Less burnout, more babies: How Conservatives are winning young women

NEW YORK: “I’ll tell you this, ladies,” said Dana Loesch, former spokesperson of the National Rifle Association, as she paced the stage of a Dallas ballroom. “You cannot have it all — at the same time. Something will suffer.”

The audience of roughly 3,000 young women listened, rapt. They wore pins that read “Dump your socialist boyfriend” and “My favourite season is the fall of feminism.” In ruffled sundresses and cowboy boots, they shimmied to the “Church Clap.” When Loesch stepped off the stage, and out came married Trump World rock stars Charlie and Erika Kirk, the young women came up to the microphone one by one to ask for advice — on finding a husband, on raising Christian children, on what to tell friends who judged them for wanting to marry young.

“I must have missed it in Matthew — which is ‘Go forth and become CEO of a shoe company,’” Charlie Kirk told the audience, voice inlaid with an eye roll.

It was the largest young conservative women’s event in the country, hosted by Turning Point USA, the organisation Charlie Kirk leads that claimed a critical role in turning out young voters for President Trump. Most attendees had come to the Young Women’s Leadership Summit not so much for advice on how to lead, but how to live.

Because, sure, the personal is political — but it’s also practical, palatable. They got clear marching orders. “Less Prozac, more protein,” said Alex Clark, a wellness influencer and podcast host who headlined the June 13-15 event. “Less burnout, more babies, less feminism, more femininity.”

Rhaelynn Zito is one such conservative convert.

Zito is a 25-year-old nurse who lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. In 2023, she said she had a real belly flop of a year. She went through a breakup, lost a family member, and was searching for a purpose outside of work. Zito began listening to Clark, whose Turning Point USA show is often ranked among the Top 10 of health podcasts on Spotify.

Listening to Clark, Zito said, changed her life. She started a Bible study group, cut down her drinking and stopped dating casually as she focused on finding a husband. She stopped using birth control, taking up a natural family planning method recommended on Clark’s show, and became dubious about abortions and vaccines. She no longer identifies as a feminist.

“What dipped my toe into all of this was the MAHA movement,” Zito said, referring to the “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, championed by influencers such as Clark and now led in the Trump administration by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “I find myself leaning more conservative than I ever have before.”

After the 2024 election, when young men swung markedly to Trump, pundits and political operatives began a frenzied and almost anthropological analysis of the “manosphere,” the ecosystem of podcasters, such as Joe Rogan and Theo Von, who nudged young men toward the Republican vote.

Less in focus were the young women — a demographic that is still reliably left-leaning, but whose support for Trump also increased, according to post-election polling. Some were also swayed by what has been labelled a “womanosphere” of uber-popular podcasters blending lifestyle advice and political polemics.

What women are finding in MAHA platforms such as Clark’s isn’t just a vision of a healthy kitchen, but a new life, which Clark summed up onstage, to thunderous applause: “We’re done pretending that a cubicle is more empowering than a countertop.”

The New York Times