The disgraced, discredited, and voter-rejected book-banning extremist group Moms for Liberty (M4L) is still looking to remain relevant in this year’s election, including a high-profile U.S. Senate race, and in school board elections.
The group has also fought Title IX protections for transgender students, urging leaders to “withhold funds from schools that teach about nonbinary and transgender identities,” a move that would harm all students.
Here are a few Moms for Liberty-aligned and backed candidates in battleground election states including Florida, Michigan, Nevada, and North Carolina.
Florida
Incumbent Sen. Rick Scott is touting his connections to Moms for Liberty, including on his campaign website, where he endorses the group and the “great work they are doing advocating for parents and children.” Scott’s connections to the group include:
- Endorsed, in August 2024, Naples Moms for Liberty chapter chair Yvette Benarroch for a Florida House seat.
- Signed the M4L “Parent Pledge” and baselessly claimed “the radical Left has been waging a war against parents in their attempt to indoctrinate our kids with woke nonsense.”
- Authored a “12 Point Plan” which denies the existence of transgender people and calls for federal proposals restricting LGB and especially transgender rights.
- Appeared at M4L’s first and second annual conventions. The group’s candidates were defeated in the 2022 midterms, and have been repeatedly rejected in school board and other elections including the August 20 primary in Florida.
- Supported, then withdrew support, for Florida GOP chair Christian Ziegler, husband of Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler, when Christian was accused of sexual assault against a woman with whom the Zieglers were have a three-way sexual relationship.
Florida taxpayers paid out $21 million to defend “Don’t Say Gay” and other discriminatory, unconstitutional attacks against LGBTQ and ally Floridians, supported by Moms for Liberty founders.
GLAAD reported on the significant losses M4L-backed candidates suffered at the August 20 primary election. Six M4L-connected candidates lost their campaigns, while an additional five are on the ballot in runoff races this year.
Matt Susin – Brevard County: An incumbent candidate whose donors include former Brevard Public Schools board and M4L member Amy Kneessy, Susin advocated for banning books from libraries, and has used inflammatory language at school board meetings.
Susin stated that his daughter’s classrooms included furries: “What it does is (students) then do the barking and all the other weird stuff,” he said. “This is something that comes up at our dinner table at least every month.”
In 2023, the Phoenix Foundation announced they would “cut ties” with the district, saying Susan “has demonstrated again and again that he does not have the best interest of all BPS students in mind.” In years prior, the foundation made annual contributions “for a summer theater workshop and teacher grants.”
Mark Cioffi – Hernando County: Winning about 45 percent of the vote in the August primary, Cioffi has used his platform to promote book bans and discourage DEI programming in schools.
- Stated his belief that challenged books should be removed from school shelves to ensure “the safety and well-being of students.”
- Argued against “teacher training and student educational tools that use social-emotional learning, critical race theory, unconscious bias, and equity training are helpful.”
Vanessa Chaviano – Lee County: With 47 percent of the vote in the August 20 primary, Chaviano:
- Stated “that conservative leadership is essential to ensure a focus on the safety of our schools, student achievement, and the continued involvement of parents in our children’s education.” Chaviano is engaged in a nonpartisan race.
- Equivocated on LGBTQ inclusivity. In response to a district update removing the Pride flag and LGBTQ-inclusive language from “Safe Space” materials, Chaviano said: “While it’s essential for schools to be welcoming and inclusive for all students, the focus should be on creating a supportive environment for everyone, regardless of background. Inclusive policies and practices should be upheld to ensure all students feel safe and valued. It is crucial to balance sensitivity to diverse viewpoints while promoting respect and acceptance throughout the school community.”
Mary Blanco – Miami-Dade County: An incumbent school board member in the country’s fourth largest school district. Miami-Dade schools offer “curriculum developed by Hillsdale College,” a Michigan-based conservative-Christian college that served as a model for the New College of Florida, which earlier this year disposed of hundreds of LGBTQ-inclusive titles from their dismantled Gender and Diversity Center. Hillsdale’s role was also thoroughly rejected by voters, including last year’s school board elections in Pennsylvania.
Blanco was appointed by Gov. DeSantis to the Miami-Dade school board in 2023, and went on to:
- Send at least two of her children to a private Catholic school where she serves as a guidance counselor, and where employment applicants must commit to tenets that include rejecting marriage equality, and beliefs that LGBTQ relationships are “intrinsically immoral and contrary to the natural law.”
- Vote against recognizing October as LGBTQ History Month because it would violate the state’s “Don’t say LGBTQ” law. The proclamation had been passed 8-1 just two years ago.
Stacy Geier – Pinellas: M4L endorsed, Geier touts “academics over ideology” as part of her platform. She received 37 percent of the vote in the August 2020 primary, a narrow lead over her opponent.
- Advocated for eliminating training materials for educators that “rely too heavily on messages about privilege and representation.”
- Made claims about books being targeted for bans while complaining that the district’s “arcane and complicated” book removal policy has become an issue in recent months. “There was a cultural understanding of what was age-appropriate and so books that typically would be found in an adult bookstore were not sent by vendors to K-12 libraries. That’s not the case anymore,” she said.
- Endorsed by current board members and M4L members Dawn Peters and Stephanie Meyer, as well as Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who delivered homophobic remarks about Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s parental leave.
Donna Brosemer – Volusia County: Said “It doesn’t matter where you come from or what your background is, and in some respects, it doesn’t even matter what your particular talents are. Everyone benefits from having the opportunity to expand their world.” Brosemer is a retired government lobbyist.
- Claimed that “books are not banned,” and said that she comes “from a generation that believes that parents have the responsibility” for determining what is age appropriate for their kids, and that “the school board is responsible for ensuring Florida statutes.”
- Said the Biden-Harris Administration’s Title IX updates obliterate “parental rights, and the right of any young woman to even express discomfort at having a male in her locker room.” (Transgender girls are girls, and transgender students face higher rates of assault in public/private spaces.)
- Noted as a core value that “schools are not the place for social revolution regarding pronouns, bathrooms, sports, locker rooms, pornography.”
Nevada: Clark County
With over 300,000 enrolled students in more than 380 schools, Clark County School District (CCSD) is among the largest in the country. While Nevada has not enacted any book ban legislation, several candidates for CCSD school board have M4L ties.
Tim Underwood – State Board of Education, District 1: A former advisor to the Clark County M4L chapter, Underwood plans to “scrub diverse and inclusive policies” from Nevada schools. Underwood has spoken about learning his adult child was transgender, and appeared to both misgender his child and support so-called “conversion therapy,” which has been discredited for being dangerous to those who undergo it: “After the shock, I felt relief because I have friends who’ve overcome it, and who have been healed. And I know the way out,” said Underwood. “And I thought, well, he’s got a father that knows the pathway out of his dilemma. But it didn’t work out that way, a year ago he took his life.”
Underwood states that his child’s death “solidified his determination to embed himself into the Nevada education system to prevent ‘transgender standards on American education.’”
Lorena Biasotti (Cardenas) – District E: Co-founder of M4L’s Clark County chapter, Biasotti is mother to four children, two of whom are CCSD students. During COVID, she became involved in school board meetings to express opposition to mask mandates, calling their enforcement “child abuse.” Since then, she’s maintained a consistent presence at public CCSD meetings, making transphobic remarks and exhibiting erratic behavior that has gotten her expelled from board meetings.
- Responded to a teacher who shared concern for kids affected by pandemic school closures by saying: “She’s right. We’re leaving our kids to be molded by teachers like her who praise and encourage homosexuality, gender confusion and racism.”
- Compared gender-affirming care to pedophilia.
- Presented at the Mesquite Republic Womans’ Club, explaining “how to fight an ‘agenda’ of inclusivity,” and the steps required to challenge books.
Lydia Dominguez – District B: Used her platform to spread misinformation about COVID and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric: “this push to bring the sexualized content into the kids’ education, into the classroom, (is) the enemy. I see it as something evil when you’re trying to bring sexual content to children in the classroom.”
North Carolina: Wake County
While much of the spotlight has been on gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson’s statements and policies, the race for Superintendent of Public Instruction is also focusing attention on Moms for Liberty-endorsed candidate Michele Morrow, and her history of rhetoric.
Morrow homeschools her five children, and is now running for North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction after describing public schools as “necessary for some families to use, while also calling them centers of socialism and indoctrination.” She also “expressed support in 2020 for the televised execution of former President Barack Obama and suggested killing then-President-elect Joe Biden,” and called “for a constitutional amendment to abolish the state Board of Education.” Her campaign website asks supporters to “MAKE EDUCATION GREAT AGAIN!” and tells “far-left” voters, “YOU CAN’T HAVE OUR CHILDREN!”
In Wake County, NC, the school board operates as a nonpartisan entity, and is currently composed of seven Democrats and two Republicans. Five seats are up for grabs, including M4L-endorsed candidates:
Wing Ng – District 3: Incumbent candidate who initially joined the school board in 2022. Indy Week reports that the race could be tight, given the “mix of urban and rural voters spanning from North Raleigh up through Wake Forest to the top of Wake County.”
- Cited “the fundamental right and moral obligation” of parents in directing “the upbringing, education, and care of their children.” Ng values “the freedom of teachers to design curriculum in keeping with state standards.”
- One of two board members who voted against policy changes in response to the Biden-Harris Administration’s Title IX updates, adding clarifying language to ensure the recognition of proper pronouns. The Carolina Journal reports that Ng “raised concern over the impact that Title IX changes could have on women’s sports as his daughter gets older.” Asked Ng, “When the definition of sex no longer means boy, girl, man, woman, how do we properly protect our daughters who are athletes?” Recently enacted Title IX regulations protecting LGBTQ students from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity did not include access to sports.
- Attempted to block a grant proposal “allowing teachers to apply for money for LGBTQ projects and to purchase diverse books for their schools.” Ng and fellow board member Cheryl Caulfield “were concerned that elementary students could get access to books that violate the Parents’ Bill of Rights.” The proposal was ultimately approved.
Ted Hills – District 5: Entered the race after Michele Morrow, candidate for North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction, sent an email “saying there was no conservative candidate challenging [incumbent candidate Lynn] Edmonds.”
- Announced “he’s running to oppose the school board’s adoption of the Biden Administration’s new rules that extend Title IX to include gender identity.” The rules protect students from being discriminated against on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity.
- Denies that book removals equate to bans. “Removing a book from the school library does not ban a student from reading the book any more than placing a book in the library requires the student to read the book,” Hills said in a blog post. “Not all published books can be included in a school library; therefore, someone must decide what books to include and what books to exclude. A decision to exclude a book is *not* banning a book. A decision to include or exclude a book should be based on its appropriateness as an educational resource.” The American Library Association noted that moving and removing books is a form of censorship, particularly when the targeted books are about people from marginalized backgrounds.
Josh Points – District 6: Stated that “parents have dominion over their child,” and expressed “support for banning books that discuss sexuality and gender identity.” Points also expressed dissatisfaction with the school board’s vote to revise policies based on the Biden-Harris Administration’s Title IX updates. “In the best interests of our students, parents, and teachers, we should have waited until these challenges had worked their way through the legal system,” said Points. “Unfortunately, our leaders chose a different path which has led to much division and confusion.”
Elizabeth McDuffie – District 8: Although McDuffie’s campaign website avoids allusion to “parents’ rights” or any reference to the LGBTQ community, Indy Week reports she participated in campaign events alongside hard-right statewide candidates, including Michele Morrow. McDuffie rejects Title IX protections for transgender students, using the inaccurate term “biological males” to advocate against transgender students in school sports.
Select Additional Races in Battleground States
Arizona
Ryan Heap – Chandler Unified School District: Endorsed by Moms for Liberty.
- Voiced support for “parents’ rights” without noting the term often excludes the rights of LGBTQ parents, or parents of LGBTQ students. Said Heap, “I continue to be dumbfounded why all school board members, administrators and teachers aren’t for parental rights.”
- Identified himself as a book banner. “Books containing sexually explicit material, or that promote gender, sexual identity, are very controversial,” said Heap. “They do not belong in children, youth sections of public, school libraries. They should not be permitted to be checked out unless parents have given prior consent. Teachers cannot use such materials for classroom instruction.”
Michigan
Sandra Hernden – L’Anse Creuse Public Schools: A M4L member, Hernden made both local and national headlines after she took to Chippewa Valley Schools board meetings to express her dissatisfaction over the district’s COVID-19 policies. Subsequently, “two board members, the secretary, and the president, emailed her employer and the Department of Justice to complain about her.” In return, Hernden has filed a lawsuit against the school district.
Now running for a seat on the L’Anse Creuse Public Schools board, Hernden recently participated in a candidate forum and joined several current and prospective board members in support of book banning on the grounds of “pornography” and age appropriateness.
L’Anse Creuse Public Schools LCPSTV)
Prepared with M4L talking points, Hernden said “We need to establish books that have relevant content, and appropriate content, because not all books are meant for all ages. As a litmus test, if I gave a book to a child that’s here – third grader, fifth grader, seventh grader – as a parent, and you looked at this book and found that it was pornographic or graphic and you call the police. If the local police department would consider that book pornographic and graphic, above what the child should have, would I be in trouble? If yes, then this is something that should not be in our school library.” Local police have consistently refused to investigate or charge on claims about books.