CCSD board candidates draw cheers at RNC with Moms for Liberty
MILWAUKEE — When a video played a soundbite calling members of the conservative activist group Moms for Liberty domestic terrorists, several audience members in the Bradley Symphony Theater broke out into scattered cheers.
The cheers weren’t from detractors of the over 130,000-member organization — they came from members themselves.
Gathered at the Republican National Convention, Moms for Liberty supporters and convention attendees engaged in talks about their fight against policies they see as existential threats to their children.
“Radical Marxists are trying to steal our children’s future — we will not let them do that,” Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice said. “So, we are going to fight like hell with a smile on our faces, because our children are watching us and it is a privilege to fight for this country.”
Moms for Liberty is a quickly growing conservative group composed mostly of mothers that is receiving heavy criticism from detractors for what they see as the extreme views the group espouses. The group, which started in Florida during the COVID-19 pandemic, has been a major supporter of mass book bans and anti-LGBTQ advocacy.
For supporters, teaching about LGBTQ topics and allowing students to choose their pronouns are part of a large-scale “grooming” being pushed by opponents.
Bipartisan discussion on “toning down” rhetoric has been at the center of many conversations in both Democratic and Republican circles in the wake of the failed assassination attempt Saturday on former President Donald Trump, whom the convention delegates officially nominated for president this week. But Moms for Liberty speakers at the convention balked at the idea of cooling their language, saying their cause is too great and the “enemy” too dangerous to back down.
“There were some people that told us, ‘Oh, don’t use that word fight, you don’t want to be too volatile,’ well, they’re coming after our kids,” Justice said.
The organization frequently uses language indicative of battle: school boards and uncooperative politicians are “enemies”; challenges and policy platforms are “fights”; and most notably, the group refers to its members as “joyful warriors.”
“The enemy wants to come in between us and our children,” co-founder Tina Descovich said.
The group’s crusading mindset is effective, having established over 300 chapters across 48 states and putting more than 380 of its members on school boards.
Las Vegas could be the next landing for the joyful warriors: two of the candidates for the Clark County School District School Board in the November runoff are registered members of Clark County’s chapter. The school board has seven total seats.
Lorena Biasotti, vice chair of the Clark County chapter and a school board candidate, said the divisiveness of Moms for Liberty’s presence and the larger parental rights conversation was unwarranted.
“Concern for kids is a common ground — it’s a nonpartisan issue,” said Biasotti, who is attending this week’s Republican convention.
Biasotti became politically active in 2021 in response to the state-imposed mask mandates, attending her first school board meeting that year to express concerns. Instead, Biasotti said, she was met with “disrespect” and dismissive attitudes by board members.
Since then, Biasotti has been a constant presence at the meetings, even being escorted by CCSD Police on at least one occasion for refusing to comply with meeting standards.
Her presence did not go unnoticed.
Moms for Liberty invited Biasotti to attend its annual national summit, where political notables including Trump addressed members. Shortly after, the Clark County chapter was born.
Biasotti credits Moms for Liberty for providing both structure for her as she organizes the movement here and a bigger platform. That momentum slowed in June, as she gained just shy of 20% of the vote in the District E school board race, less than 2% behind the front-runner. The race will go to a runoff in November.
In CCSD District B, her fellow Moms for Liberty member Lydia Dominguez took a five-point lead over the runner-up in the primary. A third organization member, Tim Underwood, is also running a competitive race for the Nevada State Board of Education.
Biasotti admitted her personal views stretched beyond even what Moms for Liberty had espoused publicly, but that compromise was necessary for the sake of fairness, something she said her ideological opponents don’t understand.
“We don’t have a right to go into school and teach them that homosexuality is wrong, I respect that,” Biasotti said. “But if we’re going to be tolerant, we’re going to bring tolerance to the table, it has to be mutual.”
The Moms for Liberty candidates’ initial success through their first election is not a surprise for conservatives in Nevada. Parental rights and school choice have long been part of a fight many feel is most important in the state.
“We don’t want furries, we don’t want transgender bathrooms, we don’t want teachers preaching that to kids that have gender dysphoria, that you need to change your identity or your sex,” Lyon County Republican Chairwoman Lorrie Olson said. “You have to involve the parents, you have to keep the parents informed, and we’re not going to give in to the mental illness.”
