‘Vote like a mother’: parental rights groups notch key school board wins across the country

(Daily Caller) – Grassroots organizations, focused on parental rights in education, are celebrating key victories in school board races across the country.

Moms for Liberty, a coalition of parents working towards transparency in education, and the 1776 Project PAC, a political group that helps school board members against Critical Race Theory get elected, saw many of their endorsed candidates win seats on school boards. Their wins in states such as Florida, Maryland, Indiana and Michigan flipped several school boards, the organizations told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Last night was a disappointing night for Republicans in many parts of the country, but we’re happy to say we were very successful in key races in Florida, Oklahoma, Ohio, Maryland, which were by far the biggest places we targeted,” Aiden Buzzetti, head of coalitions and candidate recruitment for the 1776 Project PAC, told the DCNF. “We also officially flipped our 100th school board since our first election in November 2021.”

Results of school board elections from Nov. 8 are still being reported but the 1776 Project PAC is beginning to see victories; in Brandywine, Michigan, four 1776 Project PAC candidates won, flipping the school board to a conservative majority, according to the 1776 Project PAC. All three 1776 Project PAC candidates running for Carroll County school board in Maryland won, shifting the majority of the school board.

Five Florida school board candidates endorsed by the 1776 Project PAC won their elections on Tuesday, the 1776 Project PAC reported.

Across 15 states, Moms for Liberty endorsed more than 270 school board candidates up for election on Nov. 8, according to their website. Of the seats open in Florida school board elections, Moms for Liberty candidates won 41 of the 67 seats available, the organization told the DCNF.

“We’re thrilled,” Tiffany Justice, Moms for Liberty co-founder, told the DCNF. “We were able to endorse over 500 parental rights candidates so far this year with 270 on the ballot yesterday. For us, starting an organization a little less than two years ago, and then having chapters across the country that have vetted and endorsed candidates in 270 races was a really big deal. That was an accomplishment in and of itself.”

So far, Moms for Liberty was able to notch victories in Indiana, South Carolina and North Carolina; three endorsed candidates won in Tipton, Indiana, while 13 endorsed candidates won school board positions across four different North Carolina school districts, the organization told the DCNF.

In total, nine Moms for Liberty endorsed candidates won their school board elections across two school districts in South Carolina, Moms for Liberty told the DCNF.

Ahead of election day, Justice told the DCNF that Moms for Liberty encouraged voters to “vote like a mother” and consider which candidates would give them the most say and control in their child’s education.

“There’s no truer love than that of a mother for their child,” Justice told the DCNF. “When we say ‘vote like a mother,’ it means vote, unabashedly for parental rights and for your children’s future. Don’t allow the hate or the noise to take you away from what you know to be true and right and good.”

Conservatives also made key pick ups on two state’s board of education; the Texas State Board of Education will hold a Republican majority, 10-5, after all 15 seats were up for grabs, the Dallas Morning News reported. Conservatives won all the open seats on the Kansas State Board of Education making the majority of the board conservative, 7-3, KCUR News reported.

Justice told the DCNF that the key education pickups Tuesday are just the start of the fight for an increase in parental rights.

“You’re gonna have school board members that are going to really work to prioritize, in their districts a focus on student academic achievement,” Justice told the DCNF. “Helping kids to learn to read. Enough of the alphabet soup nonsense of social emotional learning, diversity, equity and inclusion and Critical Race Theory. We’re hopeful the school board candidates are gonna go within and they’re gonna really change the way that the system is working.”