Florida's Moms for Liberty Co-Founder Secures White House Access

Tina Descovich was in the room when President Donald Trump signed an executive order on transgender athletes. She sat alongside the CEOs of Google and IBM to discuss artificial intelligence and education policy. Last month, she attended a global technology summit hosted by first lady Melania Trump.

Each visit was another data point in the remarkable trajectory of Moms for Liberty — a group founded five years ago in Florida by women who wanted to change what children read in school and which bathrooms transgender students could use. Today, it operates with a level of White House access that rivals the National PTA.

"We have a seat at the table in so many policy discussions throughout the administration," Descovich, who lives in Florida, said in an interview with The Associated Press during a recent visit to Washington. "We're invited to participate in discussions and meetings where some of these things are hashed out."

By her count, Descovich has visited the White House roughly a dozen times since Trump returned to office. She brought more than a dozen members to a Women's History Month event in March. Co-founder Tiffany Justice attended the signing of an executive order to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education — an institution Moms for Liberty has long targeted.

The group's reach now extends to Capitol Hill, where more than 100 members fanned out across congressional offices on a recent March morning, delivering homemade cookies alongside their policy priorities. House Speaker Mike Johnson posed for photos with members. Sen. Lindsey Graham posted a thumbs-up alongside a Moms for Liberty supporter on social media.

Behind the scenes, Descovich has served as a conduit for complaints to federal agencies. After meeting with Justice Department officials, she delivered more than 250 complaints about schools' transgender sports and bathroom policies, she said.

The group's critics — including the Southern Poverty Law Center, which labeled it "extremist" in 2023 — say its White House access amplifies what they describe as anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and intimidation of educators. Descovich rejects that framing. "Our motto has been, from Day One, we're joyful warriors, because we knew we needed to advocate in a way that was OK for our children to watch," she said.

Rick Hess, director of education policy at the American Enterprise Institute, said the group has effectively filled a vacuum left by establishment organizations distancing themselves from the Trump administration.

The White House did not detail the specifics of its relationship with the group. Spokesperson Olivia Wales said Trump is "the most pro-family President in history" and that the administration "is proud to tout these great accomplishments for American families alongside many leaders."

For Treasure Coast families — particularly the tens of thousands of public school students in Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties — the group's influence carries concrete implications. Moms for Liberty chapters have pushed for and helped secure Florida's Parental Rights in Education law, which governs classroom instruction on gender and sexuality in public schools statewide. The group's complaints pipeline to the Justice Department means local school district policies on transgender students could draw federal scrutiny. School board elections in all three Treasure Coast counties remain competitive terrain where Moms for Liberty-aligned candidates have previously sought seats. The group's role in shaping the administration's push to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education could also affect the federal funding streams that Martin County School District and St. Lucie Public Schools receive each year.

The group claims more than 300 chapters nationally, with revenue flowing from donors including the Heritage Foundation and conservative megadonor Richard Uihlein. Its next test will be whether that organizational muscle can translate into congressional wins — a campaign that, by the looks of those Capitol Hill cookie deliveries, is already underway.

This article was generated with AI assistance using publicly available information. It was reviewed and approved by a human editor before publication. TC Sentinel uses AI writing tools in accordance with FTC guidelines.