the type of voters who can help decide the winner. Think soccer moms or safety moms. Even NASCAR parents.
And now, the “mama bear”.
These conservative mothers and grandmothers, who in recent years have organized for “parents’ rights,” including banning the discussion of gender identity in schools, have been classified as extremists by the Southern Poverty Law Center. They have also been among the most coveted voters so far in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.
Donald Trump praised her work, saying organizations like Moms for Liberty had taught liberals a lesson: “Don’t mess with America’s moms.” Ron DeSantis said the “woke” policies had “awakened the most powerful political force in the country: the mother bear.” His wife, Casey DeSantis, who launched “Mamas for DeSantis” on the Iowa primary, said mothers and grandmothers were the “game changer” in DeSantis’ victory for a second term as Florida governor. He predicted they will be again when he runs for president.
“It’s one thing when your policies come after us as mothers,” Casey DeSantis said in a talk full of stories about raising children at the governor’s mansion. “It’s another thing when your policies come after our children, and that’s when the claws come out.”
These so-called mama bears that DeSantis and other Republicans are courting are conservative women living in the United States. They are largely white and may belong to official groups like Moms for Liberty, which says it has 120,000 members nationally, or smaller groups like No Left Turn in Education. Some do not belong to any group.
The groups and their work began during the COVID-19 pandemic, when they say parents took a closer look at what their children were being exposed to in public schools. They grew in numbers as Democrat Joe Biden defeated Trump in 2020 and were motivated by what they called government overreach and “woke” policies.
Geralyn Jones, 31, of Marion, Iowa, said she wasn’t active in politics until the pandemic, when she became concerned about mask requirements and online schooling for her son, who was in kindergarten. He started asking questions and didn’t like the answers he was getting.
Jones pulled her two children out of the public school after the district passed a policy that allows transgender students to use the bathroom or locker room of the gender they identify with, without notifying parents. She now leads the Linn County chapter of Moms for Liberty.
Jones, who voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020, says he and other 2024 candidates have reached out to Moms for Liberty to schedule time to meet with mothers.
“I think we’re going to be the most sought-after group or the most sought-after voice in this next election,” he said.
Opponents say the warm and fuzzy image of a mother bear is a way to mask a cruel and extreme agenda that hurts children.
“The Republicans have decided that this is, I think, their golden ticket to the primaries to tear down their base,” said Katie Paris, who runs Red, Wine and Blue, a network of women who criticize GOP-backed policies like Moms for Liberty’s anti-LGBTQ and anti-trans efforts.
“The reality about ‘parents’ rights’ is that they are just the rights of a vocal minority trying to push an extreme political agenda.”
The breast bear movement is “a contemporary iteration of a trend we’ve seen before,” said Linda Beail, a professor at Point Loma Nazarene University and author of a book about Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee.
During the suffrage movement, women pushed baby carriages as they marched for the right to vote. For decades, white women in the South played a powerful role in reinforcing segregation and white supremacy by doing jobs like keeping blacks off the rolls of eligible voters.
Palin was a game changer in many ways, Beail said. In the 2010 legislatures, Palin used the phrase “mama grizzlies” to describe conservative women who she said would stop Democrats. It portrayed women as fiercely protective, defending a traditional way of life and motivated by their children.
“It’s hard to argue with that,” Beail said. “He’s selflessly protecting your cubs, isn’t he?”
In 2024, being a mama bear may also offer a space for conservative women who have not been politically active before or who have run in previous elections.
If the mother bear narrative is persuasive, Beail said, there are many women who might say, “This is the place for me.”
Women are generally more likely to vote for Democrats than men, but Democratic House candidates held only a 50 percent to 47 percent advantage among women during last year’s legislatures, according to AP VoteCast, a broad poll of the electorate. More men voted for Republicans than Democrats, 54% to 43%.
Last year, conservatives tried to get hundreds of “parents’ rights” activists elected to school boards, with the help of millions in donations from groups like the Project 1776 PAC. A third of the approximately 50 candidates supported by the 1776 PAC Project won their races. About half of the candidates supported by Moms for Liberty were successful.
The movement gained momentum after Republican Glenn Youngkin won the 2021 race for governor of Virginia, defeating an establishment Democrat who had previously served as governor.
He thanked “mama bears” for helping him win.
Red, Wine and Blue is among the groups that have pushed back, using programs like “Troublemaker Trainings” to educate concerned women on how to defeat groups like Moms for Liberty.
Paris, Red, Wine and Blue criticized the “parents’ rights” movement for focusing school district resources on issues like transgender athletes, which can be a handful of kids in a state, at the expense of broader issues like helping millions of kids read after the pandemic.
Jones, the Iowa mother, defended the work Moms for Liberty and other groups are doing, saying they are getting backlash for simply trying to protect their children. She says the criticism is a testament to the momentum of her movement.
“There’s a mother in every household for the most part,” he said, “so that’s a voice that certainly carries a lot of weight.”
