Moms for Liberty co-founder and former Brevard County school board member Tina Descovich. Credit: Photo via Tina Descovich/Twitter

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Wednesday two new appointments to the Florida Commission on Ethics, and one is Moms for Liberty co-founder and former Brevard County school board member Tina Descovich.

Descovich founded Moms for Liberty in 2021 alongside former Indian River school board member Tiffany Justice. The controversial “parental rights” organization advocates against school curricula touching on critical race theory, LGBTQ+ issues, and diversity, ethnicity and inclusion, as well as any COVID-19 restrictions or DEI initiatives for schools staff.

The group has been increasingly active in trying to remove material they deem inappropriate from school libraries, including books about anything from reproductive health to gender identity to sexual orientation. They’ve also stepped up their endorsements of candidates for public office that align with their views.

Moms for Liberty, which is a Florida-based group with national chapters, has been labeled as a far-right extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Since it was formed in early 2021, the group has grown to more than 130,000 members split into 299 chapters across 46 states.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, early Wednesday afternoon, Descovich wrote, “The Florida 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. It will be a privilege to serve the state I love as a member of this commission.”

According to its site, the nine-member Florida Commission on Ethics “serves as the guardian of the standards of conduct for officers and employees of Florida and its political subdivisions and functions as an independent commission responsible for investigating and issuing public reports on complaints of breach of the public trust by public officers and employees.”

This is not the first time DeSantis has worked with Moms for Liberty. In the 2022 election cycle, the governor and the Moms targeted several school board race candidates who opposed DeSantis’ educational agenda. These Moms also fought for the expansion of Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education,” the so-called Don’t Say Gay law championed by the DeSantis administration.

DeSantis’ move to appoint Descovich comes shortly after the Florida Commission on Ethics lost chairperson Glen Gilzean Jr. at the end of August. Gilzean resigned after the Commission’s lawyer said he could not hold the position as well as his job as Disney’s special district administrator.

Commission of Ethics members cannot hold public employment. Gilzean claimed he was not aware of a conflict, though a tranche of emails between Gilzean and the Commission, uncovered by the Florida Bulldog, sheds light on the timeline of discovery.

Descovich previously served as a Brevard County school board member from 2016 to 2020, when she lost her seat to Jennifer Jenkins. Descovich then served as president of the Florida Coalition of School Board Members starting in 2018.

DeSantis appointed Descovich to the Florida Commission on Ethics alongside U.S. Marine Corps veteran and attorney Luis Fuste. The announcement came Wednesday in a release from the governor’s office. Both appointments are subject to confirmation by the Florida Senate.

The Ethics Commission is set to meet next on Friday, Sept. 8.

This article first appeared at our sister publication Orlando Weekly.

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