While President-elect Donald Trump delivered a surprise victory in November, the true underdog of the 2016 election was his fearless campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, who shattered the glass ceiling of political operatives, yet paused while ahead to ensure her priorities in life.
Since August, Conway has been Trump’s most effective surrogate, standing by him and handling an often-hostile press throughout all his controversies and scandals. She can take on hard questions and give back strong and composed answers. This contributed to Trump’s victory — and resulted in Conway’s place as the first woman to run a successful presidential campaign.
{mosads}Conway masterfully defends Trump to the media while attempting to smooth his rough edges. For instance, after Meryl Streep criticized Trump at the Golden Globes, Conway appeared on CNN with Chris Cuomo, answering tough questions about the incident in which Trump allegedly mocked a disabled reporter.
Conway, as always, managed to stay loyal, on message and calm under pressure. Her greatest strength has been to give him a sense of reason, even when she comes under fire for her own comments, such as, “You want to go with what’s come out of his mouth rather than what’s in his heart.”
Conway, neé Fitzpatrick, has worked as a professional campaign strategist for over two decades, tracking women’s issues as they relate to economic and political choices. She made a name for herself working for prominent Republican figures like Jack Kemp, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney.
Before joining the Trump campaign, she headed up a political action committee supporting Ted Cruz. Conway’s reputation as a numbers wizard preceded her long before the 2016 election.
When Conway took on the role of Trump’s campaign manager, she was tasked with rescuing a campaign that, at best, was 6 points behind in the polls. She was Trump’s third campaign manager, but she was perfectly equipped for the job due to her intimate knowledge of polling data and statistics.
The journey to November was difficult, particularly when Trump’s past comments about women came to light. Conway was forced to defend her role, as a woman, working for a man who had made obscene comments about women. However, the incident did not faze her: she helped shift the narrative to Bill and Hillary Clinton’s past actions and proved that women had no reason to be afraid of an allegedly misogynistic candidate.
Her strategy proved successful on Nov. 8, when Trump was supported by 42 percent of women in general, and 53 percent of white women.
Conway, as she had done for years before, fought to maintain a balance between her family and her job, earning a “Saturday Night Live” parody skit in the process. Finding such a balance has been a key focus of her life — one every woman should look up to and emulate.
The idea of women “having it all” has been debated in public for years. The goal of second-wave feminism, shattering glass ceilings and offering true gender equality, has largely succeeded already, but with it has introduced a plethora of new struggles related to marriage and family.
“Today’s woman is penciling in marriage and motherhood on her lifetime To Do list, and a trip to the altar, although still desired, is no longer urgent,” Conway wrote in her 2005 book, “What Women Really Want.” A God-given desire to be fruitful and multiply cannot go away easily, but a society that encourages, even pressures, women to seek out their own individualistic paths in life can too easily send priorities astray.
Conway did not prove that women can “have it all” through her role in the Trump campaign. In a Politico panel shortly after the election, Conway recounted that she told her children, “Mommy is on her semester abroad.” Despite being offered the role of White House press secretary, she turned the position down, opting instead for the less demanding role of counselor to the president. Conway could have had it all professionally, but she would have given up much more. Rather than make that sacrifice, she took a step back while she was ahead.
When Conway was named counselor to the president, some people such as Juan Williams, a columnist for The Hill, questioned how she could take on the role with four kids, to which Conway unapologetically responded, “I would say that I don’t play golf, and I don’t have a mistress, so I have a lot of time that a lot of these other men don’t.”
On Jan. 20, Conway celebrates two important milestones: the inauguration of her boss as the 45th president and her own 50th birthday. Her accomplishments since the beginning of her career 1990s are tremendous. Any woman — on either side of the political spectrum — should be able to look up to her as a professional role model. More importantly, however, her commitment to her true priorities in life — the people she cares about the most — is what is most admirable about this woman.
As a young millennial who will soon go through the same struggle to find balance, I am delighted to see someone as successful and passionate as Conway. Sadly, she has not received the same amount of recognition she would have if she were on the left. Nevertheless, she remains a role model for young female conservatives to emulate.
Women may not be able to “have it all,” but Kellyanne Conway proves that women can have enough, and then some, to be satisfied in life.
Ladies, be more like Kellyanne Conway.
Kassy Dillon is the founder of LoneConservative.com. She is a junior at Mount Holyoke College studying International Relations and Middle Eastern Studies. She is the MHC College Republican President, the Massachusetts YAL state chair, and she can be found on Twitter at @KassyDillon.
The views of Contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.