CNN correspondent Elle Reeve interviewed American women across the political spectrum who bonded online in support of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
The Tuesday night segment featured women from different parts of the country and diverse political backgrounds who bonded online over their appreciation of DeSantis and his policies. The segment focused in particular on how the COVID-19 lockdown was a game-changer for concerned moms and teachers, who would consider voting for DeSantis even if they had previously voted for Democrats.
“During the Covid lockdowns in 2020, these frustrated moms built an informal Twitter network of people angry about closed schools and the difficulty of remote learning,” Reeve summarized. “They were from all over the country, but saw DeSantis as a model of what they wanted in their cities.”
Reeve spoke to teacher Vanessa Steinkamp about DeSantis and how his policies have been winning over female voters, “If DeSantis were to run tomorrow, he would win. And that would be such a hard pill to swallow, I think, for many people,” she declared.
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She recounted that a major reason for this were his stances against the lockdown policies that were widespread in other states, policies that she and her fellow moms were blasted for questioning.
“I mean, when I started advocating for kids to go back in person, I was called a granny killer, a teacher killer, selfish — on Twitter,” she said.
Reeve noted that Steinkamp used Twitter to connect with then-Levi’s executive Jen Sey, who reportedly moved her family from San Francisco, California to Denver, Colorado in order to send her children to school in person.
“We quickly sort of found a community online, and I found it really interesting that she was a teacher that was advocating for in-person school. In San Francisco, you could go to a bar or a strip club, but my high school student couldn’t go to English class.”
Sey also noted the exact moment DeSantis became a national figure for many moms like her, “He was very vocal starting in the summer of 2020 about the need to open schools in particular.”
Reeve noted that “There were several active group chats where the moms shared news about COVID and DeSantis. One grew to more than 80 people, and they traveled to each other’s homes.” She then noted that “many had been lifelong Democrats,” and introduced Julie Hamill, a lawyer and mother of three in Los Angeles who won a school board election in 2022.
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Hamill recalled how she voted for Obama, Clinton, and Biden in past elections before declaring, “I have never voted for a Republican presidential candidate. I have always considered myself very socially liberal, but as we became more vocal on Twitter, we were really demonized.”
Reeve observed that many in the world, especially Europe, have increasingly noted that COVID-19 lockdowns went too far, to the point they were harmful for children.
“They aren’t crazy. Data from the Education Department shows kids have been hurt by long-term remote learning, Black and Brown students more than White. In August 2020, DeSantis was early to open schools compared to other U.S. states, but not the world,” Reeve noted. “Many European countries went back under national policies. In May 2020, for example, a Finland health official cited data that kids didn’t play a significant role in spreading the virus.”
“I do feel like it would be really good to have a big public debate about what did we get wrong in COVID,” Reeve noted to Sey.
“The left doesn’t want to have that debate,” Sey replied. “They’re never going to allow that debate. I think there’s a lot of kind of incendiary tactics being used to smear him.”
Multiple women in the group, even if they support DeSantis, expressed wariness about regulating abortions, such as Florida’s 6-week abortion ban.
“I think that’s dangerous. That’s something that I cannot get behind, and I don’t think that’s going to bode well for his presidential campaign,” Hamill said. “I think that that might be a real impediment to bringing in moderate women.”
Hamill explained later in the interview that while she would love to be away from social media, it is the battleground for important debates about American society.
“I would love to be off Twitter, but I feel like there are discussions that need to be had,” she noted. “For all the bad that comes with it, there is also a good. And I’ve connected with all of these like-minded women who are not alt-right demons. They’re moms who have been unseen and unheard.”
Steinkamp noted that while many in the media focus on DeSantis’ anti-woke initiatives, people in daily life are thankful for his policies.
“I’ve been down all over Florida, and you know what they all say? ‘He helped my business open up. He helped my kids go to school,’” she said. “The media just fixates on the culture war pieces.”
