Riley Gaines suggests conservatives can learn a few lessons from the Left.
“They continue pushing forward with full steam ahead, heads rearing, teeth gnashing, and I’ll say it, it’s admirable,” Gaines said at the Clare Booth Luce Center for Conservative Women’s annual Washington, D.C., summit on Friday. A swimmer who advocates for fairness in women’s sports and an ambassador with Independent Women’s Forum, Gaines warned conservatives that when the Right starts winning, it suffers from complacency.
She called complacency “the enemy to growth” and “the enemy to progress,” but she praised the “other side” for handling it “really, really well.”
“I think it’s easy to unite behind evil in the way that they do when you lack a moral compass, when you lack a conscience, when you lack a backbone, spine, integrity, any amount of honesty,” Gaines added. “It’s easy to do what they do, I believe, but nonetheless, I think we could take a page from their playbook. It’s how they won every inch of the public square.”
Event speakers encouraged attendees to embrace their values as conservative women, and to be bold and forthcoming in what they believe.
The happiest people in America are conservative women, said speaker KT McFarland, the former deputy national security advisor to President Donald Trump. Other keynote speakers included Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice; Daily Wire White House Correspondent Mary Margaret Olohan; UnHerd Washington, D.C., Correspondent Emily Jashinky; and women’s sports advocate and former University of Pennsylvania swimmer Paula Scanlan.
Gaines said she believes the gender ideology movement that plagues many young female athletes is rooted in evil deception. She went to share her recent bewilderment upon reading Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers’ proposed budget, which referred to a mother as an “inseminated person.”
“It doesn’t get a whole lot more dehumanizing as a woman or as a mother than ‘inseminated persons,’” Gaines said.
“Let it be a clarion call for every single person in this room who’s in a position of influence, regardless of what that position is, whether you’re an intern, whether you’re a student, whether you’re just here to learn more, every single person here has a circle of influence,” she added. “You don’t have to have millions of followers on social media. Use that circle of influence. Stand unapologetically, stand firmly, stand boldly and unwavering in what you know, what the Bible tells us to be true… he [God] created them, male and female, intentionally and uniquely.”
Gaines, who is expecting her first child with her husband later this year, said that since becoming pregnant, she has become “radically pro-life.”
“There’s nothing more empowering as a woman than—I believe—than bringing life into this world, and especially when you get to do it with your better half,” Gaines said.
“We have a God who condemns the shedding of innocent blood and who breathes purpose into every life, whether in the womb or outside of the womb. Having a child growing inside of me, feeling her move that going to that appointment at eight weeks and listening to her heartbeat…it has made the thought of abortion hurt viscerally,” she added.
Gaines celebrated as a win the One Big Beautiful Bill removing Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood, an organization she described as thriving off of vulnerability, insecurity, and “Satan’s lies.”
Dhillon also shared about her experience going against the tide as a conservative woman.
“What I and most of you likely believe as well is in personal responsibility, in faith, in family as the backbone of a healthy society. And I refuse to hide my beliefs,” the assistant attorney general said.
After graduating from law school at the University of Virginia, Dhillon enjoyed a comfortable life, working in Big Law, living in the Upper East Side, and summering in the Hamptons.
“Then I had a crisis of conscience,” she recalled. “I began thinking about how I could align my moral life, my internal moral life, with my personal goals.”
Dhillon left a lucrative job to open her own firm, the Dhillon Law Group. Last year, when Dhillon left the firm, its clients included Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson, and the X Corporation, she said.
“Every day I wake up and I feel excited about the people I’m going to represent and the work I’m going to do,” she explained. “And when President Trump asked me to take on this position as the assistant attorney general for civil rights, because of my decades of work in civil rights, I immediately said yes, and it’s a real honor to work with Attorney General Pam Bondi and with the president and further his agenda.”
Dhillon gave parting advice to the audience:“Take opportunities and risks with your life and your career within reason, and they will often pay off, but always remain true to your values.”
