The Unleash Prosperity Now, a conservative group, is launching a national ad campaign that attacks “George Wallace Democrats” nationwide for fighting against school choice, according to an ad exclusively obtained by Breitbart News.
The ad campaign is an effort to “hold Democrats accountable” for their efforts in fighting against school choice.
The 50-second advertisement begins with a quote from former segregationist Democrat Alabama Gov. George Wallace, who proclaimed in 1963, “Segregation now. Segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever.”
“In 1963, Alabama Governor George Wallace stood in he schoolhouse door to keep black children out of the best schools,” the ad’s narrator says. “In 2023, a new generation of George Wallace Democrats is again blocking schoolhouse doors, opposing popular school choice programs.”
The ad features prominent Democrats like Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, President Joe Biden, and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
“In states like New York, Arizona, Illinois, Nevada, North Carolina,and Texas, Democrats are fighting programs that give Black and Hispanic parents the ability to send their kids to the best possible schools,” the ad continues. “Yet many of these same politicians send their own kids to private schools. It’s time for every child in America to finally have equal access to good schools.”
In Arizona, Gov. Hobbs is leading an effort to undo a massive school voucher program expansion that former Gov. Doug Ducey (R-AZ) enacted into law before Hobbs took office.
“Hobbs isn’t proposing doing away with all vouchers, but wants to return the voucher program to what it was before the expansion — when disabled children, students living on American Indian reservations, students attending low-performing public schools, and others were eligible for the voucher funds,” Fox 10 Phoenix reported.
Additionally, Gov. Cooper declared a “State of Emergency for Public Education” in May over a Republican-led effort to promote school choice by expanding the state’s private school voucher program, as Breitbart News reported.
“It’s clear that the Republican legislature is aiming to choke the life out of public education,” Cooper said in a statement. “I’m declaring this a state of emergency because you need to know what’s happening. If you care about public schools in North Carolina, it’s time to take immediate action and tell them to stop the damage that will set back our schools for a generation.”
Further, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten wrote an op-ed earlier this year that claimed children “do better in schools under teachers unions.”
The Unleash Prosperity Now co-founder Steve Moore told Breitbart News the Democrats fighting against school choice are politically motivated to “reward their union backers.”
Moore said:
Democrats across the country are prioritizing the teacher’s union over the rights of children. A quality education is a proven pathway to a better life and every child deserves a quality education. I cannot imagine why Democrats would want to rob children of that advantage.
Parents across the country deserve to have the best choice when it comes to their kids’ education. Democrats’ political motivation to reward their union backers by dismantling school choice is reprehensible. Parents deserve to be in charge of their children’s education, not politicians and especially not unelected union bosses.
School choice has proven to provide much better education opportunities to minority students and most charter and choice schools are more racially integrated than the public schools. It is shameful that Democrats are standing with the teacher unions over the interests of hundreds of thousands of black parents and children across the country.
The quarter-million dollar ad-buy will air on cable and digitally in the Washington, DC, media market. The group will launch ads in Democrat-controlled states in the weeks to come.
Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at
