Editor's note: This story was originally published by The Florida Trib.
Moms for Liberty, a conservative grassroots organization focused on promoting parental rights in the public education system, took Florida school board meetings by storm in 2021, first by opposing mask mandates and required reading assignments, then by staging a political takeover of school boards themselves.
The Florida-born movement benefitted from the influence of Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was eager to politicize the state's nonpartisan school board elections and shared similar views with the organization on pandemic-era school closures and culture war issues.
Moms for Liberty changed the political make-up of school boards across the state of Florida through a commitment to endorsing school board candidates.
At its height, the organization threw its financial weight behind favored candidates and successfully shifted the political balance sharply rightward on a number of school boards, including Duval County, one of the largest school districts in the state.
Five out of seven school board members received financial support or public endorsements from Moms for Liberty during the 2022 and 2024 elections in Duval County.
Today, Moms for Liberty Florida has not made any contributions to local school board candidates across Florida and is poised to be just a minor player this cycle, according to campaign finance records, interviews with former local members and experts on culture war movements and a survey of public social media pages for local chapters, some of which are now defunct.
Moms for Liberty's influence has been on a long decline in its home state as the organization faced a wave of resignations, chapter dissolutions and scandals among Moms for Liberty leadership.
The national umbrella organization said it's not taking its eye off local races, despite the slowdown in political activity.
"School boards are ground zero in the fight for parental rights. That's why Moms for Liberty endorses candidates who are committed to transparency, academic excellence, and putting parents back in charge of their children's education," said CEO and Co-founder of Moms for Liberty Tina Descovich in a statement to The Florida Trib.
In Descovich's home county, Brevard, Moms for Liberty has only made endorsements without any financial backing for three candidates: District 1 candidate Megan Wright, District 2 candidate Gene Trent and District 5 candidate Tammy Dennis.
Contributions from Moms Liberty falter across Florida
In 2022, at the height of its influence, Moms for Liberty Florida, the committee associated with political activity conducted in the state, made 54 financial endorsements to Florida school board candidates totaling to $13,500, according to state campaign finance records.
Of those candidates, 32 candidates, or roughly 60% of those financially backed by Moms for Liberty won their seats on the school board.
Two years later, that total dwindled down to a little over $2,000 for eight campaigns. Only three candidates won their elections.
And former Moms for Liberty member and cofounder of the now dissolved Indian River County Chapter Jennifer Pippin says that Floridians should not expect any support for school board candidates in this year's election from the organization.
"For the last election cycle, we endorsed two Moms for Liberty candidates, and we got nothing from the national [organization]. We got zero help. They didn't even post our endorsements on the national page as they did in prior years. Moms for Liberty did not help us get our candidates across the line," Pippin said.
Local members saw that the vision for Moms for Liberty inching closer towards the White House and farther from where they got their start in school board elections by 2024. By early 2026, Moms for Liberty disbanded its Florida Legislative Committee, a convening of chapter chairs across the state to discuss policy, school board elections and continued grassroots efforts.
Abandoning local efforts for national backing
Experts say this shift towards national level politics indicates a desire to grasp at any influence that remains.
"Now that it's clear that they can't just swing school board votes, I think what they're doing is becoming another Washington culture war player. Where instead of actually influencing what happens in school board A or B, what [they're] doing…is trying to shift discourse in some sort of subtle and often unmeasurable way towards [their] point of view," said Jonathan Zimmerman, a University of Pennsylvania professor who studies the history of culture wars in education.
By these standards, Moms for Liberty partially accomplished what they set out to do. Five years later, Florida school boards are still inundated with requests to ban books.
Yet, as Moms for Liberty took on rhetoric and various culture war issues closely aligned with President Donald Trump and DeSantis, support declined among parents who sought out to make change on a local level through school board leadership.
"Certainly the pandemic and that whole online education that many students in the country experienced has brought more attention to curriculum, and I think that's not necessarily a bad thing…The focus on the most divisive points makes it harder for parents and community members to have thoughtful and important and generative conversations about what you know education should look like in the community. And, I partially think that's by design," said Deana Rohlinger, a Florida State University professor who researches online social movements.
While local backing from Florida moms diminishes, so does the push for culture war issues. The prevalence and effectiveness of Moms for Liberty in relation to school board elections has been short-lived because the nature of culture war issues is cyclical, experts say.
"In general, you have activists that respond to whatever is the hot button education issue of the day, and then you get a burst of activity and interest. Then that quickly fades as people lose interest and focus on other stuff…It's mostly focused on adult culture war issues, not necessarily at the academic things that probably matter most and what schools are mostly about," Vladimir Kogan, Ohio State University professor who studies state and local government across the United States.
And with every movement comes backlash.
Many candidates backed by Moms for Liberty in 2022 lost their races or chose not to run again in 2024 and 2026. Liberal groups like Red Wine & Blue gained momentum in opposition to Moms for Liberty.
In 2022, Moms for Liberty supported DeSantis's HB7 "Stop W.O.K.E." Act and HB 1557 "Don't Say Gay" bill. Those bills respectively barred public educators from explaining historical events such as the enslavement period in a way that makes some children feel "shamed because of their race" and prohibited the discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools.
However, the U.S. Court of Appeals struck down the higher education provision of the Stop W.O.K.E. Act in early July.
Moms for Liberty's declining influence across the state can be partly attributed to a demographic reality it has struggled to reckon with: 89% of Florida families continue to enroll their children in public schools according to the Florida School Board Association. Attacking those schools — and the school board members, teachers and staff who run them — means alienating institutions that have served as pillars of their local communities for decades.
"On the whole, Americans are satisfied with their schools…The voters will tell you that there are problems with education but when you ask about their own schools, that is the ones they patronize, most people are broadly supportive of them and willing to tax themselves for them," Zimmerman said.
Trinity Webster-Bass covers education for The Florida Trib. You can reach her at trinity.webster-bass@floridatrib.org. Based in Jacksonville, the Florida Trib's mission is to shine a light on systemic problems and solutions, hold those in power accountable, and focus on under covered topics through collaboration with other news organizations and the community.
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