Are Republicans losing the culture wars?

Republicans are confronting a decisive moment in the battle over public education: proving they can still win a culture war.

School board candidates backed by Moms for Liberty, a conservative vanguard whose members popularized restrictions on classroom library books, are losing elections in Florida and some swing states . Republican leaders who rallied against critical race theory and LGBTQ+ issues recently faced recalls in red pockets of California.

And in the presidential race, Democrats are playing offense. This week’s party convention in Chicago featured liberals attacking conservative candidates as “weird” and denouncing so-called book bans.

Former President Donald Trump is expected to lean into school politics next week at a Moms for Liberty summit, making the case that culture war issues still resonate with core supporters. Republicans show no signs of changing their strategy. But the party faces new challenges from a Democratic agenda — embodied by vice presidential nominee Tim Walz — that is redirecting the divisive education issues promoted by conservatives during the pandemic into a vehicle for highlighting free school lunches and affordable child care.

“We're in the middle of a cultural revolution in America, and one of the biggest battlegrounds is the schools,” Moms For Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice said in an interview. “We didn't start this fire, but we're going to put it out.”

Karoline Leavitt, a Trump campaign spokesperson, said there is “a lot of mutual consensus” between the Republican nominee’s beliefs on education “and what Moms for Liberty stands for.”

But several Democratic National Committee speakers found ways to leverage social issues, including Walz, a former teacher who used them to pivot to a law he signed as Minnesota governor providing free school meals to all students.

“We made sure that every kid in our state gets breakfast and lunch every day,” Walz said Wednesday at the DNC. “So while other states were banning books from their schools, we were banishing hunger from ours.”

Moms for Liberty has declared the Democratic presidential ticket “would give way to the rise of the most anti-parent, extremist government America has ever known .” Some conservatives have started referring to Walz as “Tampon Tim” for a law he passed as governor that provides students with free menstrual products in school restrooms. They assert the law requires those products in boys’ bathrooms, but it does not include such a mandate.

Walz is currently the most popular member of either presidential ticket, according to polling conducted last week by the Democratic research firm Blueprint. It concluded about half of voters and independents said the free school lunch law caused them to view the governor more favorably.

Education ranks high on the list of Americans’ concerns, according to recent polling that suggests many prioritize less politicized issues such as school funding.

Preparing students to enter the workforce and attracting and retaining good teachers are among Americans’ top educational priorities for the next White House, according to a newly released education association survey that found a narrow majority of Americans see public education as extremely or very important to their vote. The poll, conducted in late June and early July when President Joe Biden was still in the race, concluded significant majorities of independents support ideas that garner wide public acclaim.

“If I were advising a candidate for office, I would focus on the issues that have broad support across political ideologies,” said James Lane, a former senior adviser to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona who is now CEO of PDK International, the professional association for educators that conducted the poll. “At least in our polling, independents have some very clear priorities for the next president.”

Trump will swap out a campaign-style speech in favor of a “fireside chat” next Friday with Moms for Liberty in Washington. Supporters hope he’ll elaborate on a party platform that includes commitments to close the Education Department and defund schools that are “pushing critical race theory, radical gender ideology, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children.”

The visit is part of a symbiotic relationship between the candidate and the organization. The Trump interview promises to help shore up support for Moms For Liberty, which brought a roster of Republican presidential candidates to its convening last year in Philadelphia . For Trump, the group offers the nominee an opportunity to make a direct case to a segment of women voters.

“It just speaks to the long-standing relationship that President Trump has had with the leadership at Moms for Liberty and their unwavering commitment to reelecting him,” said Leavitt, the Trump campaign spokesperson. “They know that he's going to be the best choice for standing up for parental rights and for mothers and for children.”

Labeled as an anti-government extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the organization is a central player in a legal campaign that has blocked the Biden administration from enforcing its Title IX anti-discrimination regulations throughout roughly half the country.

“We’d just like to hear some more plans,” Justice, the Moms for Liberty co-founder, said of the Republican presidential nominee. “He talks about abolishing the Department of Education. I think it's a little more complicated than just waving a magic wand and making it go away.”

The group is still facing headwinds. Conservative-leaning school board candidates backed by Moms for Liberty and a key supporter, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, fell this week in several races across the state. Moms for Liberty’s endorsees also struggled in 2023 school board elections, according to a Brookings Institution analysis , particularly in suburban areas.

Two conservative-leaning candidates just lost their races in Florida's Indian River County — a Republican-dominated area where Justice once won a school board seat — including an incumbent who was appointed by DeSantis in April.

“Floridians across the state are tired of the divisiveness, they are tired of the culture wars,” Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried told reporters on Wednesday. “Ron DeSantis lost badly.”

DeSantis pointed to the overall record of conservative school board candidates since 2022 and called it proof that Floridians support an education platform that rails against “woke” ideology in schools. He also said Republicans devoted fewer resources to school board races this cycle “because we’ve got so much stuff going on,” referencing fundraising for Trump and statewide abortion and marijuana ballot measures the GOP is fighting.

Republican-backed candidates made inroads in conservative pockets of California in 2022 , but their progress has since eroded. In just the last year, six conservatives have been recalled, eliminating four GOP-endorsed school board majorities.

Tab Berg, a Republican strategist who has run school board campaigns in California, argues Trump’s focus on social issues in education is still a viable strategy — but the former president needs to simplify his messaging.

“My advice to the Trump campaign has been consistent over time, and I've said it to a couple people I know over there: Make the speeches shorter. Keep the points simpler,” Berg said.

Moms for Liberty founders insist the losses don’t mean much.

“You're going to win some races, and you're going to lose some races,” Justice said. “The fight doesn't stop here.”

Blake Jones and Kimberly Leonard contributed to this report.