An influential group of conservative mothers who describe themselves as staunch supporters of parental rights will meet in Philadelphia this weekend, where they’ll hold workshops and hear pitches from top presidential candidates vying for their vote.
Former President Donald Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy are all slated to speak at the three-day Moms for Liberty conference, which will bring hundreds of like-minded people from across the country who have harnessed their political power over the past two years to push for change in education and government.
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DeSantis, who headlined last year’s event in Tampa, helped get the Florida-based group off the ground, and in turn, they have rallied around him.
“Our Florida moms began referring to Governor DeSantis as the ‘Parent’s Governor’ over two years ago when he stepped up to protect children in Florida from (COVID vaccine) mandates, masks, and harmful ideologies in schools,” MFL said in a statement, adding that DeSantis has “protected kids from gender ideology in schools.”
Robert F Kennedy Jr., the namesake of one of America’s most famous political dynasties, who is challenging President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination in a longshot bid, had also been slated to speak at the event but pulled out Tuesday, citing scheduling issues.
Moms for Liberty was founded in 2021 by Tiffany Justice, Tina Desccovich, and Bridget Ziegler, and has led the recent culture war against school boards. They’ve shown up at meetings, raged against books that reference race and gender identity, and have accused public school teachers of trying to indoctrinate students.
Ziegler is married to the chairman of the Florida Republican Party. DeSantis recently appointed her to a commission overseeing Disney’s Orlando theme parks amid a battle between the Florida governor and Disney over the state’s law banning classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation.
The founders are also all current or former school board members in Florida who were opposed to student mask and quarantine policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. In two years, the women have turned their once-modest nonprofit organization into one of the most powerful groups that cater to conservative policies. It has more than 120,000 active members in 285 chapters across 44 states and is growing every day. Their largest chapter is in Florida. Their second largest is in Pennsylvania.
The group has also endorsed candidates for school boards across the country with mixed success. Last year, more than half of the 500 candidates the group endorsed won their contests and the group is looking toward 2024 to make an even bigger impact. MFL made waves in 2022 after it backed six Berkeley County School District school board members. Within two hours of being sworn into the South Carolina school board, the MFL-backed candidates voted to fire the district’s first black superintendent, get rid of the district’s lawyer, ban critical race theory, and set up a committee to decide if certain books taught in school should be banned.
Critics claim MFL is nothing more than a well-funded hate group. The Southern Poverty Law Center labeled MFL as “extremist” in its 2022 Year in Hate & Extremism report and argued that the group advances an “anti-student” inclusion agenda. The SPLC has likened the organization to parent groups that attempted to re-segregate public schools during the civil rights movement.
“They really are seeking to undermine public education holistically and to divide communities,” Rachel Carroll Rivas, deputy director for research, reporting, and analysis at the SPLC, told NPR. She added that she’s been on the receiving end of numerous phone calls from concerned parents alarmed by the tactics used by Moms for Liberty and their influence.
MFL has pushed back against SPLC’s characterization of them and stands by its practices, including the belief that “parental rights do not stop at the classroom door and no amount of hate from groups like this is going to stop that.”
The group’s Hamilton County, Indiana, chapter recently faced backlash after it featured a quote from Adolf Hitler at a 1935 Nazi rally on the front cover of its newsletter, The Parent Brigade. Hitler’s words were just below the masthead and read: “He alone, who OWNS the youth, GAINS the future.”
The pages of the newsletter were posted on the group’s Facebook page. The MFL chapter as well as its founders issued a mea culpa the following day.
“They should not have quoted Hitler. Period,” Descovich and Justice told the Washington Examiner. “Parents are passionate about protecting future generations from tyranny, but Hitler did not need to be quoted to make that point.”
Hamilton County Chapter Chairwoman Paige Miller also apologized for the gaffe.
“We condemn Adolf Hitler’s actions and his dark place in human history,” Miller told the Washington Examiner. “We should not have quoted him in our newsletter and we express our deepest apology.”
Not everyone was on board with their explanation and said it only further raised the alarm about MFL’s motives.
The group and its conference have drawn stiff opposition from other parent groups and LGBT advocates, which have referred to MFL as a “hate group.” There have also been petitions circulated online demanding that Marriott refuse to host the event.
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In an April 20 letter to Marriott, state Sen. Nikil Saval, state Rep. Mary Louise Isaacson, and state Rep. Ben Waxman, all Philadelphia Democrats, urged the hotel to reconsider hosting the group and argued MFL “has been widely recognized for its divisive rhetoric, discriminatory practices, and promotion of harmful policies that target vulnerable communities, especially the LGBTQ+ community.”
Activists at ACT UP Philadelphia also have an issue with MFL holding their summit in Philadelphia and will be hosting a “dance party protest” outside the hotel Friday at 6 p.m. The group has held protests for the past five weeks with attendance growing with each one, member Max Ray-Riek told the Washington Examiner.
