Laurie Cox responds to continued attacks by Leon County Democrats, progressive activists

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Leon County School Board Member Laurie Lawson Cox responded to the Leon County Democratic Party and other community activists who have attacked her for her political views in preparation for the 2024 election.

“Tallahassee is a progressive city,” the Leon Democratic Party said on social media.

”Rural redneck ‘Moms for Liberty’ Republican values should not decide our local affairs,” they added.

During an interview with Florida’s Voice, Cox said she disagreed with the assumptions made by the party.

“I feel like Leon County, they are hardworking people,” Cox said. “We have some amazing schools in our district, we have amazing things happening in our schools.”

“I am not in Moms for Liberty,” she added. “I have a lot of friends that are in Moms for Liberty, but I also have friends and supporters that may not align with with them.”

Kyle Frost, an aide to Democratic Leon County Commissioner Brian Welch, said that “lumping rural rednecks” into one group is not a welcoming look for the party.

“I know plenty of folks that live plenty rural and redneck lives on both sides of politics,” Frost said. “Working class folks. Folks [Democrats] used to do better with. Maybe this is why we can’t [win]?”

Max Herrle, a public strategy consultant for North Florida Partners, took to social media to recruit a potential candidate to run against Cox.

“We are looking for a Democrat to run for Schoolboard against Moms for Liberty Laurie Lawson Cox,” Herlle said. “Who has been a danger to our kids here in Leon County with her extreme anti-gay agenda.”

He added that Cox’s district four seat is a “10+ Democratic advantage.”

Cox said that her 36-year teaching career and voting record “speaks for itself” that she she is not a “hateful” person who is “harmful to children.”

Herrle was a top campaign strategist for progressive City Commissioners Jack Porter and Jeremy Matlow.

Leon Democrats also attacked Cox for attending an event in Orlando where Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke on flipping school boards more Republican.

“We didn’t get involved that publicly in some of the areas where it may not have been that helpful,” DeSantis said during the event.

“Like Leon, I think we kind of helped behind the scenes,” he said after he mentioned that the county is “tough” to flip.

Cox explained why she was at the event in the first place.

“There was maybe over 100 school board members from around the state that got invited, and it was DeSantis laying out his education agenda that December after the election in November of 2022,” she explained.

She added that many other state leaders including Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. spoke.

Cox reinforced that it was “not a Moms for Liberty event” or had anything to do with the organization.

In July, Cox joined the board in a unanimous vote to keep the book “I Am Billie Jean King” on elementary school shelves after a concerned parent filed a challenge to remove it.

She said during the board meeting that the only part of the book that was a “reason for pause” was the page that explained homosexual attraction.

Cox told Florida’s Voice that the reason she ultimately voted to not remove the book was because the content in question was an incidental reference and not instructional material.

However, she did highlight concerns of how a classroom teacher could check the book out from the media center and read it in their classroom without parental knowledge. If a student asked about the content and the teacher expounded upon it, it could become instructional material.

Cox defeated Alex Stemle in a 2022 runoff special election after former Board Member Dee Dee Rasmussen resigned amidst her fourth term in office.

No candidate has filed to challenge Cox in her 2024 reelection bid as of the publishing date of this article.