‘DISHEARTENING YET PREDICTABLE’

DeSantis Names Moms for Liberty Co-Founder to Florida Ethics Panel

Tina Descovich’s so-called “parental rights” group has spoken out against COVID-19 restrictions, Black history in classrooms, and tried to get books banned from school libraries.

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday morning rolled out two of his picks for Florida’s Commission on Ethics—one of whom is the co-founder of Moms for Liberty. Tina Descovich’s so-called “parental rights” group, which was recently classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an extremist group, was founded in 2021 to push back on COVID-19 restrictions, the teaching of LGBTQ+ and Black history in classrooms, and expunging supposedly dangerous books from school libraries. Descovich explained in a Twitter statement that the state ethics commission “is charged with serving as the guardian of the standards of conduct for public officers and employees as well as safeguarding public trust”—in other words, policing state employees. “It will be a privilege to serve the state I love as a member of this commission,” she added. Jennifer Jenkins, a Brevard County School Board member who beat Descovich out in the board’s 2020 race, called the appointment “disheartening yet predictable,” according to Politico. On Wednesday, Jenkins tweeted of Descovich: “Qualifications include: losing an incumbent school board seat & creating a nationally recognized hate group.”