Moms for DeSantis on CNN

On Monday July 3, CNN ran a piece titled:

How Ron DeSantis gained a fan base among some suburban women far from Florida.

That’s my friend Vanessa Steinkamp — a Texas teacher and mom of three — pictured above. She is featured in the segment, along with Julie Hamill — a lawyer and current school board member in Palos Verdes, California. I am also interviewed in it.

We all became friends during 2020-2021 because we all advocated for open public schools during covid. We faced backlash and ostracizing in our communities and finding support with each other was a lifeline. There weren’t that many of us and we found each other fast on social media. And then became real life friends.

Vanessa and me (photo on left); Julie on far left, me on the right (photo on right)

Vanessa is an educator at the high school and college level. Her children returned to school in the fall of 2020 but she continued to advocate for the children who did not have that same opportunity. There was no benefit to her or her kids. She did it because she cares about children.

Julie decided to run for school board out of sheer frustration with California’s failure to open schools in 2020-2021, as well as the ongoing insistence of putting classroom practices in place that prohibited and continue to prohibit learning — things like masking (through spring 2022) and a focus on things other than reading, writing and math (currently happening).

These women cannot be dismissed as “keyboard warriors” or “armchair activists.” These are women who actively advocate for what they believe in by enthusiastically and energetically participating in civic life, spending significant time and effort to do so. And often putting themselves at odds with their friend group and their community. Each has suffered reputational harm for standing up for what they believe in. And I’m proud to call them my friends.

Vanessa and Julie aren’t spoiled moms who just wanted to go to pilates and brunch during school closures — as was often slung at moms like us who fought for open schools. And we weren’t just derided on social media by anonymous trolls. This sentiment was given force by teachers’ unions and mainstream media.

And, I would argue this same slight, is subtly inferred (to some degree), in labeling us “suburban moms” in the headline. Even if some of us (me), aren’t actually suburban.

Suburban can be used disparagingly amongst the media elite and urbanites when directed at women, to mean out of touch, privileged, willing to vote and be persuaded by our husbands even if it’s not in our best interest. Suburbanites are un-evolved rubes. Only the backward-thinking flee cities for the elitism (and quiet) of the ‘burbs.

Maybe I’m being over-sensitive. But as an urbanite, I’m familiar with the aspersions directed at those who leave the city for better schools, easier parking, and less hassle all around.

Suburban moms, as the implication goes, have pent up racism just below the surface even if we don’t let it show in an obvious way. We are not independent-minded and socially responsible like our younger urban counterparts. We don’t want to ride public transit because we don’t want to come into contact with those not like us — black and working class folks. You know . . . we’re like the suburban moms who voted for Glenn Younkin in Virginia after voting for Biden just a few years earlier, because, in the end, we were actually just racist.

I’m not actually a “suburban mom.” I lived in San Francisco for over 30 years, sent my two oldest children to the city’s public schools and now live in Denver, Colorado — which is also a city. Not sure if this gives me the necessary credentials of sophistication, but it flies in the face of the narrative and all that “suburban” can insinuate.

Suburban moms are also an important voting bloc that can swing elections therefore they are worth paying attention to. I believe CNN used it as representative of the voting bloc. I believe readers, if they wish, will infer that we are unsophisticated and racist (as indicated by some of the DMs I’m receiving).

All of that said, the CNN segment is quite fair overall.

I thought it would be a hit piece. As in: Look at these psychotically racist suburban moms who were mad about missing pilates during covid! Then I thought: So what? What more can they do to me? I have confidence in my ability to represent my position (which is not an endorsement of DeSantis, merely an interest, based on his covid record.) And it’s a good thing that CNN is even willing to represent this important voting bloc across their airwaves, even if they seek to discredit us — which they didn’t.

The reporter, Elle Reeve, interviewed me for over an hour. She was warm, open and unbiased, as much as is possible, given that she’s a person with views of her own. The gist of the questioning was: How did you, Julie and Vanessa come to be friends? And why do you like DeSantis (even though he’s anti-vaxx, anti-LGBTQ+, etc)?

Answers:

1. We became friends on Twitter because we all fought for open schools during covid.

2. We like DeSantis because he opened public schools in fall 2020, amidst a public battle with the Florida teachers’ union and a combative national press that sought to smear him at every turn. But he did it because he actually looked at the data which made it clear that closed schools did nothing to “slow the spread” but risked kids’ educational and developmental well-being.

Of course Reeve asked the obligatory questions about “but what about trans kids . . . but what about book banning . . . but what about his 6-week abortion ban . . . but what about his racism?” Much of my response on these questions didn’t make it in the cut, but I’ll share my thoughts here.

1. My thoughts on the what about trans-kids question: DeSantis is not enabling “trans-kid genocide.” He is ensuring that children who are not able to buy alcohol or vote because their brains aren’t considered fully formed enough to make good decisions on these matters, aren’t put on a life-altering medicalized path based on gender “self-ID” before they are adults. That’s it. Just like Finland, Norway and Denmark are limiting or all-out banning “gender-affirming care” for minors.

2. My actual response to what about the trans-kids: what about the 25 million public school children who were kept out of school for close to a year and half? Don’t they matter? Aren’t they a significant enough concern to enter into our voting priorities? For me, they are. It’s hard for me to understand a person saying that they care about children but don’t care about that.

3. On the book banning question: Every book in question in Florida is available for sale in Florida. The books are even available in public libraries. The challenges are around appropriate content for various age ranges. And no, I don’t think elementary schoolers need access to Gender Queer. I think they need to learn to read, write and do math.

   

   I’m not for “book banning” of any kind, including the kind happening in California. But there is a time and a place for a book to be on a class’ syllabus or in the school library. And frankly, I find it more disturbing that To Kill A Mockingbird or Of Mice and Men would be “banned” from the curriculum in Burbank, California than Gender Queer not being shelved at elementary schools in Florida.

   

   But mostly I think all this book talk is a distraction. (And they aren’t bans!) The Left is using it as a way to smear the Right, and DeSantis in particular. Any reasonable person knows that if you can’t show the pages of a book on a television show because it is too sexually explicit, then it shouldn’t be available for 4th graders in the school library and certainly not on the syllabus. This is all performance politics and I’m simply trying to put it off to the side.

4. On abortion: As I say in the segment, I think the 6-week abortion ban is a problem for DeSantis politically. And, I don’t agree with it. I’ve marched for choice more and been involved in this cause for longer than any other cause I’ve advocated for. I worked at the National Organization for Women because of this issue in the early 90s. But I can care about other things too. And lockdowns, school closures and the attendant censorship of anyone who opposed them are the most egregious violation of our civil rights I can fathom. DeSantis fought back. I am interested in him for that reason. Some things just take precedence at certain times.

5. What about his racism? The black folks and gay folks I know who live in Florida don’t seem to believe the hype from Southern Poverty Law Center and the NAACP — which issued a travel warning advising that Florida is not a safe place for black people.

   

   The fact that the NAACPs chairman, Leon Russel, lives in Tampa seems sufficient to deem this hand-wringing nothing more than politics and propaganda. 17% of Florida’s population is black, higher than the national average (13.6%). Florida is a leader in the nation in minority owned businesses, ranking 3rd overall in black, indigenous and people of color owned small businesses.

   The Florida travel advisory for black people is an attempt to generate animosity towards DeSantis amongst the black residents of Florida, according to the NAACP.

   Leon W. Russell, the chairman of the NAACP national board of directors, who lives in Tampa, said the travel advisory was an informational and strategic tactic to galvanize Black voters, especially Black men, against Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.

   Black turnout in the 2022 gubernatorial election dropped from 62 percent in 2018, to 40 percent. This approach by the NAACP can work, politically speaking, but that doesn’t mean it is actually dangerous for black people to visit Florida.

In the end, I’m glad I did the interview. I feel fairly represented, if incompletely — which is to be expected as there is limited time and space. And, it says something that CNN is even willing to air something relatively fair depicting moms who have an interest in this Republican candidate.

In 2021, a reporter from CNN interviewed me for an article about school closures. The article never ran. I can only assume it conflicted with their overarching message that school closures were necessary and anyone who opposed them was insane and evil. I didn’t seem evil (or insane) so it wasn’t going to work.

During 2020-2022, CNN actively spread fear and misinformation about the risk to children during covid and the need for schools to remain closed. This recent segment by Elle Reeve is a welcome — more balanced and objective — evolution to that narrative. For that, I’m grateful.