Which school board candidates are backed by Moms for Liberty? Around Philly, it’s hard to tell.

Compared with his unsuccessful bid for the Souderton school board two years ago — when he was labeled a “Marxist” and accused of supporting critical race theory — Scott Swindells’ latest experience running as a Democrat for a seat on the Republican-controlled board has been relatively cordial.

But there has been some contention. After Swindells’ side characterized its opponents as aligned with a high-profile — and polarizing — “parental rights” group, the Republicans bristled.

Why are you calling us the Moms for Liberty candidates? Swindells’ opponents asked.

In May, all five Republicans running for the Souderton board appeared on a Moms for Liberty “voter guide,” posted by the head of the group’s Montgomery County chapter on a private Facebook page. Also listed were candidates running in the North Penn, Boyertown, Upper Moreland, Upper Perkiomen, and Spring Ford districts.

But ahead of the Nov. 7 elections, no candidates from Montgomery County appear on Moms for Liberty’s list of endorsements. Neither do any from Delaware County. In Bucks County — which features heated battles over school library books and curriculum — just one candidate is listed.

Since its formation in Florida in 2021, Moms for Liberty has been at the vanguard of a conservative movement that has pushed to roll back school diversity and equity initiatives and prohibit classroom discussion of such topics as gender and sexuality. The group drew Donald Trump and other GOP presidential candidates to Philadelphia this past summer at its second national summit — where it trained school board candidates on fundraising, media strategy and “getting flipped school boards to take action.”

It also met with intense protest — fueled in part by its designation earlier in June as an “antigovernment extremist group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which cited the group’s messaging that “government schools” are seeking to “indoctrinate” children.

Yet around the Philadelphia region, Moms for Liberty has been keeping a low profile in the upcoming school board elections. Though Moms for Liberty has active chapters in each of the four suburban counties, and each of those counties has a dozen or more districts with multiple school board seats on the ballot, only Chester County has numerous endorsements listed.

Spokespeople for the national Moms for Liberty organization didn’t respond to requests for comment. Neither did leaders of the Montgomery or Bucks county chapters. The Delaware County chapter president, Tiffany Barbato, confirmed that the chapter had not endorsed candidates, but did not explain why — saying its goal was “to help promote awareness of the importance of the school board elections in all of our 15 districts.”

There may be a calculation both by Moms for Liberty and candidates who align with its views to eschew endorsements, said Jon Valant, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution, which recently analyzed Moms for Liberty’s impact on school board elections nationally — looking at 372 candidates endorsed by the group in 2022 and in spring elections in 2023.

While a “disproportionately large share” of the group’s members and endorsements are in politically blue or purple areas, the Brookings analysis found, Moms for Liberty-endorsed candidates “win at higher rates in more conservative parts of the country.”

Given that dynamic, the group may not want to attach its name to candidates in liberal-leaning Philadelphia suburbs that it thinks will lose, Valant said. Alternately, candidates may be worried that moderate voters will see Moms for Liberty as too extreme and not want its backing.

“A Moms for Liberty endorsement can cut either way,” Valant said, adding that it may be more beneficial for some candidates to receive the group’s playbooks and advice behind the scenes.

In Bucks County — where after the 2021 elections, the group claimed credit for 33 school board seats — a Moms for Liberty questionnaire asking school board candidates in this year’s races their positions on vaccine requirements, school choice measures, and opting children out of sex education, also asked whether candidates were seeking a public endorsement from the chapter.

If not, they could select another option: “I do not want a public endorsement but want your members to know where I stand on issues important to them.”

Earlier this year, a Moms for Liberty “voter guide” for Bucks County circulated on social media, listing candidates in the Bristol Township, Centennial, Pennridge, Neshaminy and Central Bucks districts. “This is not an official endorsement,” fine print at the bottom read.

In Central Bucks — where a bitterly contested school board race is playing out amid arguments over library books, support for LGBTQ students, and pay equity for female teachers — all five Republicans were listed on the spring Moms for Liberty voter guide. A message sent to their slate seeking comment was not returned.

Two of the Central Bucks Republicans — Aarati Martino and Glenn Schloeffel — participated in a voter guide published by the conservative Pennsylvania Family Council, answering questions on similar topics as the Moms for Liberty questionnaire: Both, for instance, said they supported “reserving girls’ sports exclusively for biological females” and requiring parental permission for student participation in sex education “or presentations on gender identity theory.”

Another race that has drawn national attention is in the Pennridge School District. The Republican-controlled board’s hiring of a curriculum consultant who told attendees of a closed-door session of the Moms for Liberty summit that he was the “fox in the henhouse” of school districts has sparked intense backlash.

“We are the playbook for how to dismantle public education. It’s us,” said Laura Foster, a Pennridge parent who has been a vocal opponent of the board. “Moms for Liberty is 100% tied to this — whether they want to say it openly or not.”

Even if candidates aren’t officially tied to Moms for Liberty, their talking points can indicate alignment with its cause, said Ronna Dewey, Pennsylvania director of Red Wine and Blue, a progressive group focused on mobilizing suburban women. She pointed to the Republican slate running in Perkiomen Valley, Vote 5 for PV, which pledges to “restore core educational values.”

A newsletter from Vote 5 — which has supported Perkiomen Valley’s recent decision to bar transgender students from using restrooms aligned with their gender identities — promised a “No Woke Zone,” including “no mandated masks, no virtue signaling, no forced pronouns ... no privilege, no censorship, no programming kids.”

The 1776 Project, a national PAC dedicated to “overturning critical race theory” — an academic framework recognizing systemic racism that conservatives have turned into a catchall for equity initiatives — has endorsed Vote 5 for PV. One mailer the PAC sent on the slate’s behalf doesn’t mention critical race theory, instead referring to going “back to the basics” and “objective curriculum instruction.”

“The intent is still the same,” Dewey said. “You don’t have to be a member of Moms for Liberty to believe in what they believe in, and run on those platforms.” Vote 5 for PV did not respond to a request for comment.

Neither did Keep Souderton Strong, the group running against Swindells. The GOP slate — listed as supported by the Montgomery County Moms for Liberty chapter on its May voter guide — emphasizes “parental rights” and says: “We will not stand for indoctrination of your children.”

One of those candidates told Swindells he attended the Moms for Liberty summit merely to learn more about the group.

“He said, ‘The trainings were nothing like book banning,’ but how to run a good campaign for school board and be an effective leader,” said Swindells, a teacher in the North Penn School District.

Swindells believed him, although he questioned his opponent’s logic for attending.

“I don’t need to go to see what they are,” he said.