NEW YORK — Moms for Liberty, a conservative parent rights advocacy group, aims to grow its membership and voters by November to make good on a pledge it made last year to become more politically active across the country in 2024. The company plans to spend more than $3 million on a multi-state advertising campaign to attract attention.
But the big investment comes with a twist for a group that previously said it was focused on local school board races. Specifically, it will target voters in four states that are among the most crucial battlegrounds in this year's presidential election: Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Wisconsin. Some of its first ads directly criticize the Biden administration. The group hopes to expand its efforts to three other battleground states that could help decide the presidential election.
The campaign marks Moms for Liberty's return to the national spotlight after a string of bad press and criticism. The group has emerged as a rising star in conservative politics in 2021 but has faced backlash over various scandals and efforts to remove references to LGBTQ+ identities and structural racism from classrooms.
The coordinated effort in presidential battleground states also raises questions about the groups' intentions and funding. The nonprofit has long described itself as a grassroots group of like-minded parents. But Moms for Liberty co-founder Tina Deskovich told The Associated Press that the new campaign stemmed from an “investor” approaching the group in hopes of “expanding in certain states.”
She declined to identify the funders, and as a federally recognized 501(c)4 social service organization, the nonprofit is not required to disclose its funders. Since October, the group's affiliate PAC, Moms for Liberty Action, has received 16 payments from Restoration PAC, which is backed by conservative billionaire Richard Uihlein, according to Federal Election Commission records. He received $1,000. Restoration PAC did not respond to calls from The Associated Press, and it is unclear whether its funds are supporting Mamas for Liberty's latest campaign.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said Moms for Liberty was being sneaky.
“Given the timing of their new effort and their failure to disclose their investors, they're sending out two messages: One, this is not a grassroots movement, and two, they're operatives for someone else's organization,” Weingarten said.
Ms Deskovic said Moms for Liberty's aim was to “increase the number of grassroots chapters” and that existing local chapters were supporting the campaign. He noted that there are only seven Moms for Liberty chapters in Georgia, where the campaign began this week.
Deskovich said the promotion will be expanded to Arizona, North Carolina and Wisconsin within the next month. The group hopes to advance the campaign later this year in three other key presidential battleground states: Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania. Nevada's efforts will focus on Clark County, which includes Las Vegas.
Deskovich said Moms for Liberty did an analysis of its membership and found that about 20 percent aren't registered to vote. With that in mind, she said, the group's goal is to “awaken and mobilize our members, not just in the local elections that we support, but at all levels of government.”
Moms for Liberty is not endorsing the presidential race, and Deskovich said the group will invite all three top presidential candidates to its annual summit this summer. Still, the new advertising campaign also includes billboards directly criticizing President Joe Biden for new Title IX regulations that provide safety nets for LGBTQ+ students. Liberty Moms joined several states last week in suing the Biden administration to block these rules.
Biden campaign spokesman Charles Rutvak said Mamas for Liberty is “demonizing teachers and working to ban books as if we were living in Soviet Russia.”
“President Biden is proudly campaigning with educators, parents, and young Americans to strengthen public education for all Americans and protect schools from gun violence,” he said. Told.
In addition to billboards opposing “gender confusion” and urging parents to have more of a voice in the classroom, Deskovich said the campaign also included media interviews, targeted digital ads, and emails and text messages to voters. It is planned to be included.
The campaign comes as Moms for Liberty has been mired in recent scandals, including the recent sexual assault investigation against the husband of co-founder Bridget Ziegler, who left the group shortly after starting it. I was disappointed.
Ziegler's husband, now ousted Florida Republican Party Chairman Christian Ziegler, has since been acquitted of charges of rape and video voyeurism. However, following news of the incident, some members of Mamas for Liberty quit the group and their local chapter closed down, citing differences in values.
Local Moms for Liberty chapters and chapter leaders have also faced criticism over the past year. Last fall, Moms for Liberty removed two chairs from its Kentucky chapter after women posed for photos with members of the far-right Proud Boys. Last summer, the group's Indiana chapter apologized for quoting a supposed Nazi leader in its inaugural newsletter and condemning Adolf Hitler.
Amid criticism, candidates endorsed by the group performed overwhelmingly in school board elections last year, with fewer than a third winning, according to a Brookings Institution analysis.
Deskovich said negative stories about the group have not negatively affected its funding.
“No one has contacted me and said, 'I'm not going to donate anymore because of these stories,'” she said. “Everyone understands that our work will come under intense attack and scrutiny.”
Of the battleground states Moms for Liberty are targeting for president, North Carolina is the only one holding an election for state schools superintendent this year, pitting Republican Michelle Morrow, a homeschooling parent and conservative activist who signed Moms for Liberty's Parent Pledge, against Democrat Maurice “Moe” Green, a former Guilford County superintendent of schools.
Morrow did not respond to a request for comment about the new Moms for Liberty campaign. Greene said in an emailed statement that her opponent and Moms for Liberty have spread “conspiracy theories and hateful propaganda that disparages teachers, students and parents.”
“The very soul of public education is on the ballot in North Carolina this November,” he said. “The good news is that I know that advocates for public education, people who believe in the transformative value of public education, will seize this moment and break down these distorted and false views. .”
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