Sarasota Moms for Liberty appoints Michael Flynn ally Conni Brunni as next chairwoman

Sarasota's Moms for Liberty chapter will see a new leader, Conni Brunni, effective immediately, according to a newsletter sent Sunday from the chapter's current chairwoman, Alexis Spiegelman.

Brunni, a GOP activist from Englewood, is a mother of two and grandmother of three. In December, she ran against Jack Brill to be the next Sarasota GOP chair. She lost by 33 votes out of 301 cast, despite garnering support from former President Donald Trump's first national security advisor Michael Flynn. She later established a rival organization, the Sarasota Republican Assembly Club, that operates outside the party, to pressure state and local GOP officials.

Brunni also was responsible for a controversial campaign billboard calling former school board candidate Lauren Kurnov a "baby killer" in the 2022 School Board race, alluding to Kurnov's former employment at Planned Parenthood.

Labeled an "anti-government extremist group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Moms for Liberty is a national conservative grassroots organization with roots in Florida and Sarasota County focused on education policy. Bridget Ziegler, the chairwoman of the Sarasota County School Board, was one of the organization's co-founders.

In an interview with the Herald-Tribune, Brunni said she will continue to serve as chairwoman of the SRAC in addition to her role as Sarasota Moms for Liberty chairwoman. There's a legal line between the two organizations, she said, with one being primarily educational and the other being primarily political.

Moms for Liberty is registered as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, which permits it to engage in partisan politics and endorse candidates as long as it's not the organization's primary purpose.

"You have to be willing to look past the partisan "R" or "D" at the end of some issue or someone's name..." Brunni said. "We've gotten away from that. We need to get back to it. We say we don't want politics in education, here's our chance to do it."

She said her goals as Moms for Liberty chairwoman include highlighting School Board meeting agendas and raising awareness on topics such as social and emotional learning (SEL).

SEL is considered by many district teachers to be essential for elementary-age students' development of skills necessary to engage in the classroom and socially, especially after COVID-19 affected in-person interaction during crucial instructional years.

Brunni said SEL ties into the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), which she said was "the root of all evil," and "indoctrination."

She said in her role, she wants to encourage younger leaders to take positions in organizations such as Moms for Liberty and SRAC, as well as local government or running for office.

"We (should) prepare the next generation for leadership in Moms for Liberty or leadership in the Republican Assembly chapter, for running for office, for the tax oversight committee, whatever it is, to be prepared to step up to leadership at whatever their level of passion is," Brunni said.

In her newsletter, Spiegelman wrote that Brunni was "instrumental" in the "ZEM" conservative school board movement. "ZEM" was shorthand for Bridget Ziegler, Tim Enos and Robyn Marinelli during their 2022 campaigns for Sarasota School Board. The election saw a large, conservative grassroots campaign to get the three elected and to flip the ideological makeup of the Sarasota School Board.

Follow Herald-Tribune Education Reporter Steven Walker on Twitter at @swalker_7. He can be reached at sbwalker@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota Moms for Liberty names GOP activist, Flynn ally as new leader