10 Things We Just Learned About Donald Trump's Campaign Manager Kellyanne Conway
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This past November, Kellyanne Conway made history as she became the first female campaign manager to win a presidential election. Conway is now serving in President Trump’s administration as the Counselor to the President.
Conway, like her boss, is a divisive figures in American political life. She has made headlines recently for asserting on Meet the Press that White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was using “alternative facts” in his press conference (a term that has since been often derided on the internet).
While she has been a prominent political figure for months now, there’s still a lot the public doesn’t know about her. In an interview with The Washington Post, Conway revealed plenty of interesting details about herself including her nontraditional upbringing and why she doesn’t consider herself a feminist. Here are 10 things that we learned about the White House staffer.
1. She was raised by a single mother.
Conway was raised by her mother, Diane Fitzpatrick, after her father abandoned them while she was young. “My mother worked…for 21 years, and that was our sole source of support. She was left with no alimony, no child support whatsoever when I was 2 or 3.”
2. Her mother worked in Atlantic City.
Conway credits businessmen like Donald Trump for bringing casinos to the southern New Jersey city and providing many jobs for the people living in the area. “When the casinos came to Atlantic City, and that included Donald Trump and others, it revitalized an entire corridor between Atlantic City and Philadelphia,” she explains. “People then had jobs and benefits and opportunities, and I benefited directly from that through my mother and other family members.”
3. She wants her daughter to cure cancer.
When asked about her legacy, Conway says that being an “excellent mother” is something she wants to be remembered for. She also has some lofty goals for her own daughters. “I want one of them to cure cancer or win the Nobel Peace Prize or be the first woman president,” Conway says. “One of my daughters said, ‘Mom, I don’t want to go to Washington and be known as Kellyanne Conway’s daughter.’ And I said, ‘Well, then cure cancer, and I’ll be known as Claudia Conway’s mother.’ That’s the way I look at it,” she says.
4. She appreciates that she wasn’t hired because she’s a woman.
According to Conway, Donald Trump didn’t hire her to get women voters or to have the first winning female presidential campaign manager. “[Trump] never said this will help with women’s votes—he never said any of that,” Conway says. “So I appreciate very much that I was promoted based on skills and vision and compatibility with him. And him knowing that I would respectfully execute on his vision.” She also claims that it wasn’t a big deal to her that she was making history. “It’s a bigger deal now in retrospect,” she says. “I never gave it much thought during the campaign.”
5. She was the first person to go to college in her family.
Conway attended Trinity Washington College. She then went on to accomplish another family first by going to law school and earning her J.D. from George Washington University Law School.
6. She didn’t meet her father until she was a teenager, but she has a good relationship with him now.
Conway’s father left when she was very young and didn’t give her mother any alimony or child support. And though she says her father’s rejection had a “negative impact on some of my earlier choices and certainly circumstances,” she also says it helped her appreciate her husband’s positive and loving relationship with their children. Now her father is an active part of her family’s life, because Conway says she doesn’t believe in passing pain, anger or sadness on to the next generation.
7. She’s proud to be a role model for girls but doesn’t consider herself a feminist.
In the interview, Conway calls herself a “postfeminist.” She believes the feminist movement “has been hijacked by the pro-abortion movement” and comes with an “anti-male culture where we want young boys to sit down and shut up in the classroom.” She goes on to say, “I consider myself one of those women who is a product of her choices, not a victim of her circumstances.”
8. She’s pro-life but doesn’t judge her friends who’ve had abortions.
Conway has been pro-life for a long time, and plans to participate in this year’s March for Life. “I fear that we’re becoming too inured and inoculated against how precious life really is. Whether it’s in the womb or at the end of our years,” she says. However, she describes herself as “a very nonjudgmental person” and says she understands why women get abortions. She doesn’t judge her friends who’ve had abortions because, “To a person, they all feel some level of regret.”
9. She started her own business and paid off her student loans before she got married and had kids.
Like many parents today, Conway first focused on her career—and paying off her student loans—before she married at the age of 34. She and her husband, George, now have four children.
10. She says she isn’t affected by rude comments made about her on social media, but has to spend time talking to her kids about them.
While Conway is aware that she gets a lot of hateful messages on social media, she claims that she doesn’t respond or pay attention to them. Instead, she uses it as a teaching point for her kids. “I don’t engage,” she says. “Why would I? I’m going to let someone redefine and unravel me based on 140 characters or less? And that is a lesson I try to teach my children. Why would I engage strangers?”
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