Back in the spring of 2023, the Moore County School Board spent hours hearing a lively and emotional crowd speak for and against a local Parents' Bill of Rights.
The policy, among other things, requires teachers to tell parents when students are using different pronouns. Hannah Parker argued that makes sense.
“Living a double life, living one way at school, and another way behind your parents’ back, that will hurt you," Parker told the crowd, which cheered in response.
Noah Farrell, a transgender student worried the policy would out students to their families before they’re ready.
"Please do not punish us for being ourselves when that’s all we ever wanted. This has to stop," Farrell said as his own supporters cheered.
The board approved the policy in a 6-1 vote, months before a statewide version of the policy passed in the General Assembly. Moms for Liberty lobbied heavily for that state effort.
The group took school boards by storm during the pandemic, organizing grassroots efforts to oppose mask bans, getting rid of LGBTQ content in curriculum, and working to elect sympathetic school board members across the country. But out of the seven candidates the Moms for Liberty endorsed in North Carolina on its website this year, only two won — including one in Gaston County. Among those who lost were two recently endorsed candidates in reliably red Moore County, including Robert Levy, the board chair who oversaw that meeting last year.
Does this signal the group’s political appeal in the state is waning? It’s not so simple, says Julie Marsh, a professor of education policy at the University of Southern California.
“I don’t think we need to write off Moms for Liberty just yet, because they are diversified in their efforts," Marsh said.
Moms for Liberty has pieced together a string of broader policy victories that go beyond local school board ballot boxes — lobbying victories that have helped the group institutionalize some of its views in higher levels of government.
There’s North Carolina’s Parents' Bill of Rights. South Carolina has a state superintendent, Ellen Weaver, who is friendly with the group. The state has launched a review committee with the power to ban books from schools statewide. It recently reviewed a spate of books recommending cutting the popular fantasy series “A Court of Thorns and Roses,” among others due to sexual content, but kept literary classics like “To Kill A Mockingbird.” Similar book-banning processes have been implemented in states and school districts across the country.
“Certainly we shouldn't write them off right now given the success that they're having in these other areas," Marsh said.
In North Carolina, state lawmakers just voted to expand the state’s voucher program for private schools. Moms for Liberty didn’t officially endorse the move, but Brooke Weiss, chair of the Mecklenburg County chapter, says many members worked to pass it. And the national group’s co-founder, Tiffany Justice, was reportedly on President-elect Donald Trump’s shortlist of candidates for education secretary. Weiss says those are examples of the group’s latest victories.
“We like to say we’re just getting started," Weiss said. "And I think on a national level, you can see that the parental rights movement has really taken off, and we certainly have been at the forefront of that.”
But across the country, there has been some evidence Moms for Liberty’s success at the ballot box is waning. The Brookings Institute analyzed publicly available information about school board candidates the group endorsed and found its nationwide win rate declined from 47% to 33% between 2022 and 2023.
Moms for Liberty co-founder Justice said the national rate went up this year, pegging it at around 60%. But she acknowledged poor results in North Carolina.
"The truth of the matter is that we need to be able to put more money into the races and behind some of the candidates through the PAC," Justice told WFAE about the results in North Carolina. "Do more advertising and word of mouth."
NC State political scientist Steven Greene says Moms for Liberty capitalized on pandemic-era frustrations. But many of those are gone.
“Moms for Liberty, of course, is also very much about concerns about the books in school, what's being taught in schools, the curriculum — especially again with regard to DEI and gender issues," Greene said. "And you know, not everybody who was angry about COVID is on board for all of this other stuff.”
Weiss says Moms for Liberty would have more appeal, but she says many parents aren’t fully aware of the problems the group tries to expose — like overly sexual content in schools.
“When you show them evidence and proof of it, they are absolutely against it," she said. "So I think that the big problem still is lack of awareness.”
Back in Moore County, board chair Levy says he doesn’t believe Moms for Liberty had anything to do with his election loss. He attributed it to political rivals organizing against him.
His opponent, Steve Johnson, ran as an unaffiliated candidate. Johnson wrote in a statement to WFAE that the election shows the community wants the board to work together to solve what he called “the real, practical and important problems” the district faces.
