Joanne Jacobs:
Founded less than three years ago to fight masking mandates, the Moms for Liberty — with 120,000 members and nearly 300 chapters in 45 U.S. states — is now a political force, he writes. Members believe “malign forces in public schools — gender ideology, critical race theory, Marxism, anti-Americanism — have come for their children, and they’re having exactly none of it.”
Republican presidential hopefuls showed up at the summit to woo members. No doubt they remember that “school choice moms” helped Ron DeSantis win in his first run for governor of Florida, and Democrat Terry McAuliffe lost the race for Virginia governor in 2021 after saying “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”
In breakout sessions, Moms learned “how to run for school boards — and if they win, how to advance their agenda even when in the minority,” Pondiscio writes. “More than half of the 500 candidates Moms for Liberty endorsed for local school board elections last year won their races.”