Moms for Liberty candidates face defeats in school board races 

Moms for Liberty backed candidates are facing blistering defeats in Philadelphia, despite holding their annual conference there.

In July, Moms for Liberty hosted their annual conference in Philadelphia, the largest city in Pennsylvania. 

Moms for Liberty, which now has branches across 48 states, with over 300 local chapters, focuses on opposing the mention of LGBTQ+ rights, race and ethnicity, critical race theory and discrimination in school curriculums.

Residents from Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs held counter-protests linked to the Moms for Liberty Summit.

In continued protest they are now voting Moms for Liberty endorsed candidates out of school boards across the region. 

Nationally, the group backed more than 130 candidates running for local officers in 2023 and lost nearly two-thirds of their races, according to an analysis from Indivisible.

In the Philadelphia suburbs, Democrats running for school boards in Central Bucks and Pennridge school districts swept all their races defeating Moms for Liberty backed candidates. 

Democrat Karen Smith officially took up the role at Central Bucks School Board on 4 December, during a ceremony in which she took her oath on a pile of six books that have been opposed by Republicans for their LGBTQ+ themes.

Smith was one of five Democrat candidates who beat opponents endorsed by the notoriously anti-LGBTQ+ group Moms for Liberty, who have been waging war on school boards across the US.

Following being sworn in, the school board voted to repeal the district’s policies banning books, marginalising LGBTQ+ students and teachers and banning transgender athletes from sports, as reported by The Keystone. 

At the time of Moms for Liberty’s conference, The Keystone spoke with parents about Moms for Liberty harming the Central Bucks and Pennridge school districts. 

Kate Nazemi, a parent living in the Central Bucks School District, said: “In our school district, we’re really seeing several different outside influencers impacting education policy for our kids, and we’re seeing teachers, many parents and students’ needs and wants being pushed aside in favour of partisan policies that don’t reflect the local needs of the community,”

Jane Cramer, who lives in the Pennridge School District, said:  “Right now in Pennridge, our students have lost a lot of their rights. It’s been a slow process, but the past few months, it’s really escalated.”