Top rivals for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination on Friday addressed the national conference of Moms for Liberty, appealing to the conservative parents-rights advocacy group with vows to bolster education and keep discussion of gender identity out of the classroom.
"Don't mess with America's moms," former President Donald Trump told the crowd in Philadelphia, calling the group a "grassroots juggernaut."
The appearance of Trump and rivals Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley at the summit served as a testament to the weight their campaigns are placing on race- and gender-based cultural issues related to education heading into next year’s nominating contests.
Culture war issues have animated parts of the Republican base, and the Republican rivals are hoping to appeal to parents of school-age children, particularly suburban women, an important voting bloc in U.S. presidential elections.
Trump, the front-runner in the race to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden, said he was best positioned among the field to win suburban women.
"You know what they want?" he said. "They want peace. They want lower taxes. They want a good education."
Trump vowed to "take historic action to defeat the toxic poison of gender ideology to restore the timeless truth that God created two genders, male and female."
DeSantis, Florida's governor, and Trump's closest challenger talked up his record on education, telling the crowd how he backed legislation expanding the state's private-school voucher program. He also defended removing books with sexuality and gender identity themes from public school shelves in Florida.
"To use U.S. tax dollars to bring that type of garbage into our schools is fundamentally wrong and has no place," he said.
Several hundred people from liberal advocacy groups protested outside the hotel where the event was held on Friday. Before the program, activists from Agenda PAC, an LGBTQ advocacy group, left hangers on the doors of hotel rooms that read, "Please Disturb. Fascism in Progress."
Launched in 2021 at the height of the pandemic, Moms for Liberty increasingly has played an active role in helping to elect conservative members of local school boards, while also lobbying state legislatures for measures such as Florida’s law that prohibits the teaching of gender-identity concepts to elementary- and middle-school students.
The Republican candidates' courting of the group's members signifies its arrival as a major conservative player in national politics. Its summit is being sponsored by longtime right-wing policy shops such as the Heritage Foundation and the Leadership Institute, which trains candidates for office.
Tina Descovich, a Florida-based co-founder of the group, said the organization will not endorse a Republican candidate in the primary but instead insist that candidates pledge to support its agenda of advancing policies that increase "parental involvement" and "defend against government overreach."
“The candidates know that the No. 1 issue domestically right now is the attack on parental rights and the educational failure in our country,” Descovich said.
COURTING MOMS
No presidential candidate has worked harder to align himself with the group than DeSantis, who has made limiting transgender rights and railing against progressive education policies central to his campaign.
Volunteers sporting shirts with the group’s logo were seen working recently at DeSantis’ presidential campaign events in Iowa. DeSantis' wife, Casey DeSantis, will campaign solo in Iowa next week as part of a new "Mamas for DeSantis" outreach effort, his campaign said on Friday.
Kerry Gillespie, 46, who said she had been battling what she termed overreaching school policies in her Maryland neighborhood, said at the Moms for Liberty event that she is supporting DeSantis in the primary.
“The person has to go beyond lip service and have a track record where you can see their accomplishments,” Gillespie said.
Other Republican candidates also are cozying up to Moms for Liberty, which now claims 120,000 members in 44 states.
Tim Scott, a U.S. senator of South Carolina, recently sponsored a fundraiser for the group in his home state. In May, Mike Pence, the vice president under Trump, was bracketed by members of the group as he railed against an Iowa school district’s “gender transition” plan.
Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, publicly defended Moms for Liberty after the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, labeled it an “anti-government extremist” organization.
Members of the group have also shown up at Trump’s rallies, bearing their signature shirts.
Critics of Moms for Liberty, including national civil-rights groups, said its focus has moved beyond pandemic-related learning issues toward embracing an anti-LGBTQ and anti-diversity agenda that has brought about measures in several states restricting what can be taught in schools and books they term objectionable being pulled from library shelves.
“This is not about ideology,” said Jazmyn Henderson, a transgender woman with the advocacy group ACT UP. “We are talking about trying to wipe a community of people out of existence, about trying to force us back into the shadows.”
Tia Bess, Moms for Liberty's national director of engagement and a Black woman, pushed back against criticism that the organization is a hate group.
“Do I look like a racist to y’all?” Bess said. “It’s time to stop the division and stand up for our kids."
A Texas mother has started a new Girl Scout troop in North Texas specifically for LGBTQ youth.
Richel Newborg of Fort Worth, Texas, told "Good Morning America" The idea for the new troop came about after she started hearing from other mothers who were looking for activities for their transgender daughters and also from young LGBTQ girls and teens who were interested in scouting. Newborg, a former Girl Scout-turned-volunteer, knew she wanted to do something.
"A couple of the girls said, 'Gosh, I have some friends that are LGBTQ but they don't know like, is Girl Scouts friendly to that community?' … and a few of our girls in our troop had come out to me and it just sort of started this really great conversation about how do we communicate to people when something is accepting, welcoming -- and Girl Scouting is most definitely welcoming to all girls," the mom of three recalled.
Newborg said her two daughters, who were already Girl Scouts, teamed up with other girls in the area to start an informal group dubbed the "Pride Crew," which laid the foundation for what is now Troop 02777, part of the Girl Scouts of Texas Oklahoma Plains.
"We formed a Pride Crew, which is made up of a number of different Girl Scout troops, and I sort of let them set the tone for what this brand new LGBTQ troop was going to do," Newborg explained.
"There's lots of different kinds of Girl Scout troops. Some Girl Scout troops just focus on the outdoors, and some just do crafts. There are Hispanic/Latina Girl Scout troops. In our area, I know we have Muslim troops ... It's one of the things that's really cool about it -- once you establish your troop, then the girls take charge of the direction," Newborg said.
"The reason why we have this troop is it's a safe space. Any kid can join it," Newborg added. "From all of the kids that we have talked to and all the parents that we've talked to, it's that safe space, right? They have troop leaders that have LGBT kids. A lot of us have gone through extra training, mental health awareness training ... so it truly is that safe space for these kids when they join."
Tori McDonald has been a Girl Scout for 11 years, but when she heard about the idea for a "Pride Crew" and a troop specifically for LGBTQ youth, she jumped at the chance to join.
"For me, personally, I kind of have to feel out what adults and people I can talk about that aspect of my identity around, so it was nice to just have somewhere I didn't have to worry about and have kids who feel the same things that I do or maybe have some of the same experiences so we can kind of just stick together with that," the 15-year-old high school student told "GMA."
Girl Scouts of the USA declined to comment to "GMA" about the new troop but the organization states on its website that it "is proud to be the premiere leadership organization for girls in the country" and that "placement of transgender youth is handled on a case-by-case basis, with the welfare and best interests of the child and the members of the troop/group in question a top priority."
The organization notes that "if the child is recognized by the family and school/community as a girl and lives culturally as a girl, then Girl Scouts is an organization that can serve her in a setting that is both emotionally and physically safe."
Girl Scouts also offers a patch option for members to celebrate Pride Month.
Although it has only been a month since the troop formally started, Tori and four other troop members, along with the Pride Crew, have quickly started to build a supportive community, holding meetings and attending the LGBTQ SAVES Annual Youth Pride Picnic in Fort Worth.
"[The] troop means a lot to me because it provides a space where I can talk with people my age about those experiences of our family and stuff," Tori said.
For other LGBTQ girls and teens who are interested in joining, Tori said she encourages them to step out of their comfort zone.
"Even though it's always going to be a risk putting yourself out there into a safe space, it is so worth it once you get in there because you're so happy and you have so much fun, and it's just like a breath of fresh air stepping into a space like that," she said. "It's worth it."