Harnessing the Power of Mothers to Restore America

Former President Donald Trump poses with Moms for America staff members (L–R): Kimberly Fletcher, Maria Wagner, Aly Legge, Raquel Mitchell, Vanessa Faura, and Debbie Kraulidis, at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., in November 2023. Moms for America

On Sept. 11, 2001, Kimberly Fletcher’s husband, Derek, a U.S. Air Force major, was stationed at the Pentagon.

The couple had seven children at the time, ages 1 to 15 (and they would later have another).

Upon hearing of the attacks, Ms. Fletcher, who was at home, immediately tried to call her husband but couldn’t get through.

As she watched broadcasts showing the devastation in Manhattan, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, she continued calling, but there was no connection.

Throughout the morning and afternoon and into early evening, Ms. Fletcher also prayed.

“At about 7:30 that night, Derek walked in the door, and I just dropped to my knees and thanked God,” Ms. Fletcher told The Epoch Times.

“And soon, on that same day, I asked myself, ‘How did this happen? How did we get here?’

“And that was the day I went from being patriotic to being a patriot.”

Sept. 11, 2001, was also the day that Ms. Fletcher started getting serious about engaging in grassroots activism on behalf of traditional values, conservatism, individual liberty, and honoring the U.S. Constitution.

The organization that she founded—and for which she serves as president and CEO—is Moms for America, which turned 20 years old this year. Its mission, according to the website, is to “empower moms to raise patriots and promote liberty.”

In late February, Ms. Fletcher, 57, was in Washington to deliver a headline speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) 2024.

She was then off to Dallas, where she presided over a Moms for America (MFA) 20th birthday celebration, held from Feb. 29 through March 2.

Kimberly Fletcher (L), actor Jim Caviezel, and Debbie Kraulidis (R) at Moms for America's 20th Anniversary Summit & Gala in Dallas on Feb. 29, 2024. Moms for America

The Moms for America 20th Anniversary Summit & Gala featured a roster of high-profile speakers and presenters, including actors Jim Caviezel and Kevin Sorbo; retired U.S. Army Gen. Mike Flynn, who served as national security adviser to President Trump; former WWE CEO and former U.S. Small Business Administration administrator Linda McMahon; former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Ben Carson; country music star John Rich; and Sebastian Gorka, a podcaster and radio program host who served in the Trump administration as deputy assistant to the president.

On March 2, in her closing remarks, Ms. Fletcher reminded the gala attendees of the event that took the organization to the next level and made it a serious force.

It was the Moms’ March for America in September 2017, which was a response in part to the leftist Women’s March in Washington on  Jan. 21, 2017, the day after Donald Trump was inaugurated as president.

Ms. Fletcher and her team started organizing their march in the spring of 2017.

“We had $1,500 in the bank, five volunteers, and the name, ‘Moms’ March for America,'” Ms. Fletcher said. “We put together a stellar event.”

The result was a live-streamed international gathering of conservative moms.

US Army Gen. (ret.) Mike Flynn addresses Moms for America's 20th Anniversary Summit & Gala in Dallas on March 2, 2024 Moms for America

“That was the year that the mom movement exploded,” she said. “We had 500,000 downloads—and that’s not 500,000 people; that’s 500,000 downloads.”

Some attendees met in churches and parks, including 200 at a church in New Jersey.

Two women tuned in from a California spa as they got their nails done, according to Ms. Fletcher.

“Probably close to 1 million moms were watching in over 4,000 cities, all 50 states, and 23 countries,” she said.

Today, Moms for America has more than 500,000 individual members and chapters in every U.S. state. Its advocacy includes on-the-ground and virtual events, online and social media broadcasts, government lobbying, publishing, member training, marketing and advertising, sponsorships, and forging alliances with other like-minded organizations.

Headquartered in Engleton, Ohio, MFA is strongly faith-based and has been highly vocal in support of former President Trump.

In November 2023, Moms for America officially endorsed President Trump’s campaign to take back the White House.

Moms for America pushed back on COVID-19 vaccine mandates and has demanded that parents have input into books and curricula in public schools.

Prominent on the group’s website is this quote from Thomas Jefferson: “Adore God, Reverence and cherish your parents. Love your neighbor as yourself and country more than yourself.”

EpochTV has featured interviews with Ms. Fletcher, including, on Nov. 4, 2023, a conversation with Jan Jekielek that was part of the American Thought Leaders series.

Recent Activism—On the Border

Near the end of January, as a large caravan of men moved across Mexico toward the U.S. southern border, Ms. Fletcher recruited 32 moms to travel to two Texas cities. They met with moms from those communities and saw for themselves what was happening.

“There was that caravan of men—well, we were a caravan of moms,” she said. “We spent a day on the border in the cities of Hidalgo and McAllen and talked with mothers. They shared their concerns about the crimes and violence that illegal immigrants commit in the area.

“While we were there, a bomb, some sort of explosive device, went off across the river in Mexico.”

Ms. Fletcher said she and the other mothers saw the “rape trees”—bushes and trees on which women’s underwear is draped. Two theories prevail as to the origin. Victims either decorate the trees as a testimony to sexual violence, or the clothes are trophies displayed by their human predators.

“We took a lot of videos and photos while on the border,” she said. “And we shared them with members of Congress and sent them to the White House public affairs team.”

Moms for America operates three primary programs and initiatives to advance its mission.

“Our signature program is the Cottage Meeting Project—which I often refer to as our Tupperware for Liberty parties,” Ms. Fletcher said.

“Cottage Meetings are sort of meet and greets where you invite friends and neighbors into your home, and the woman leading the get-together facilitates the discussion around principles of liberty and the Constitution, and inspiring stories—and the conversation is tied to what is going on in the local community.

“These meetings get mothers excited; they become activists naturally. And this is the fundamental reason and driver that we have Cottage Meetings expanding all over America.”

Kimberly Fletcher speaks at CPAC 2024 in Washington in late February 2024. Moms for America

Moms for America also has a resource center, which Ms. Fletcher said is “all about taking back control of your children’s education and being an active participant in that education, from the kitchen table to the school board.”

The group educates parents on homeschooling options, including how to withdraw their children from public schools and how to teach children at home.

“If parents want to homeschool their kids, we help and advise them on how to do it safely, effectively, and legally. If they want to keep them in school, we help the parents stay engaged and have a say in the education they receive in the classroom,” Ms. Fletcher said.

The resource center also provides information on how to plan, develop, and run a campaign to win a seat on the school board.

MFA fosters and promotes voter education with MomVote.

“We want moms, we want everyone, fully educated on the voting process,” she said. “We want people to know how to register to vote and who and what questions will be on the ballot. We have moms sign up for electronic reminders on the dates and deadlines, for the day of the election, and for mail-in and absentee voting.”

Ms. Fletcher said MomVote is a key to “moms being instrumental to winning the 10 states that will decide the 2024 presidential election.”

Among the mothers whom Ms. Fletcher drafted into the mission are three ladies in their 30s and living in the critical 2024 swing state of Florida: Aly Legge, Nicki Murphy, and Christy Naumowicz.

Ms. Legge and her husband, a U.S. Army veteran, and their five children—ages 8 through 15—reside in the Tampa, Florida, area. Since March 2021, Ms. Legge has served as MFA’s director of civic engagement.

When she was a teenager, she lived with her mother, stepfather, and half-brother in East Orange, New Jersey, a city of about 80,000 people, of whom about 90 percent were black.

“As a teen, I didn’t pay much attention to politics, but living in the inner city, political opinions I did hear were liberal,” Ms. Legge told The Epoch Times. “Our elected officials were Democrats.”

After high school, she enlisted in the Army. Less than a year into her service, she fractured her feet and hip and was granted a medical discharge.

Aly Legge speaks at a Moms for America event. Moms for America

“In 2015, I was still on the same page with most liberal policies,” Ms. Legge said. “I would get in arguments with my husband, and I would tell him, ‘There is no way that Trump can get elected; it would not be good.’

“And my husband would say, ‘Do your own research. Study the issues. Don’t just buy into the garbage you are seeing and hearing on TV.’”

She committed herself to learning.

“I took my husband’s advice, and the more I read and watched and listened, the more conservative I became,” Ms. Legge said. “I got sold on conservatism, and on conservatism and its alignment and support for family values and the nuclear family, and on less government—definitely no government overreach.”

In 2022, she ran for a seat on the local county school board on a platform of financial accountability, parental rights, and opposing critical race theory. She lost, but that didn’t diminish her zeal to be a force for change in education—and society in general.

“Mothers have a huge influence on our children’s lives,” Ms. Legge said. “And if we are not the ones instilling the values and liberty, the American principles that have built this country, we will lose this country.

“I am grateful to be part of the Moms for America team. I focus on getting people educated and informed on issues and helping them to build relationships in order to be politically relevant; because in order to be politically respected, you have to be politically relevant.”

Ms. Murphy and Ms. Naumowicz have been friends since childhood, growing up in metro Orlando, Florida, where their families attended the same Baptist church. Both still live in central Florida. The women note that they are something of a rarity—adults who were born, grew up, and still live in Florida, raising their families.

Ms. Murphy is a nurse practitioner and former ICU nurse; Ms. Naumowicz worked as a nurse for several years before leaving the profession in 2012 to become a full-time mom who home-school tutors her children.

Ms. Murphy has been married for 18 years to her high school sweetheart; they have two children, 9 and 11 years old.

Both women cited COVID-19 vaccine mandates as a catalyst for their interest in Moms for America.

“Early in 2020, COVID-19 arrives, and it seems like many years ago, now,” Ms. Murphy said. “I am on the front lines as a nurse, with COVID all around me—and that is my job; it was what I signed up for—and I contracted COVID-19 and recovered.

“And then we, the nurses, were required to be vaccinated. And I evaluated the pluses and minuses of getting the COVID-19 vaccine.

“I was young and healthy, and I had already had COVID. It is also important to note that when I worked in the ICU years ago, I contracted an illness from a patient that resulted in me being hospitalized for two weeks.”

She chose to not be vaccinated. Her employer told her and other nurses that if they did not get vaccinated, they would be fired.

“I held firm on not receiving the COVID vaccination—and I am surely not an anti-vaxxer,” Ms. Murphy said. “My children have received all their vaccinations. I receive a yearly flu shot. But I have been in medicine long enough to know that you don’t just take something to take something.”

Her job was saved when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, chose not to enforce a federal vaccination mandate.

Ms. Naumowicz said she believes that the COVID-19 pandemic was a “planned epidemic.”

“I was skeptical, right from the beginning, of the COVID vaccine and the government response to the disease,” she said.

Kevin Sorbo and his wife, Sam Sorbo, a member of the Moms for America board of directors, at MFA's 20th anniversary Summit & Gala in Dallas on Feb. 29, 2024. Moms for America

“I remember back when I worked in the ICU at Tampa General, and I talked with infectious disease doctors, and they told me that every year, as the flu shot was being promoted, the health care profession was not at all sure about what strains of flu were circulating.”

Ms. Naumowicz and her husband of 15 years have two children, ages 8 and 6, and she is eight months pregnant with their third. The couple homeschools.

“With all that was going on with COVID, and with the 2020 election arriving, I got angry,” she said. “I wanted to make a meaningful difference.”

Ms. Naumowicz and Ms. Murphy went to a local meeting of Citizens Defending Freedom (CDF), which has chapters in seven states.

“Christy and I attended the CDF meeting, and the guest speaker was Kimberly Fletcher,” Ms. Murphy said.

“Kimberly inspired us; we liked what we heard. We met with Kimberly that night after the meeting and bombarded her with questions.

“And the next day, Christy and I, along with six other moms, met with Ms. Fletcher at her hotel.”

Together they founded the Polk County Moms for America chapter. Ms. Naumowicz went on to launch the Florida Moms for America chapter.

Both have been active with Cottage Meetings, and Ms. Murphy has participated in Moms for America media events in Tallahassee, Florida, and Washington.

“Moms for America is what our nation needs,” she said. “I’m thinking that, with my own children, I need to instill in them and foster patriotism. So many kids are missing that now.

“And, we shouldn’t wait on the education system. It’s the responsibility of moms and of parents.”

Designated a Hate Group

Moms for America is a powerful force in conservative activism and politics. The organization has made many friends—and at least one prominent enemy.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has designated Moms for America as a hate group. This doesn’t bother Ms. Fletcher all that much.

“We consider it a badge of honor to be attacked by the far-left radicals of the SPLC, for standing up for the rights of parents and America’s founding values,” she said. “The SPLC says we are a hate group and anti-government, but nothing could be further from the truth.

“The only thing we hate is when people put our children in danger or try to use our kids as pawns in their political games. And we strongly oppose the government abusing its power to suppress patriotic dissent or usurp God-given rights.”