The push to combat DeSantis’ banned book movement

With help from Ella Creamer, Rishika Dugyala, Jesse Naranjo and Teresa Wiltz

What up, Recast fam! President Joe Biden once again calls for stricter gun restrictions following shootings in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Kansas and Texas. And former Rep. Mondaire Jones announces he’s running again for New York’s 17th Congressional District. First we focus on a progressive effort to elevate banned books as a 2024 campaign issue.

When Rahna Epting assumed the role as the head of the progressive advocacy outfit MoveOn in 2019, she said her focus was on three things: countering threats to democracy, including efforts to spread misinformation; combating the rise of white nationalism; and harnessing the political awakening of voters who aren’t typically engaged.

Epting, who is Black and Iranian and the first person of color to serve as the organization’s executive director, says her mission remains the same.

As conservative-leaning states continue to ban or restrict books, MoveOn is revving up its mobilization efforts to raise awareness — and galvanize its troops to engage in a culture war that she argues liberals are losing at the moment.

In Orlando today, the organization will unveil its “Banned Bookmobile,” from which it will distribute banned books, hold readings with authors whose works have been removed from school libraries and work with local activists and elected officials on a multistate tour. The goal: to raise awareness of what MoveOn derides as a “censorship” movement spearheaded by Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis.

The Florida governor signed into law last year sweeping legislation allowing parents to challenge books in school libraries if they consider them inappropriate for students. And “inappropriate” can mean books they deem to be too sexually explicit or, in their view, inaccurately deal with issues of race. For his part, DeSantis has dismissed as “political theater” concerns from critics that it’s now verboten to talk about historical issues like slavery in Florida schools.

“Exposing the ‘book ban’ hoax is important because it reveals that some are attempting to use our schools for indoctrination,” DeSantis said in March.


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At first blush, MoveOn’s focus on DeSantis seems odd given that the governor’s seen his standing in the 2024 GOP nominating contest slip in recent weeks, trailing former President Donald Trump by roughly 30 points, according to recent polling.

Epting brushes off that characterisation. She says DeSantis’ policies have been emulated by other states, and, because he is running to the right of Trump, his actions will pull his party further to the extreme as the Republican contenders try to differentiate themselves from the clear frontrunner.

The initial phase of the banned book tour will include stops in Milwaukee, the site of the first Republican presidential debate next month and the site of the RNC convention in 2024 and Charleston, S.C. The free speech advocacy group PEN America lists South Carolina in the top five of states with the most instances of banned books. The tour will conclude in Tallahassee, the Florida capital.

The launch of the tour also comes on the heels of a Moms for Liberty conference in Philadelphia over the weekend where DeSantis, Trump and three other GOP hopefuls gathered to sharpen their own school-centered campaign push.

I chop it up with Epting about why the energy on schools and book bannings appear to be resonating with conservatives, what liberals have to do to combat this and what she hopes is the end goal for elevating banned books as a campaign issue.

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This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

THE RECAST: What are you hoping that the tour accomplishes?

EPTING: One is to shed light on the dangerous bans of Ron DeSantis, whether that’s banning saying gay, banning abortion or, even now, banning books — over 500 books in his own state. And No. 2 is to shed light on the fact that this is the entire agenda of the new MAGA Republican Party.

We have a slew of GOP presidential primary candidates that have either agreed with DeSantis’ decisions or actions in the space or they have failed to denounce them. And third, it’s to ensure that people have access to the brilliance in these banned books throughout the country and understand which books have been banned so that we encourage people to read them.

We’ll be joining together with hundreds of teachers and educators throughout the country that have had to deal with the awful pushback around banned books throughout the country. And then we officially launch the tour next week at Netroots Nation.

THE RECAST: A lot of this tour seems to focus on DeSantis, who as a presidential candidate has not threatened Trump’s dominance in the GOP nominating contests so far. Why make him the central figure for this tour? I mean, he’s down by 30 points, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.

EPTING: Ron DeSantis is the ban man. He is the king of bans. He is the guy who was trying to go toe-to-toe with Donald Trump and he is even campaigning further right than Donald Trump.

What happens when a prominent candidate is the most extreme [is] the rest of this Republican Party tends to go with that. So we think Ron DeSantis is very dangerous. He is not the moderate that some are trying to paint him out to be. He has possibly worse policies than Donald Trump.

THE RECAST: Is there concern at all that, if this tour is as successful as you hope it will be, that you’ll end up blunting further the rise of DeSantis and indirectly helping Trump secure the nomination?

EPTING: Well, first of all, I question the notion that this emphasis is DeSantis as “rising.”

Look, whether it’s Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis or Nikki Haley, this set of Republican Party leaders are incredibly scary for the future of our country. Even if you’re voting for a moderate, let’s say you vote for Tim Scott, a vote for him is a vote for the MAGA Republican Party. So we’re pinning banned books on every Republican candidate who refuses to denounce it.

THE RECAST: This tour is coming as conservatives are certainly pushing to make education issues front and center and part of the culture wars. This past weekend, Moms for Liberty held their national summit in Philadelphia and five presidential candidates came.

Should President Biden be doing more?

I talked to Kimberlé Crenshaw, one of the founders of critical race theory, a few months ago and she talked about how dangerous it will be if the president refuses to engage in this so-called “war on woke” and push back against rhetoric about liberals wanting to indoctrinate children in schools. Do you see it as an issue that is this stark?

EPTING: Well, Kim is right.

Not pushing back against book bans would be a massive failure for all of us that care about the future of this country.

I think the challenge is that it’s localized. Yes, the president should be — and we want to see him — speaking out against these bans, but we also need folks at the local level and state level to do so as well. There is not one figurehead that can push back against it all.

You have educators meeting in Orlando this week, and they’re talking about these issues and how it’s impacting their ability to teach. And you have Democrats on the state and local level mobilizing.

That being said, I think the more important point is the issue about Moms for Liberty … and their assertions [that] being for parental rights is just what they’re cloaking their intentions around.

This is a defining issue of this election cycle. MoveOn members have given thousands of dollars to MoveOn so that we can run this ban bookmobile tour across the country. We lead the only way we know, which is to listen to our members about what they care about, then drive campaigns that embody that passion.

So if we’re going to be one of the first of a few folks out there pushing back against book bans, then that is our role. And we hope that it creates space for other people to also come out, push back and speak out.


ICYMI @ POLITICO

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