Wes Wolfe
In front of one of the friendlier crowds she’ll ever get, Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis remarked, “When you want to get something done, you go to a mama, right? Mamas on a mission?”
She spoke at a lunch event at the Moms for Liberty summit in Tampa, discussing her and Gov. Ron DeSantis’ children and home life before delving into campaign politics and the role of groups like Moms for Liberty.
DeSantis was asked what could be done to harness conservative mothers’ political activism to make a difference for her husband’s electoral success, and she said one of those things was learning more about what’s been done and what Gov. DeSantis intends to do on education.
“All of the reforms — putting parents first,” DeSantis said. “And putting the students first, and making sure we’re empowering parents. We thought we would, and we will, sign up a million moms across the state to be able to support the Governor’s initiatives.”
While school board races remain nonpartisan, that hasn’t stopped various entities and people — Gov. DeSantis among them — that have sought to work around that structure. In his case, it’s by endorsing candidates in school board campaigns. The First Lady explained some of their rationalization.
“Somebody was talking about it being political,” DeSantis said. “It’s not about political, it’s about principle.”
If you peel back the onion in some schools, you find leadership behaving inappropriately, she said.
“I think parents were peering into the classroom during COVID and they saw a lot of this stuff and said, ‘You know, this isn’t going to fly on my watch,’” DeSantis said. “But you know, for the first time, you see them (saying), ‘I’m going to do something about this.’
“It’s hard to be able to run a race, especially if you’ve never done this before. There’s a lot to it — learning which doors you need to knock on, what your messaging is going to be. Being able to afford to put a message on the air.”
Bringing the support of Gov. DeSantis’ political apparatus to these races helps raise the preferred candidate’s name ID, she said, and opens up potential resources to help that candidate run a successful campaign.
“That’s really what it becomes, a name-recognition thing for a lot of folks, because there’s no political affiliation,” DeSantis said. “Sometimes you don’t know who you’re voting for. It’s hard to be able to find what their principles are, but you know if that is a DeSantis-backed candidate, there are nine things that individual believes in that align with both the Governor and I have to say about education.
“That is a really helpful thing, I think, to help educate voters across the state to be able to support really good people who are running for the right reasons.”
25 comments
Brandon
July 16, 2022 at 9:02 am
Ron and Casey messed up on this. Moms for Liberty has the. By their little finger. Some of the endorsements for school board are more personality then policy. This group will become insignificant after the election. As for Ron and Casey, they only what time live in the White House.
Conner
July 19, 2022 at 2:20 pm
I honestly think Ron and Casey had a hand in creating Moms for Liberty. This is not a real grassroots organization, but an astroturf that is well-funded from the alt-right oligarch class. These same funders are the ones who want Ronnie to become the GOP leader. Remember, he serves elites, not the working and middle class families he claims to be helping.
John Barron
July 19, 2022 at 3:27 pm
You are exactly right! He doesn’t give a darn about real Floridians. He’s using us and our state as a maga staging ground.
ScienceBLVR
July 16, 2022 at 9:13 am
Wow, Casey. Let’s keep those Moms barefoot, pregnant, and ignorant where they should be, right? Peet back the onion? I wonder how many educators, administrators, and school staff were at that summit. You know, the people who truly give their all to make public education what it should be. Those folks who face the momentous and often difficult task of educating the future. Education based on standards and curriculum developed by experts in their fields, not church based, right wing, sanitized and devoid of actual historical and scientific facts kind of crap DeSantis, Corcoran and now, unfortunately his wife are pushing. I challenge Casey to come to my school and talk to the teachers and staff there about liberty- you know the real liberty this county was based on, not this glorified Republican fascism of the moment.
Elliott Offen
July 16, 2022 at 9:28 am
Vote RED for wealth and income inequality the likes of which the world has never seen.
Vote RED for a culture of greed, racism, incivility, and mind bending politicized religion.
Vote RED for low wage exploitation and capitalist scams
Vote RED for domestic terrorism to eliminate government so that hogs can grift Americans into slavery.
Vote RED for ancient Roman plutocracy all in the name of God!
Ocean Joe
July 16, 2022 at 10:00 am
Elliott, would you mind adding ‘roasting the planet’ to your list of grievances?
Elliott Offen
July 16, 2022 at 10:52 am
As long as the capitalists end up with every dollar and every asset in existence…they don’t care if everyone else is killed and they don’t care if the planet is destroyed. The ultimate destruction of everyone and everything is the ultimate prize at the end of the neverending stream of robberies and thefts. All this in the name of God as well..
Matthew Lusk
July 16, 2022 at 11:25 am
We don’t have Capitalism in the U.S. We have crony capitalism, criminal fascism, and communism lite. If only we could have Capitalism.
Elliott Offen
July 16, 2022 at 3:50 pm
Ok we have a type of capitalism…I get your point. Political system is plutocracy and economic system is a type of capitalism.
Joe Corsin
July 16, 2022 at 10:01 am
Moms for far right and religious indoctrination…and terrorist indoctrination… should be declared a national security threat and annihilated. Same goes for the militia groups. Use the military. Kill them all.
marylou
July 16, 2022 at 1:23 pm
Book Burning Moms for Liberty need to send their kids to private school and stop infringing on the “Parents’ Rights” of the majority– who want their children to be educated, not indoctrinated with ron’s bible school’s hate-filled, fact-free cult trash. Since the rest of us have to share the world with other people’s kids, all taxpayers should have rights regarding what’s taught in public schools.
Tom
July 17, 2022 at 9:03 pm
Go call cuomo for some fondling, he will grab some anatomy, your P, T and A. Blue state tyrants.
Tom
July 21, 2022 at 3:06 am
Yes call cuomo.
Maven
July 16, 2022 at 10:50 pm
Casey DeSantis is the real-life Serena Joy.
Tom
July 17, 2022 at 10:03 am
Loser Dem Dum Manchurian s full of hate, toxic serpents.
Governor Ron and First Lady Casey, saving Florida from filth and hate.
God bless Gov, first lady and family.
Governor Ron saved Florida from blue state tyrants. Unlike fondler Cuomo, grabbing some P, T and A. Writing a book on seniors Covid death for $5 million.
Biden’s 29% approval in Florida is a 1000 Pd weight. Crispy Chameleon, N Fraud or Dum Demings have no chance.
YYep
July 17, 2022 at 1:21 pm
America is about 246 years old Rome was not built in a Day maybe they see authoritarian reasons soon
Elliott Offen
July 17, 2022 at 6:23 pm
Vote RED for piss poor working conditions, piss poor pay, being treated like an animal at work all so some GOP hog can get rich and boost his ego.
Parent
July 18, 2022 at 9:31 am
Well our local parent group here in Leon Co. has gotten very active. We are not Mom’s for Liberty, although one of their reps contributes to our group. LCBS just passed a LGBQ guide that says if I call the school and ask if my 8 year old child went to see the school councilor, they will not tell me. But guess who has the power to defund them? They get paid per child and LCBS lost over $11 mid year due to students leaving. They lost two more that I know of this week and the number is growing.
Parent
July 18, 2022 at 9:32 am
$11 million
marylou
July 18, 2022 at 3:44 pm
I’m sure you are a loving and caring parent. Your child is fortunate to have such acceptance, but not all kids have parents like you. A lot of kids would be in danger if their school called home about a visit with the counselor, where the student discussed being LGBTQ+.
The suicide rate among LGBTQ+ kids is high, and having a counselor to talk to can be life-saving. Would you really want to make your child afraid to talk to a safe adult at their school? Is being first-to-know-everything really worth possible harm to your child? A child is being responsible by discussing their thoughts and feelings with a trusted school counselor. They may just be talking about finding the best way to talk to you!
Some of those kids leaving the school may be LGBTQ kids, and they are getting a terrible message from mom/dad. Who will they talk to? Unfortunately, it appears that some parents are willing to let their child suffer just to make a point. That’s wrong.
Conner
July 18, 2022 at 2:29 pm
I appreciate the shade in the opening line towards Casey DeSantis. When more people begin to see what a fraud she is, she will have to be extra picky about audiences and events to speak in front of.
Joe Corsin
July 19, 2022 at 7:58 am
Vote RED for fascist police state and domestic anti-government terrorists.
Vote RED for far right gangs and bad culture
Vote RED for neo nazi propaganda by red state grifter politicians
Vote RED for low wage slavery for the rest of American history
Vote RED for lunatic theocracy and forced birth of crack babies
Dan
July 19, 2022 at 2:50 pm
“Moms for Liberty” yeah, mom’s for racism and bigotry. They are like Aunt Lydia in the Handmaid’s Tale.
John Barron
July 19, 2022 at 3:23 pm
Moms for liberty=wrecked tatas all round. What dogs! Are the trumps the only republicans with attractive wives?? I miss Melania!
Tom
July 21, 2022 at 3:11 am
Mental moron, Manchurian ass lickers United.
What a group of babies.
America’s Gov, whizzes upon you big time and wins.
Comments are closed.