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Do the Florida school board elections mean the end of Moms for Liberty?

The poor performance of school board candidates backed by Governor Ron DeSantis in this month’s primary elections raises questions about whether the governor’s influence may be waning.

He may not be alone.

Because its recommendations were similar to those of Moms for Liberty – they had jointly targeted several incumbents in an effort to defeat them – several observers said the organization, which some have called a hate group, had also reached its limits.

Major losses across the state for candidates who pushed the group’s agenda, including efforts to ban books from the library and limit classes on race, sex and gender, indicated growing discontent with an organization that had quickly gained influence with powerful Republicans amid anti-mask and parental rights politics during the pandemic.

Equality Florida, an LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, said in a statement that the only thing worse for conservative candidates than an endorsement from DeSantis is an endorsement from Moms for Liberty.

Mothers for Freedom However, politicians said they were satisfied with the results of the primaries.

“Nationally, we’re very pleased. We had a 60% win rate,” said co-founder Tina Descovich, counting candidates who made it to runoffs as victories.

Of the 14 candidates Moms for Liberty endorsed nationwide, three won, six lost, and five went to a runoff in November. Their candidates lost in districts where the group’s endorsed candidates easily took office. two years ago.

Descovich said her group’s poll results show that their involvement is generating attention and interest in campaigns. And while it’s unfortunate that some endorsed candidates have lost, it’s also inevitable, she said, suggesting that the losses may have been due to issues specific to campaigns rather than anything related to her group.

She added that Moms for Liberty has also had success beyond the ballot box, such as with its lawsuit challenging federal Title IX rules enacted by President Joe Biden’s administration.

“Everything is booming,” she said, adding that the group’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C., will feature former President and current candidate Donald Trump among its speakers. “We’re growing tremendously. Moms for Liberty is in full swing.”

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Governor Ron DeSantis answer questions during a Moms for Liberty event on the second day of the 2024 Republican National Convention on July 16 in Milwaukee.
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Governor Ron DeSantis answer questions during a Moms for Liberty event on the second day of the 2024 Republican National Convention on July 16 in Milwaukee. (JOE LAMBERTI | AP)

Maurice Cunningham, a political scientist emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Boston and author of “Dark Money and the Politics of School Privatization,” said that may be too rosy a forecast. He said the results of the Florida primary underscored the decline of Moms for Liberty.

If the organization’s leadership wants to revive the flagging efforts, it must change its strategy, Cunningham said.

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“It’s hard to build things and easy to break things, and M4L is really only good at breaking things,” Cunningham said by email.

Cunningham said Moms for Liberty appears to be intent on advancing school choice by stoking distrust of the public education system.

“But the public is tired of the chaos and disruption,” he said.

Jon Valant of the Brookings Institution, who has analyzed Moms for Liberty’s influence since 2022, said the group’s success rate has declined over time as its brand “has become more toxic as the organization’s prominence has increased.”

According to Valant, it has now reached the point where supporting Moms for Liberty can lead voters to turn against the respective candidate.

In Sarasota County, for example, where Republican voters have a nearly 2-1 majority over Democrats, two candidates backed by Moms for Liberty lost. Incumbent Tom Edwards, a liberal Democrat whom DeSantis picked as a candidate to defeat in a February 2023 meeting with Moms for Liberty leaders, won a three-way race in which he received more votes than his opponents in all but two precincts – including one backed by Moms for Liberty.

Board member Bridget Ziegler listens to comments from speaker Julie London during a Sarasota County School Board board meeting on Dec. 12 in Sarasota.
Board member Bridget Ziegler listens to comments from speaker Julie London during a Sarasota County School Board board meeting on Dec. 12 in Sarasota. (JEFFEREE WOO | Times)

Ted Bordelon, a national LGBTQ+ activist, said his Agenda PAC spent $52,000 to act as a “counterpunch” to the Moms for Liberty campaign in Sarasota. Sarasota has become ground zero for that work, he said, in part because of scandals surrounding co-founder Bridget Ziegler, another board member who has pushed the district and state far to the right.

Many Sarasota residents, including other board members, called on Ziegler to resign amid allegations of sexual activity she and her husband had engaged in, which some said highlighted her hypocrisy in enforcing anti-LGBTQ+ policies. She remains on the board.

“Our overall goal is to make Moms for Liberty so ineffective or so small that they can no longer have such an impact in elections across the country,” Bordelon said. “We’ve seen them suffer a lot of losses. People are rejecting the circus.”

In Indian River County, where Republicans also hold a 2-1 lead, the two board candidates backed by DeSantis and Moms for Liberty fell far short of expectations, winning about a tenth of the county’s 34 precincts.

The group’s supported candidates in Pinellas County – the was closely watched as three challengers tried to push the board toward a more conservative majority—performed equally poorly. In a statewide race, incumbent Laura Hine won all but one of her 286 precincts, beating a candidate from Moms for Liberty by nearly 40 percentage points.

Two years earlier, however, a candidate with the group’s backing – and some ties to QAnon – won a seat on the statewide board by four percentage points.

“I think it is a clear sign that the silent majority has had enough of party political noise and wants effective politicians who will focus on the work at hand,” Hine said.

Incumbent Pinellas County Rep. Eileen Long, who fended off opposition from another Moms for Liberty candidate, said she believes county voters are also fed up with the meanness.

“People have seen her behavior and her choice of words, and the public doesn’t want that,” Long said.

Eileen Long (right) and her husband Robert Long campaign outside the Dunedin Community Center during her re-election bid for a seat on the Pinellas County School Board at the Dunedin Community Center in Dunedin on August 20.
Eileen Long (right) and her husband Robert Long campaign outside the Dunedin Community Center during her re-election bid for a seat on the Pinellas County School Board at the Dunedin Community Center in Dunedin on August 20. (DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times)

For example, supporters of the Moms for Liberty candidates have denigrated local police chiefs and long-time Republican officials who supported their opponents, said Katie Blaxberg, who is running against Moms for Liberty candidate Stacy Geier in a November runoff election. On Facebook, a local Moms for Liberty leader called Blaxberg a “liberal in a pink vagina hat who kills babies.” Another supporter baselessly labeled Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri as “in favor of pedophile literature in schools” who supports “radical liberals” after he supported Hine.

Conservative activist Audra Christian of Pinellas said she and others switched sides after being personally attacked by Moms for Liberty officials, who she said the group berates anyone who disagrees.

“I had the feeling that it was a good thing in the beginning,” said Christian. “It has become a cult where you can’t ask questions or make suggestions.”

County Commissioner Chris Latvala, for whom Blaxberg once worked as a legislative aide, said this type of tactic has highlighted the decline in support for Moms for Liberty candidates in Pinellas. The Republican former Lawmakers advised Blaxberg and Erika Picard, who challenged Long, to keep the group at a distance.

Blaxberg condemned Moms for Liberty. Picard downplayed the group’s support in her campaign, outperforming the others. Still, Picard lost in the county’s most Republican district, in part because she adhered to some of Moms for Liberty’s programs, Latvala said.

A false narrative is repeatedly spread about children who identify as cats and Asking for cat litter in the toilets didn’t help, he and others said.

“The adults in Pinellas County have stood up against Moms for Liberty,” Latvala said. “I think it will be similar in November.”

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