In many election cycles, there's a snappy shorthand for the type of voters who may help decide the winner. Think soccer moms or security moms, even NASCAR dads. And now, the "mama bears." These conservative mothers and grandmothers, who in recent years have organized for "parental rights," including banning discussion of gender identity in schools, have been classified as extremists by the Southern Poverty Law Center. They have also been among the most coveted voters so far in the 2024 Republican presidential nomination race, the AP reports. Donald Trump said organizations such as Moms for Liberty had taught the left a lesson: "Don't mess with America's moms." Ron DeSantis said "woke" policies had "awakened the most powerful political force in the country: mama bears."
Casey DeSantis, the candidate's wife, who launched "Mamas for DeSantis" in Iowa, said moms and grandmas made the difference in DeSantis' blowout win for a second term as Florida governor. She predicted they will be again as he runs for president. "We saw there was a constituency of folks who really wanted a voice, and it wasn't just Republicans. It was independents, but also a lot of Democrats, too, who didn't like the direction that the country was going," Casey DeSantis said during a talk peppered with stories about raising kids in the governor's mansion. "It's one thing when your policies come after us as mamas. It's another thing when your policies come after our children, and that's when the claws come out."
These women are largely white and may belong to official groups such as Moms for Liberty, which says it has 120,000 members, or smaller ones like No Left Turn in Education. The groups took off during the COVID-19 pandemic, when they say parents got a closer look at what their children were being exposed to in public schools, per the AP. They grew after Democrat Joe Biden defeated Trump in 2020 and were motivated by what they called government overreach and "woke" policies. Many fought pandemic-related school shutdowns and mask mandates, pushed to remove diversity, equity, and inclusion programs from schools and tried to ban books they viewed as inappropriate, such as ones with LGBTQ content. They have run school board candidates.
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Opponents say the warm-fuzzy image of a mama bear is a way to mask a cruel agenda that hurts children. "Call it 'parents' rights,' call it 'mama bears,' and try to make it sound like something that would be common sense," said Katie Paris, who runs Red, Wine and Blue, a network of women opposing GOP-backed policies such as the anti-LGBTQ and anti-trans efforts of Moms for Liberty. "The reality about 'parents' rights' is that it's just about the rights of a vocal minority that is trying to carry out an extreme political agenda," she added. Last year, conservatives tried to get hundreds of "parents rights" activists elected to school boards. One-third of the roughly 50 candidates backed by the allied 1776 Project PAC won. About half the candidates supported by Moms for Liberty were successful.
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