When Moms for Liberty CEO Tina Descovich bragged after Florida’s August primary that all 15 candidates they had endorsed won or advanced to November runoffs, one would think that the organization the SPLC categorized as a an anti-government extremist organization still has political clout in Florida. After all, this follows on the 17 races they won nationwide last November.
Except, when you look at the larger picture. The past four years tells the story not of an organization in charge, but one fizzling.
New national trend: kick Moms for Liberty off school boards.
Consider that in 2022, Moms for Liberty endorsed 500 candidates in Florida. This year, it was only 15. It’s a shocking decline for an organization that swept the country capturing control of school board after school board. They are the largest culprit of challenging and banning books in the US. They count as one of their policy successes making it permissible for students to call their fellow LGBTQ students “fags.” In short, they culled LGBTQ students from anti-bullying policies.
Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler went even further as the chair of her school board of the Sarasota County School board. During her tenure, she led the board to remove all references to race, sexuality, and disability from that district’s anti-bullying rules.
But in last week’s primary Ziegler’s district fell to the Democrats. All three Moms for Liberty candidates lost.
In last November’s election, the 17 races they won were uncontested. In the 31 races where they had to run against another candidate Moms for Liberty lost every single one.
“Death for Moms for Liberty”
Florida Orange County School Board member Stephanie Vanos told the South Florida SunSentinel that Moms for Liberty is “toxic” and that the election results are “a reflection that we are not interested in banning books and trying to single out marginalized communities — that really we just want a strong public education for all of our students, and I think our community really has always supported that.”
Tom Edwards, who serves on the Sarasota County School Board, told the SunSentinel that the results are “death for Moms for Liberty.”
According to the SunSentinel’s reporting, Edwards, who is gay, was the subject of death threats by supporters of Moms for Liberty. Death threats were one political tactic Moms for Liberty candidates and supporters used for years as they turned PTA meetings and School Board meetings into shouting matches, screaming into microphones.
Equality Florida Action PAC spent $250,000 to challenge Moms for Liberty candidates. Including all races, 81 percent of their endorsed candidates won their races, including out LGBTQ candidates: Jane Aman, Felipe Sousa Lazaballet, Samuel Vilchez Santiago, Luis Salazar and Todd Delmay.
“Last night, Florida voters roared,” said Joe Saunders, executive director of Equality Florida Action PAC, in a statement after election night. “Communities are fighting back against book bans, curriculum censorship, and the whitewashing of history. Voters, from the US Senate and Governor’s races to school boards and state legislative contests, chose pro-equality champions.”
