As the legislative session in Tallahassee nears its halfway point, lawmakers reflect on the success of their agenda. Meanwhile, Moms for Liberty takes center state at the State Capitol.
House Speaker Paul Renner discusses his legislative agenda
Today was day 25 of the 60-day legislative session, which means we are just about halfway through the show. On the Senate side, the priorities have been health-related. We talked previously about Senate President Passidomo’s push for the Live Healthy Act.
Senate Bills 7016 and 7018 both passed unanimously back on January 17. They are now “In messages” to the House, meaning that the bills are in a holding pattern until the house takes them up.
Meanwhile, it’s the same situation for Speaker Paul Renner’s priority bills. House Bills 1 and 3, dealing with social media accounts and harmful materials for minors. The House passed both bills on January 24 and they are now sitting on the Senate side of the legislature awaiting further debate and action.
Moms for Liberty takes center stage in Tallahassee
The group “Moms for Liberty” formed just three years ago with three Florida moms in Brevard and Indian counties.
Fast forward to today, where the group is a political force. They’re in 48 states and they’re fighting for what they’re calling “Parental rights in education.”
Friday, Moms for Liberty took center stage at the Florida Capitol.
January is the group’s three-year anniversary. Since 2021, they’ve fashioned themselves as advocates for parental rights.
“Some of these wins happen on the school district level as you get pornographic books out of your schools, as you replace raging liberal school board members that don’t have children’s best interest at heart. And some of these wins happen here at the state,” Moms for Libery Co-founder Tiffany Justice said.
Moms for Liberty is known as a group of outspoken critics. If you don’t know them, you’re probably familiar with their work.
They helped push the Parental Rights bill in Florida, which was dubbed the “don’t say gay” law by opponents.
Florida Republicans delivered the bill to Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The law now bans preferred pronouns and LGBT lessons in Florida schools.
“The thing is, they want to silence you. They want to get to feel ashamed. I’ll you what. They brought the war to us,” State Rep. David Borrero said.
However, not everyone is a fan. The Southern Poverty Law Center lists Moms for Liberty as an extremist group.
Democrats, meanwhile, say they’re damaging schools. Tampa Rep. Susan Valdes is a long time educator.
“They have impacted politics in Florida in such a negative way. Instead of uniting people for the best for our children, they are dividing communities. They are dividing people. They are dividing kids,” Valdes said.
For Democrats, Moms for Liberty is a problem, not a solution.
Critics say the group should focus elsewhere. Things like teacher pay and retention, they say, need attention.
“We have a teacher shortage. We know that many young students do not want to go into the profession of education because it doesn’t pay well and they see that they can’t teach,” Valdez said.
While book bans and school board races are the group’s focus, it was the COVID-19 pandemic that helped propel the group into the national spotlight.
They opposed school lockdowns and even rallied alongside former President Donald Trump and DeSantis.
Biden prepares for projected win in South Carolina Primary
Four years ago, reeling from losses in the Iowa caucuses, the New Hampshire primary and the Nevada caucuses, Joe Biden headed to South Carolina to make his last stand for the Democratic presidential nomination.
His decisive win in the Palmetto State helped give his lagging campaign the boost it needed to capture the 2020 Democratic primary.
“We are very much alive,” then-candidate Biden said in his victory speech at the University of South Carolina in Columbia at the time.
On Saturday, President Biden will once again be on the ballot in South Carolina, the site of the first official contest of the Democratic presidential primary, in the hopes that the coalition that jumpstarted his last campaign — notably Black voters — can give this one a boost.
“You’re the reason I am president,” Biden told voters last weekend at South Carolina’s First in the Nation Dinner in Columbia, the state’s capital. “You’re the reason Kamala Harris is a historic Vice President. And you’re the reason Donald Trump is a defeated former president. You’re the reason Donald Trump is a loser, and you’re the reason we’re gonna win and beat him again.”
Democrats upended their primary calendar to make South Carolina their first-in-the-nation contest, a move the incumbent president backed in part to reflect the diversity of the party’s voters.
While South Carolina, a ruby red state that last picked a Democrat for president in 1976, likely isn’t in play for the incumbent in November, it does underscore the inroads the president is aiming to make with Black voters, a group that fueled his 2020 win but has shown slight signs of waning support, per some recent polling. In the 2022 midterms, Black support for Republicans increased slightly, though they overwhelmingly backed Democrats, according to AP VoteCast data.
Gary Darling
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