By James Oliphant

Moms for Liberty, a conservative parents-rights advocacy group that has rapidly expanded since its founding little more than two years ago, will flex its political muscles this week as top rivals for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination speak at its national conference in Philadelphia.

Former President Donald Trump, the front-runner in the race, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, his closest challenger, will address the group on Friday, a testament to the weight their campaigns are placing on its agenda of race and gender-based cultural issues related to education heading into next year’s nominating contests.

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.

“The candidates know that the No. 1 issue domestically right now is the attack on parental rights and the educational failure in our country,” said Tina Descovich, a Florida-based co-founder of the group.

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.

No presidential candidate has worked harder to align itself with the group than DeSantis, who has made limiting transgender rights central to his campaign.

As Florida’s governor, he has actively engaged with the group, and members have responded in kind. Volunteers sporting shirts with the group’s logo could be seen working recently at DeSantis’ presidential campaign events in Iowa.

COURTING MOMS

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 from 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.

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who will also speak at the Philadelphia summit, publicly defended the group after the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, labeled Moms for Liberty an “anti-government extremist” organization.

Members of the group have also shown up at Trump’s rallies, bearing their signature shirts.

Descovich 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."

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.

Such culture war issues have animated parts of the Republican base. Republicans are more likely to back restrictions in the teaching of systemic racism and gender-identity concepts than Democrats and independents, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in May.

A majority of Americans, however, do not favor banning books from school libraries if they contain content relating to sexual orientation or gender identity, the poll found.

And even for Republicans, as a top issue of concern, education falls well below topics such as the economy and immigration, the poll said.

Advocacy groups such as People For the American Way, ACT UP, Defense of Democracy and a Facebook-based effort called STOP Moms for Liberty organized protests in Philadelphia ahead of the Moms for Liberty conference.

A rally outside the hotel hosting the summit is planned for Friday morning when DeSantis is set to speak.

“This is not about ideology,” said Jazmyn Henderson, a transgender woman with 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.”

Bryan Griffin, a spokesman for DeSantis' campaign, has defended the group on Twitter. "We look forward to the event and reject the lies about the group," Griffin told Reuters.

Descovich and other top figures in the group deny an anti-gay animus. She said Moms for Liberty remains largely concerned with learning loss connected to school closures from the pandemic and that its opposition is driven by politics.

“People are angry because we are upsetting the balance of power,” she said.

(Additional reporting by Nathan Layne; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Alistair Bell)