by Nicole Johnson
On Friday, July 17, author and political pundit Rachel Campos Duffy spoke to a room full of young conservative women for CBLPI’s July Conservative Women’s Network, co-hosted with the Heritage Foundation.
Rachel is a national spokesperson for the LIBRE Initiative, an organization that aims to empower Hispanic-Americans through supportive communities, while learning about policies that will make themselves and their families better off.
Rachel spoke about today’s culture and emphasized the point: “Elections are lagging indicators of what has already happened in our culture.”
Thankfully, Rachel is standing up for conservatives in the very liberal pop culture. Her husband, Republican Congressman Sean Duffy (WI-7), is also fighting for conservative voices.
To illustrate how to engage with young people, Rachel told the story of her husband’s viral “But first…#letmetakeaselfie” video. Initially, consultants advocated against publishing it because the video did not fit the mold of a serious politician. However, Congressman Duffy was not swayed by the consultant’s advice and instead listened to his wife and communication director’s advice to publish it anyway. This decision paid off and the video went viral on social media.
In her discussion, Rachel advocated that social media, Hollywood, and American culture are where conservatives need to focus their efforts. Rachel played a video of how the conservative message sells to young people: the video showed how Obama supporters like Ashton Kutcher, Jennifer Lopez, and Kendrick Lamar have all expressed conservative themes, like how individual hard work led to their success. This message is the bedrock of conservatism. Rachel expressed that conservatives cannot afford to snub pop culture. Conservatives must present themselves in pop culture to sell the message.
After her speech, Rachel graciously stayed for lunch and mingled with young women who had many questions for her. The entire event was very uplifting, and it was rewarding to meet such a driven conservative woman. Conservatives must be brave and spread our message throughout pop culture, even if it may feel uncomfortable at times.
Nicole Johnson, a junior at the University of Virginia, is a summer intern.