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Parental rights movements have cropped up nationwide, often seeking to ban curricula that address critical race theory and LGBTQ+ rights. At the heart of many of these movements are Christian mothers who, through organizations like Moms for Liberty, have stacked school boards nationwide.
But Moms for Liberty isn’t the only group on the block anymore. Another rapidly growing organization is the Her Voice Movement, which led tens of thousands of Christians to the National Mall in October 2024 in a rally against LGBTQ+ rights. Her Voice expanded dramatically in 2024 from 3,500 prayer groups nationwide to 7,000, according to its founder, Jenny Donnelly, who was recently the subject of a profile in The Guardian. (Each prayer group has between two and 10 participants, meaning total membership could be in the tens of thousands.)
Donnelly’s home base? Tigard, the suburb a 10-minute drive south of Portland.
Though the Her Voice Movement started in 2011 in a small prayer group, Donnelly says in a video inviting women to join her that the Portland riots in 2020 and 2021 fueled her energy. “My hometown of Portland, Oregon, was being destroyed,” she says, citing pandemic closures, mask mandates and riots downtown.
“I asked this important question: What is it going to take, God, for the church to stand up and fight for what is right?” she says in the video. “He said, ‘When they take your kids.’ I was totally riveted by this. It rocked me to my core.”
In the same video, she claims 1 in 5 members of Generation Z identify as LGBTQ+ and repeats misinformation about how states are attempting to legally kidnap kids whose parents refuse to affirm their child’s gender. She’s also anti-abortion and creates promotional material on a variety of social media platforms.
Donnelly has drawn a crowd. Calling themselves “mama bears,” activists with Her Voice subscribe to the idea that they are their children’s fiercest protectors, and that they must defend Christianity nationwide. In the recent national election, that saw President Donald Trump elected
to return to the White House. Donnelly’s organization partnered with groups like Ziklag, an underground and influential Christian donor network, to build evangelical Christian turnout.
In an interview with The Guardian, Leah Payne, an associate professor of religious history at Portland Seminary, said Donnelly’s religious grassroots activism falls within a long-standing pattern of Charismatic Christian women utilizing media platforms to advance political causes.
“What’s really compelling about what she does is that she interweaves activism into her status as a mother, and her status as a woman,” Payne told the outlet. “She’s combining this ‘girlboss’ feminism with our culture’s enthusiasm for very attentive parenting.”
Donnelly has faith that Portland will soon take a turn in her direction. She’s a co-founder of The Collective Church in Tigard alongside her husband. On the church’s website, the two say they “firmly believe that there is hope for the city of Portland and that we will see a move of God happen here.”
Donnelly did not immediately respond to WW’s requests for additional comment. In 2025, Her Voice will host a series of rallies called Mayday USA nationwide. The organization says it will hold a “pre-rally” in Portland this February.
Read the full Guardian profile here.