Protests and Presidential Hopefuls on the Agenda at Moms for Liberty Philadelphia Summit
An influential group of conservative mothers who describe themselves as staunch supporters of parental rights will meet in Philadelphia this weekend, where they'll hold workshops and hear pitches from top presidential candidates vying for their vote.
Former President Donald Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy are all slated to speak at the three-day Moms for Liberty conference, which will bring hundreds of like-minded people from across the country who have harnessed their political power over the past two years to push for change in education and government.
The founders are also all current or former school board members in Florida who were opposed to student mask and quarantine policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. In two years, the women have turned their once-modest nonprofit organization into one of the most powerful groups that cater to conservative policies. It has more than 120,000 active members in 285 chapters across 44 states and is growing every day. Their largest chapter is in Florida. Their second largest is in Pennsylvania.
The group has also endorsed candidates for school boards across the country with mixed success. Last year, more than half of the 500 candidates the group endorsed won their contests and the group is looking toward 2024 to make an even bigger impact. MFL made waves in 2022 after it backed six Berkeley County School District school board members. Within two hours of being sworn into the South Carolina school board, the MFL-backed candidates voted to fire the district's first black superintendent, get rid of the district's lawyer, ban critical race theory, and set up a committee to decide if certain books taught in school should be banned.