Moms for Liberty is convening this summer in Philly, a backdrop for the group’s focus on ‘preserving American values’

Moms for Liberty, the controversial parent group whose members have confronted school boards and spearheaded book challenges and fights against diversity education, has chosen Philadelphia as the host city for its national summit this summer.

The summit, planned for June 29 through July 2 at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, is the second for the group, which held last year’s event in Tampa, Fla. Philadelphia was a natural choice, cofounder Tina Descovich said in an interview: Its history provides a thematic backdrop for the group’s focus on “preserving American values.”

But the location also caters to Moms for Liberty’s membership, which has a significant local presence. After Florida, where Moms for Liberty was founded in 2021, Descovich said, Pennsylvania has the second-most members. Of the group’s 115,000 members and 275 chapters nationally, 11,450 are in Pennsylvania, spread across 27 chapters, according to a spokesperson. (Among them are Philadelphia’s four collar counties.)

The summit, which aims to draw 650 attendees, will have a focus on school board races, with training offered to candidates.

Moms for Liberty’s local chapters decide endorsements, Descovich said. A questionnaire for candidates seeking endorsement in Bucks County, for instance, asks whether parents should be allowed to exempt children from vaccines based on religious or moral convictions, to opt their children out of sex education, and to have a voice in “curating school libraries.”

It also asks whether candidates support student-led prayer, the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, and “teaching minors that they can change their gender,” and includes such open-ended questions as: “What does liberty mean to you?”

Moms of Liberty members “are everywhere” in Pennsylvania, said Susan Spicka, executive director of Education Voters PA, a pro-public education advocacy group that has been monitoring school boards — though she said some Moms for Liberty members can be less public about their association with the organization, depending on the political makeup of the community.

“In some places, the school board candidates are happy to be completely out and transparent that they are part of Moms for Liberty,” Spicka said — showing up at meetings with Moms for Liberty T-shirts, with such slogans as “We do not co-parent with the government.”

But in areas that are “more purple or blue,” Spicka said, some board candidates are “trying to pretend they are not connected” to the group, which has accused schools of indoctrinating children, stoked backlash over critical race theory, and called to remove “pornographic” books from school libraries.

Moms for Liberty is hoping to play a bigger role in school board races nationally by starting to fund candidates, Descovich said. The group says it endorsed 500 candidates last year, with 275 winning election.

Earlier this month, however, most Moms for Liberty-backed school board candidates lost races in Wisconsin.

Rather than the group’s priorities or messaging, Descovich faulted funding: “We need to raise money for our PACs, so we can actually compete in some of these races financially,” she said. So far, Moms for Liberty has funded races only in Florida.

The group reported $370,000 in revenue in its first year, including contributions of $100,000, $20,000, $15,000, $10,000 and $5,000, according to a federal tax form.

As a 501(c)4 “social welfare” nonprofit, Moms for Liberty doesn’t have to publicly disclose its donors. Descovich said the group was still working on preparing more recent financial statements, but “we definitely have some bigger individual donors who have come in over the last year to help us out.”

The group has ties to conservative organizations and Republican politicians, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has crusaded against “woke ideology” in schools. Bridget Ziegler, a former director of the group, is married to the chairman of the Florida Republican Party; DeSantis recently appointed Ziegler to a commission overseeing Disney’s Orlando theme parks amid a battle between the governor and Disney over Florida’s law banning classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation.

DeSantis was a featured speaker at last year’s Moms for Liberty summit; other speakers included U.S. Sen. Rick Scott (R., Fla.), former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos — who called for abolishing her former department — and former GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson.

Most speakers for the Philadelphia summit haven’t yet been announced, though Descovich said the president of the conservative Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts, will give a talk on “the history of George Washington.” (The Heritage Foundation recently committed as a sponsor, Descovich said, joining such groups as the Leadership Institute, which trains conservative activists — recently adding a program focused on school boards — and Patriot Mobile, which bills itself as “America’s only Christian conservative wireless provider.”)

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a Republican running for governor, is also expected to speak. Robinson in 2021 said that there was “no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality, any of that filth,” prompting calls for his resignation.

GLAAD, the LGBTQ advocacy organization, counts Moms for Liberty in its “accountability project” as a group that has “spread misinformation and false rhetoric against LGBTQ people, youth, and allies,” including efforts targeting LGBTQ-themed books and comments referring to “groomers.”

The group’s stance on LGBTQ issues has fueled online petitions signed by thousands of people criticizing the Philadelphia Marriott for hosting the summit.

“There is an entire group of people who want to deny my children’s existence,” Karen Svoboda, a New York mother of LGBTQ children who started a group called Defense of Democracy, said in a petition demanding that the Marriott not host Moms for Liberty.

A request for comment from Marriott was not returned this week.

Asked about the GLAAD designation and “hate group” criticisms, a Moms for Liberty spokesperson pointed a reporter to a recent statement from Descovich and cofounder Tiffany Justice, referring to a “a coordinated effort ... aimed at marginalizing and discrediting the serious concerns of our members about the public K-12 education system.” The statement accused critics of “false allegations and misleading stories,” and rejected “any accusations of dangerous behavior made against us as false.”

Descovich — who appeared on CBS Sunday Morning earlier this week with Justice about the group’s efforts to ban sexually explicit books from school libraries — told The Inquirer that Moms for Liberty’s main focus is addressing “educational failure.”

“The biggest win for us is when all eyes are focused on teaching kids to read and improving that education,” she said, accusing media of focusing on such issues as book bans “because they get clicks.”

Yet she acknowledged that Moms for Liberty members were driving those debates.

“It’s all connected,” Descovich said. “If you’re taking up bookshelf space with books that have pornography ... there’s a problem. That part has to be exposed also.”