Moms for Liberty or leverage?
Former members of the controversial parents’ rights group Moms for Liberty are speaking out, claiming the Florida-born organization is plagued by infighting, membership turnover, and a leadership focused more on photo ops with President Trump than issues at home.
Investigative Reporter Katie LaGrone was one of the first reporters to introduce you to Moms for Liberty back in 2021.
The group rose to fame out of the pandemic, fighting school mask mandates and promoting book bans.
But five years after Moms for Liberty was thrust into the national spotlight, some members of the conservative group, which describe themselves as ‘joyful warriors,” don’t seem quite so joyful anymore.
"The reason why I resigned is because I feel like we've gotten so far away from the grassroots movement," Jennifer Pippin said.
"The organization moved away from their mission," Jessica Tillman said.
"It was more about a national movement and the big picture and their donors," Angela Dubach said.
“You’re losing the base of the organization.” Former leaders resign
Dubach, Tillman, and Pippin are among the original class of Moms for Liberty members in Florida.
Dubach started her chapter in Pinellas County in May 2021, Tillman headed up Seminole County in August 2021, and Pippin was the go-to for Indian River, one of the group’s first local branches.
"Moms for Liberty was amazing when we first started out. In the heat of COVID everything was shut down and people needed help, parents didn't know where to go and we were the guiding light," Pippin said.
But these former chairs all recently resigned, claiming that the guiding light has now faded into a movement focused less on local issues in education and more on money, donors, and securing a seat in President Donald Trump’s White House.
"It's, oh, here we are at the White House Easter Egg Hunt. And here we are at the White House, and here we are with Melania Trump," Dubach said about the organization’s top brass.
"When you're not supporting those local school board members, when you're not supporting your local chapters and not working to get the best policies and procedures at the local level, then state level and then federal level, you're losing the base of the organization," Pippin said.
“We have an opportunity,” founder defends focus on Trump
"I think I've been there, I don't know, maybe a dozen times or so,” said Tina Descovich, one of the group’s original founders. She told LaGrone she started being invited to the White House last year, weighing in on mostly education-related issues and other topics she wouldn’t elaborate on.
"Oh, just different things,” she said. “I usually have to be very clear that it’s my opinion one way or the other and not that of the organization," Descovich explained.
But she said the group’s newfound audience at the government’s highest level is an opening for the organization she can’t refuse.
"We have the opportunity now that we didn’t have in ’21 to really be involved in our mission statement to the full capacity and we're absolutely going to take that opportunity” Descovich said.
Alyssa Hines, who leads Moms for Liberty in Hillsborough County, agrees.
"I think it’s great," Hines said.
"Anytime that we have a seat at the table to help push and help support our parental rights is the way to go," she said.
Moms for Liberty’s rapid rise in reshaping conservative education
We first introduced you to the controversial nonprofit back in 2021 when we sat down with Descovich and co-founder Tiffany Justice, both former school board members who said they created the group to defend parents’ rights when the pandemic prompted school closures and mask mandates.
But since its inception, the group, which fights so-called woke policies in education and helped push what some call Florida’s "Don’t Say Gay" law, has fueled its share of critics, labels as extremists, and public ridicule. In 2023 one of its founders, Sarasota school board member Bridget Ziegler, made national headlines when, during a separate police investigation into her husband, she told police that she had engaged in a consensual three-way sexual encounter with her husband and another woman.
What hasn’t been so public until now is the group’s rash of recent exits among its top brass and what these former members describe as growing hostility within the group’s own ranks.
“I lived, breathed and slept for Moms for Liberty”
After nearly five years leading the local chapter in Seminole County and, recently, the group’s Florida legislative committee, Tillman resigned in December. She said infighting among committee members and a lack of support from headquarters left them suspended right before the session.
“They took away our voice in Florida,” she said about the suspension, which left them unable to support or oppose legislation during the 2026 session. To date, the group maintains that since 2021, they have helped get more than 100 laws passed around the country.
While Moms for Liberty also touts about 300 active chapters nationwide with about 130,000 members, across Florida these ex-chairs say the growing frustration over a lack of local support is leaving more members walking away.
On its website, Florida is listed as having 28 chapters. However, we discovered some of those chapters, including Sarasota and Polk, are not active and haven’t been for about a year. Others, including the chapter Indian River and Pinellas which Jessica Tillman and Jennifer Pippin helped lead, have shut down.
The resignations aren’t just happening in Florida.
"You can see it's happening in South Carolina, it's happening in Pennsylvania, it's happening in Georgia, Indiana, and those are just a few," Tillman said.
“I feel like we were used”
Since 2021, Michelle Smyers has led her branch in Adams County, Pennsylvania. After 5 years, she also called it quits over the group’s focus on Washington, D.C., and growing questions about its money.
"I feel like we were used," Smyers said.
"I mean, there's a lot of money being raised, but for what I don't know," she said.
Since it began, the organization’s reported revenues have shot up from just over $370,000 in 2021 to nearly $6 million in 2024, according to tax filings. Descovich said their donations come from both large and small contributors.
"We do online fundraising, so small donations, grassroots organizations, a couple larger funders," Descovich said.
As for claims of a membership decline, Descovich chalks up the exits to typical turnover for a volunteer nonprofit.
"This is hard work and it's volunteer work, and so there is turnover all the time. We actually have a full-time employee that just helps chapters transition from leader to leader, so it's not unusual," she said.
Five years later, Tillman, Pippin, Dubach and Smyers say they’ve moved on. They’re still championing parents' rights but closing the book on Moms for Liberty.
"The day that I actually walked away, I was really sad," Dubach said.
"It's sad that it ended the way it did," Smyers said.
"I hope that it gets back to where it was in 2021 when it was all about the volunteers and all about the chapter chairs and growing and helping parents and helping families and children, and not just having a seat at the White House and not just having the photo ops with the president," Pippin said.
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