REUTERS
- Conservative organization Moms for Liberty faced major setbacks in state and school board elections.
- Candidates endorsed by the organization suffered widespread defeats, this week.
- The organization focuses on book bans and censoring diversity classes and LGBTQ rights.
Candidates endorsed by "parental rights" campaigners faced setbacks in state and school board elections on Tuesday.
Moms for Liberty is a conservative political organization that advocates against progressive topics in school curricula, such as LGBTQ+ rights and critical race theory, endorsing candidates that uphold their stance on culture battles on gender and race.
The group endorsed 13 candidates in Iowa, yet the group saw only one victory, signaling a major setback for the organization, The Washington Post reports.
The Tuesday results mirror a broader trend of defeats faced by the group and Republicans nationwide. Nathan Gibson, the sole Moms for Liberty-endorsed candidate in Iowa to win, secured a seat as school director in the Interstate 35 district, a rural area with fewer than 1,000 students.
Founded in 2021 amid opposition to COVID-19 restrictions, Moms for Liberty expanded its focus to include issues like diversity classes, LGBTQ+ rights, and for high-profile bans on school library books.
However, voters across the country rejected the organization's agenda on Tuesday. With over 130 endorsed candidates nationwide, most faced losses, some with single-digit support.
In Minnesota, all four Moms for Liberty-backed candidates and counterparts in Washington state lost. New Jersey saw only four out of 19 endorsed candidates winning. Ohio, endorsing 25 candidates, had just five elected, while in Virginia, only one out of six received voter approval.
The organization was founded by two former school board members in 2021 and grew to over 95,000 members across 200 chapters in 37 states by 2022. At its first national event, members strategized how to minimize the influence of teachers' unions. In July, Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke at a Moms for Liberty summit.
The Florida nonprofit has called for book bans and censorship of identity topics.
In April, a Florida school banned an adaptation of Anne Frank's Holocaust diary because Moms for Liberty deemed it "sexually explicit."
Last year, one of the group's chapters said it would offer $500 to anyone who caught teachers using critical race theory.
This widespread rebuke to right-wing causes extended to the Republican Party, as Ohioans voted to protect abortion rights, defying GOP efforts. In Virginia, Democrats secured control of the state House and Senate, marking a significant upset.