Moms for Liberty’s Momentum Problem: What the Movement’s Stall Reveals About Grassroots Politics

Editorial disclosure and context from the author

Before I make my case, readers deserve clarity about where I stand. - Dave Happe

I was never a member of Moms for Liberty. I never held a title, carried a card, or acted under the organization’s name. But during COVID, I stood alongside many of the parents and activists who fueled its early rise in Florida. I showed up in the same rooms, for the same fights, at the same time.  I attended several of their meetings, across multiple counties in Florida.  

That involvement was not theoretical. I supported and participated in local efforts opposing mask and vaccine mandates across multiple Florida counties, from Sarasota to Hernando. I attended school board meetings and related public-comment sessions in Pasco, Hillsborough, Sarasota and Pinellas counties, often in the same cycle as local chapter chairs and parent leaders associated with Moms for Liberty. In Pinellas County, the conflict had a concrete human cost: children were required to wear masks at school for roughly 1,400 hours, even as many parents argued the policy violated parental choice and basic student autonomy.

At that stage, I was ideologically aligned with the movement’s core arguments as they were commonly expressed in Florida: parental rights, student medical sovereignty, and the belief that parents, not institutions, should hold the primary authority over major medical decisions affecting children. I also aligned with the push for age-appropriate resources in schools and resistance to the sexualization of children.

So this is not an armchair post-mortem. It is an analysis written from inside the Florida arena where the movement found oxygen. It is also written with a separate journalistic standard: whether a branded, nationally scaled grassroots organization can sustain momentum, translate energy into consistent electoral wins, and survive the reputational and operational burdens that arrive once local activism becomes a national political asset.

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The rise was real, and the stall is real

Moms for Liberty rose fast enough to feel inevitable. It went from a Florida-based parent network into a national brand that pulled presidential contenders onto its stage and into its orbit. The moment that captured the peak may have been the summer of 2023, when Donald Trump called it a “grassroots juggernaut” at its conference. The phrase worked because it felt true at the time. [1]

The movement did not vanish. The issues did not vanish. But the perception of unstoppable momentum did.

This is where Promise Keepers becomes a useful comparison. In the 1990s, Promise Keepers became a national phenomenon, filling stadiums and culminating in a massive event on the National Mall. It also hit a wall quickly once the spotlight moved, finances tightened, and the organization struggled to convert rally energy into sustainable infrastructure. When Promise Keepers announced it was laying off its entire paid staff in early 1998, it sent a blunt message about what happens when growth outruns governance. [2] [3] [4]

Movements can climb faster than they can build the boring systems that keep them stable. That is the shared pattern.

The anchor leaving is the headline inside the headline

If there is one sign that things were not right behind the scenes in 2025, it was Tiffany Justice leaving the Moms for Liberty battlefield.

Justice was not just a co-founder. She was the face, the translator, and the steady hand. In late July 2025, Heritage Action announced she would serve as executive vice president, and Axios reported it as Heritage Action hiring her from Moms for Liberty. [5] [6]

Champion quarterbacks do not usually leave teams they believe are on the precipice of a Super Bowl. In movement politics, the closest equivalent is the national figure who can raise money, calm donors, keep chapters aligned, and maintain access to national power players. When that person exits, it signals more than career opportunity. It signals a strategic recalibration, whether driven by internal conflict, reputational fatigue, or a belief that the next chapter of influence will not happen under the same banner.

Tidings Media’s prediction is straightforward: without Justice as the public anchor, the loss of momentum accelerates.

Full disclosure: I spoke with Justice once or twice in years past about school board-related issues, but I have not had any contact or messages with her since 2023.

National gravity changed a local movement into a national target

Moms for Liberty’s early advantage was local intensity. School boards are personal, under-covered, and vulnerable to organized turnout. A motivated minority can matter.

Then the movement went nearly national, and national fame creates national gravity. In 2024, the Associated Press reported Moms for Liberty planned to spend more than $3 million on a multi-state advertising blitz aimed at increasing membership and engaging voters. [7] That kind of spending is not automatically disqualifying, but it shifts the movement’s identity. It starts to look less like organic local organizing and more like a national political brand with central messaging, reputational fragility, and a permanent opposition machine.

At that scale, local missteps become national liabilities. AP reported the group removed two Kentucky chapter chairs after they posed with members of the Proud Boys. The organization said it was enforcing standards. Opponents used it as a brand indictment. [8]

Bridget Ziegler and the hypocrisy weapon that landed in Florida

The most damaging Florida storyline ran through co-founder Bridget Ziegler, and it hit the movement where it claimed moral authority.

In December 2023, the Sarasota County School Board voted 4–1 to urge Ziegler to resign. The board could not remove her, but the vote itself was a public escalation that made national news. [9] [10] Reporting and public testimony around the meeting highlighted accusations of hypocrisy, with protesters and speakers framing the scandal as a contradiction between public advocacy about “morality” and private conduct that critics argued undermined that posture. [11]

The controversy unfolded alongside a criminal investigation involving her husband, then-Florida GOP chair Christian Ziegler, after a woman alleged sexual assault, which he denied. [9] [11] The political effect was predictable. Critics treated Bridget Ziegler as a Florida poster child for hypocrisy, and that narrative became a shortcut argument for left-leaning education activists and media who wanted to discredit the broader movement without debating every policy point.

Whether that framing was fair to every member is beside the point. It was effective, and it attached to the brand at the exact moment the organization was trying to scale nationally.

Florida 2024 was the stress test, and the returns were mixed

Florida was supposed to be the proof-of-concept state. It was home field.

Instead, the 2024 school board cycle delivered a warning about the limits of the “parental rights” wave as an electoral engine. Politico reported that of the 23 school board candidates endorsed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, at least 11 lost, six won, and six headed to runoffs. [12] The AP described DeSantis-backed candidates falling short in multiple counties as part of that same cycle. [13]

Not every DeSantis endorsement equals a Moms for Liberty endorsement. But the overlap in agenda, activists, and political energy is real. When the broader ecosystem underperforms in Florida’s most visible school board cycle, the inevitability narrative dies.

For a movement that was once positioned as the grassroots political engine of school governance, Florida 2024 made something plain: cultural energy does not automatically convert into durable victories.

Why the momentum collapsed

No single factor explains the stall, but the likely drivers are visible.

Leadership drift and brand vulnerability. Losing Tiffany Justice removes the anchor who could hold the national coalition together. [5] [6]

Scandal contagion. The Ziegler episode gave opponents a simple attack line that traveled fast and stuck hard, especially in Florida. [9] [11]

The national spotlight penalty. Once the movement became a national brand, every local chapter became a reputational risk surface. The Proud Boys photo controversy is a clean example of how decentralized networks can create centralized damage. [8]

The reality of local governance. School board races are not just culture. They are budgets, staffing, and competence. When campaigns become national proxy fights, incumbents and moderates can frame challengers as chaos, and voters can choose stability.

The structural mismatch against better-funded counter-organizing. This is not a conspiracy claim. It is a resource comparison. "Indivisible," a left wing counter to Moms for Liberty and opposition to conservative ideology nationally, operates in an ecosystem where major philanthropic money exists. The Open Society Foundations’ own grants database lists multiple large grants to the Indivisible Project, including $3,000,000 in 2023 and $1,135,000 in 2022, plus earlier support and a 2017 grant to Tides Advocacy described as supporting the Indivisible Project. [14] Open Society also publicly states it was founded by George Soros. [15]

That does not prove operational control of every local activist action. It does show how progressive infrastructure can sustain long campaigns that volunteer-driven conservative movements often struggle to match, especially after scandal and election setbacks.

What remains after the brand loses altitude

The principles that Moms for Liberty elevated did not originate with Moms for Liberty. Conservative parent activism existed long before this logo, and it will persist after it. Parental rights, medical sovereignty arguments, and age-appropriate expectations in schools will still have constituencies in Florida and nationally.

The lesson here is about the container, not the cause. Building an organic grassroots movement at national scale is hard. It requires discipline, governance, a funding model that does not distort the brand, and leaders whose personal lives do not become an easy shortcut for opponents to discredit the whole project.

Moms for Liberty may end up remembered as a high-voltage startup that could not mature into a stable institution. That outcome does not erase conservative momentum. It signals that the next phase of this fight will likely be carried by local coalitions and new banners, not by the national brand that once looked unstoppable.

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Footnotes

[1] Reuters (June 30, 2023), reporting Trump called Moms for Liberty a “grassroots juggernaut.” Reuters
[2] Religion News Service (Jan. 1, 1998), reporting Promise Keepers planned to lay off its entire paid staff of 345 employees. RNS
[3] The Washington Post (Feb. 19, 1998), on Promise Keepers’ financial strain and transition away from conference fees. The Washington Post
[4] Los Angeles Times (Oct. 4, 1997), on the scale and preparation for Promise Keepers’ National Mall rally. Los Angeles Times
[5] Axios (July 28, 2025), “Scoop: Heritage Action hires Tiffany Justice from Moms for Liberty.” Axios
[6] Heritage Action press release (July 29, 2025), announcing Tiffany Justice as executive vice president. Heritage Action
[7] Associated Press (May 21, 2024), reporting Moms for Liberty planned a $3M+ multi-state advertising blitz. AP News
[8] Associated Press (Nov. 15, 2023), on Moms for Liberty removing Kentucky chapter chairs after Proud Boys photos. AP News
[9] Associated Press (Dec. 2023), on Sarasota County School Board urging Bridget Ziegler to resign amid the Ziegler scandal and scrutiny. AP News
[10] CBS News (Dec. 13, 2023), on the Sarasota school board’s resignation request and background on Ziegler’s role. CBS News
[11] WLRN (Dec. 13, 2023), reporting protesters accused Bridget Ziegler of hypocrisy and describing the revelations and investigation context. WLRN
[12] Politico (Aug. 20, 2024), summarizing outcomes for DeSantis-endorsed school board candidates (23 endorsed; at least 11 lost; six won; six runoffs). Politico
[13] Associated Press (Aug. 20–21, 2024), reporting DeSantis-backed school board candidates fell short in several counties. AP News+1
[14] Open Society Foundations “Awarded Grants” database filtered for “indivisible,” listing grants to Indivisible Project and Tides Advocacy (including $3,000,000 in 2023 and $1,135,000 in 2022). Open Society Foundations
[15] Open Society Foundations “Who We Are” page stating George Soros is the founder of Open Society Foundations. Open Society Foundations