Leon progressives call for candidate to run against Moms for Liberty-backed school board member

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Leon County School Board Member Laurie Cox came under fire from a progressive campaign consultant who is attempting to run a candidate to remove her from office in 2024.

Max Herlle, public strategy consultant for North Florida Partners, took to social media on Tuesday 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.”

While the seat is technically nonpartisan, Cox has been a registered Republican since 2008 and received an informal endorsement by the county’s Moms for Liberty chapter.

Some of Cox’s biggest campaign promises she made in her first election were to increase transparency amongst parents and schools, as well as improve civic education and keep schools open.

In July, she 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 meeting that the only part of the book that was a “reason for pause” was the page that explained homosexual attraction.

Cox came in second, behind Alex Stemle during a contested, three-way August 2022 primary race that resulted in no candidate reaching a majority of the vote. She later defeated Stemle with 54% of the vote during the 2022 general election.

Normally, Leon school board members would serve four year terms. However, district four’s previous officeholder, Dee Dee Rasmussen, resigned in the midst of her fourth term due to health and family issues. This triggered a special election to be held for the seat in 2022.

In August 2021, before her resignation, Rasmussen voted to uphold Gov. Ron DeSantis’ mask optional rule during the coronavirus pandemic that gave parents the freedom to choose for their children to be masked or unmasked.

The motion failed 2-3 and Leon County ignored the governor as they continued to require a medical opt-out form for all students who did not want to wear a mask.