Moms For Liberty Are Not The Cool Moms They Thought They Were

Smell ya later, Fascist Barbies

Last night's national elections were a flawless victory for Democrats, but we made excellent progress. We proved a lot of points about what actually matters to voters. Ohio, I'm looking at you. Good job. 

However, what really made me all tingly inside today was seeing how many school board voters shoved Moms for Liberty candidates into lockers buried under piles of sweaty gym clothes. Buh bye, fascists. Don't come back anytime soon!

Candidates backed by the anti-government extremist group found themselves losing races all over Pennsylvania, Iowa, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Mexico, and parts of Virginia. According to The Advocate, we can thank Agenda-PAC for doing the heavy lifting to ensure those defeats. In Central Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where the school board has been on the frontline of the culture wars for the past two years, all five available school board seats went to Democrats instead of anyone M4L backed in their voter guides. The Pennridge School District also turned blue with a complete Democratic turnover.

In Iowa, where some Moms for Liberty candidates had previously tried to get criminal charges brought against their school district over LGBTQ+ library books, M4L endorsed 13 school board candidates. All but one lost their races in Mount Vernon, Cedar Rapids, West Des Moines, and Polk County. High fives for Iowa!

Albuquerque, NM, where Agenda-PAC ran a strong Get Out The Vote digital campaign, saw M4L candidates defeated in two school districts. Ronalda K. Tome, in District 2, defeated the incumbent with backing from Moms Demand Action (the good moms) and the state’s branch of the American Federation of Teachers.

Book banning is out for 2024, and gun banning is in! Let’s go, New Mexico!

Ohio and Virginia brought the noise. Beyond rejecting the anti-LGBTQ M4L school board rhetoric, which has led to riotous meetings over critical race theory and rights for trans students in the past, Democrats won both houses in Virginia. Ohio went above and beyond ensuring the defeat of M4L candidates in a number of communities to also approve abortion rights and marijuana legalization measures.

We know polls are garbage, and one election’s results do not constitute a seachange. But a lot of people went to bed very worried last night and woke up today feeling better about the safety and well-being of the LGBTQ communities in key states. I don’t want to jinx it, but it feels like we’re heading more closely in the right direction as the 2024 elections begin to loom.

In a press release, the Executive Director of Agenda PAC, Ted Bordelon, said "Yesterday's election results reaffirm the clear message that parents reject hate and want equitable, inclusive schools for all kids."

Ted’s right. That is what we want. That’s why we have to remember that every election is important. From school board all the way up to the President of the United States. Every loss for Christo-fascists like Moms For Liberty is a win for LGBTQ kids and all kids. Every loss for them is a win for liberty. We have to show groups like this that they don’t speak for the majority and revoke the power this noisy, nosy minority has been wielding over school boards for too long.