Trump seeks to activate his base at Moms for Liberty gathering but risks alienating moderate voters

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is scheduled to appear Friday at the annual gathering of Moms for Liberty, a national nonprofit that has spearheaded efforts to get mentions of LGBTQ+ identity and structural racism out of K-12 classrooms.

In a “fireside chat” conversation in the nation’s capital, the former president will seek to shore up support and enthusiasm among a major part of his base. The bulk of the group’s 130,000-plus members are conservatives who agree with him that parents should have more say in public education and that racial equity programs and transgender accommodations don’t belong in schools.

Yet Trump also will run the risk of alienating some moderate voters, many of whom see Moms for Liberty’s activism as too extreme to be legitimized by a presidential nominee.

A year ago, Moms for Liberty was viewed by many as a rising power player in conservative politics that could be pivotal in supporting the Republican ticket. The group’s membership skyrocketed after its launch in 2021, fueled by parents protesting mandatory masking for students and remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But in the last several months, a series of embarrassing scandals and underwhelming performances during local elections have called Moms for Liberty’s influence into question.

The group also has voiced support for Project 2025, a detailed and controversial playbook for the next conservative presidency from which Trump has repeatedly tried to distanced himself.

Moms for Liberty serves on the advisory board for Project 2025, and the author of the document’s education chapter taught a “strategy session” at the group’s Friday gathering.

The negative perceptions about Moms for Liberty around the country could increase the potential liability for Trump as he sits down with co-founder Tiffany Justice on Friday evening, said University of Central Florida political science professor Aubrey Jewett.

“It certainly helps him rally his base,” Jewett said. “But will that be enough to outdo the backlash?”

Justice said she looks forward to asking Trump about “what was important in his kids' lives and his kids' education.”

“I think the fascinating thing about Donald Trump is that he's a father and a grandfather, but he's involved his children in business and in politics with him,” she said. “They have a very strong family. And so I think we'll enjoy hearing more about that from him tonight.”

Justice disputed the idea that her group's influence is waning, pointing to the 60% of Moms for Liberty-backed candidates who won their recent races in the Florida primaries.

That’s “a really big deal,” she said, especially considering that many of the school board hopefuls the group endorses are first-time candidates running against incumbents. She also noted three Moms for Liberty members who won Florida House primaries, showing the group's reach into other political offices.

The group, which as a nonprofit is officially nonpartisan, said it also invited both Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, who recently suspended his campaign and endorsed Trump, to speak at the gathering. Neither is scheduled to make an appearance.

Trump hasn’t shared details of what he’ll discuss at the gathering, but his campaign pointed to his education proposals, which include promoting school choice, giving parents more say in education and awarding funding preference to states and school districts that abolish teacher tenure, financially reward good teachers and allow parents to directly elect school principals.

He also has called for terminating the Department of Education, barring transgender athletes from playing in girls’ sports, and cutting funding from any schools pushing “inappropriate racial, sexual or political content.”

“President Trump believes students should be taught reading, writing and math in the classroom — not gender, sex and race like the Biden Administration is pushing on our public school system,” said Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary.

Vice President Kamala Harris has criticized her Republican opponent for his threats to dismantle the Department of Education. She also has spoken out against efforts to restrict classroom content related to race.

Democrats have lauded her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for an executive order he signed protecting the rights of LGBTQ people to receive gender affirming health care in his state. Republicans, including Trump, have lambasted him for it.

Before he heads to Washington on Friday, the Republican nominee will hold a rally in Johnstown, a western Pennsylvania town once dominated by riverfront steel mills. Its economy has suffered in the decades since they were shuttered. Trump held a rally near the Johnstown airport weeks before the 2020 election, boasting, “We brought back steel and we put tariffs on steel.”

His campaign says Trump will use the rally to promise lower energy costs and criticize Harris, noting that, as a Democratic presidential primary candidate in 2019, she supported a ban on hydraulic fracturing. Harris’ campaign now says she doesn’t support a fracking ban.

Both sides have campaigned heavily in Pennsylvania. Harris will be in Pittsburgh on Monday for Labor Day, making her first joint campaign appearance with President Joe Biden since he abandoned his reelection bid and endorsed her. Harris hasn’t said much about her policy plans on tariffs and trade, but Biden has taken a page from the Trump playbook and proposed a tripling of tariffs on Chinese steel.

___

The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.