By Adam Pagnucco.
One question around this year’s school board races is whether Moms for Liberty will get involved. If you haven’t heard of them, they are a conservative group that has been active in school board elections in other jurisdictions. I wrote the following about them in September:
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Conservatives have long contested school board races but the intensity of that project has picked up since COVID shutdowns of in-person learning. USA Today studied the efforts of two national conservative groups – the 1776 Project PAC and Moms for Liberty – to elect candidates to school boards in 2022 and found successes in California, Florida, New Jersey and Carroll County, Maryland. In June, Moms for Liberty vowed at a national summit held in Philadelphia to run more candidates all over the nation. PBS lists Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the Heritage Foundation as allies of the group. Currently, Moms for Liberty has a PAC, a Victory Fund and a Super PAC at the federal level but no campaign account in Maryland… yet.
Moms for Liberty is already active in Montgomery County. They have a chapter here, have interviewed with MoCo360 and have supported protests against MCPS’s LGBTQ+ curriculum. The chapter states on its website, “We activate liberty-minded leaders to serve in elected positions.”
A Moms for Liberty video of a statement at a school board meeting referring to next year’s election.
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Since then, Moms for Liberty has picked up its activity in Maryland. The group has been waging an ongoing campaign to get books banned in Carroll County public schools libraries. The Baltimore Sun reported on Tuesday:
Decisions have been made about 25 of the 58 books that Superintendent Cynthia McCabe ordered removed from Carroll County public schools’ library shelves last September amid challenges from the Carroll County chapter of Moms for Liberty.
As of this week, nine books have been permanently removed from shelves, nine have been retained and will once again be available to students, and six titles will now require parental permission for a student to check out.
One book, “Slaughterhouse Five” by Kurt Vonnegut, will be retained in high schools but removed from middle school shelves.
Removed books include: “Doing It,” by Hannah Wilton; “Red Hood,” by Elana Arnold; “November 9: A Novel,” and “It Ends With Us,” by Colleen Hoover; and “A Court of Mist and Fury,” and “A Court of Wings and Ruin,” by Sarah J. Maas, all of which were banned in the most recent rounds of decisions.
The Baltimore Banner has reported that the Howard County chapter of Moms for Liberty is attempting to replicate the group’s success in Carroll County.
This kind of activity is hard without supportive school board members, so it makes sense that Moms for Liberty has an interest in participating in school board elections. I asked Lindsey Smith, the president of the Montgomery County chapter, a few questions about their electoral plans this year. She kindly responded and our exchange is reprinted below.
Question: Does the Montgomery County chapter intend to participate in this year’s school board races?
Answer: Like all other interested parties, yes we intend to stay up to date and engaged in this year’s school board races.
Q: If so, do you intend to send a questionnaire to candidates?
A: At this time, we’re undecided.
Q: Would you publish the answers to any such questionnaire?
A: Most likely, yes.
Q: Will you endorse candidates?
A: At this time, we’re undecided.
Q: And will you open a campaign finance committee with the State Board of Elections?
A: At this time, we’re undecided.
Moms for Liberty has retweeted a few tweets by District 4 candidate Bethany Mandel, a conservative author who has written a book condemning “woke” activists, which are reprinted below. Whether the group goes any further is an open question, at least for now.
