The Orlando Sentinel newspaper continues to hold down the obnoxious-liberal end of the political spectrum in right-leaning Florida, attacking homegrown political movements. The banner headline over Sunday’s front page: “Moms for Liberty candidates falter in school board elections.”
Education reporter Steven Walker’s piece hardly even nodded toward balance, the writer seemingly gleeful over the underperformance of candidates endorsed by the Sarasota-based Moms for Liberty, the group that has earned leftist ire by challenging the ideological objectives of public-school teachers and librarians and other fans of foisting gender-bending propaganda books onto children.
Steven Walker's bias began from the fourth word and continued to the end.
Moms for Liberty, the notorious conservative group formed to fight COVID-19 mask mandates and then "pornographic" books and other culture-war topics, looks to be losing influence in Florida, the birthplace of the parents-rights organization.
Across Florida, many candidates who shared the group's views lost their elections on Tuesday. Some observers said the results indicate that Moms for Liberty now looks "toxic" to many voters. The group had become known for its members' angry denunciations at board meetings, and its "We do not co-parent with the government" t-shirts.
Moms for Liberty, once dedicated to electing like-minded school board members statewide, also spent the least amount of money and endorsed the fewest school board candidates this year since its formation in 2021. And some candidates it did endorse chose not to proclaim that Moms for Liberty supported them.
The journalistic description of Moms for Liberty could have been written by a political enemy.
In Flagler County, two candidates aligned with Moms for Liberty lost elections, including one who was previously endorsed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. The DeSantis administration embraced Moms for Liberty members, including Farrant, several years ago as it heightened scrutiny of school books, limited lessons on racism and passed a law banning instruction on sexual orientation that critics dubbed "Don't Say Gay."
Walker let smears pass without challenge.
The losses in Orange are "a reflection that we are not interested in banning books and trying to single out marginalized communities - that really we just want a strong public education for all of our students, and I think our community really has always supported that," said Orange County School Board member Stephanie Vanos.
Vanos was elected two years ago, defeating a more conservative candidate who critics said was tied to Moms for Liberty despite her denials.
It isn't surprising to see Moms for Liberty's impact fall off in recent years, Vanos added.
"Moms for Liberty is toxic. It's a toxic label, and I think they know it," she said.
Screenshot/YouTubeBut in a statement, Moms for Liberty pushed back against the notion that the organization has lost a step.
Moms for Liberty CEO and Co-Founder Tina Descovich declared victory after last week's election, calling it a "sweep" for the group's 15 endorsed candidates in Florida - 11 of whom won or advanced to runoffs in November.
"Every couple of years someone in the media writes our obituary, and every couple of years parents show up and prove them wrong," she said in a statement.
That was it for rebuttal. Next, Walker canonized Sarasota County School Board member Tom Edwards, who had been “the subject of attacks from the local Moms for Liberty chapter….Group members would claim Edwards, who is gay, was a ‘danger’ to school children.” He let Walker lay into his political opponents.
This year's election and Ziegler's departure marks the "death for Moms for Liberty," he said.
"We're the bellwether for the whole country. Craziness, extremism started here, and we closed it here," he said.
Angie Gallo, the Orange school board member who defeated Farrant in the race for board chair, said most voters want school board members focused on public education, not extreme political positions, so it's not surprising Moms for Liberty's influence is fading.
Walker wasn’t done, piling on with an arrogant quote from Joe Saunders of Equality Florida Action.
"Voters are sick of the extremism of Moms for Liberty -- the shrill voices of people who don't even have kids in public schools most of the time coming to scream at school board members, attacking teachers, attacking the programs themselves, attacking libraries. They want the focus to be back on the things that matter the most," Saunders said.
