The Daily Signal - #487: High Schooler Who Lost Race to Transgender Athletes Explains Why She’s Fighting Back

Episode Date: June 18, 2019

High school track athlete Selina Soule lost her opportunity for an athletic scholarship when a male transgender athlete beat her in a contest. This week she filed a federal discrimination complaint, saying she was deprived of her Title IX rights. Listen to Kelsey Bolar's exclusive interview with Soule. Plus: If you’re a young conservative activist (or if you know one), you might want to check out the Leadership Institute, a nonprofit group that’s training the next generation of conservative leaders. Stephen Rowe of the Leadership Institute joins us to share how he's working to reach the next generation of conservatives. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Thursday, June 20th. I'm Kate Trinco. And I'm Daniel Davis. High school track athlete Selena Sewell lost her opportunity for an athletic scholarship when a male transgender athlete beat her in a contest. This week, she filed a federal discrimination complaint, saying that she was deprived of her Title IX rights. Our colleague, Kelsey Bowler, recently sat down with her,

and today we'll share that interview. Plus, if you're a young conservative activist, or if you know one, you might want to check out the Leadership Institute, a nonprofit group that's training the next generation of conservative leaders. I recently sat down with a representative from Leadership Institute to discuss those opportunities. And today we'll play the interview. By the way, if you're enjoying this podcast, please consider leaving a review or a five-star rating in iTunes. This will help us grow and reach a larger audience. Now on to our top news.

Good news for coal plants and those who work at them. the Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday the Affordable Clean Energy Rule, which replaces President Obama's Clean Power Plan, which was never implemented due to a prolonged legal fight. The Obama Plan would have put stringent regulations on coal plants in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Now the EPA is reducing its standards and letting states make a lot of the calls. Quote, we are gathered here today because the American public elected a president

with a better approach. That's what EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler said, according to CNN. One of the president's first acts in office was to issue an executive order to promote energy independence. In it, he instructed the EPA to rescind, replace, or revise the clean power plan.

Well, President Trump spoke to a massive crowd in Orlando, Florida on Tuesday, where he touted his proudest achievements and, yes, took some shots at the media. Early on, he dug in on the Russia investigation, and on Democratic calls for impeachment. Here's a brief clip. We went through the greatest witch hunt in political history.

The only collusion was committed by the Democrats, the fake news media, and their operatives, and the people who funded the phony dossier, crooked Hillary Clinton and the DNC. It was all an illegal attempt to overturn the results of the election, spy on our campaign, which is what they did, and subvert our democracy. Remember the insurance policy just in case Hillary Clinton lost. Remember the insurance policy.

Former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks was reportedly largely mum during a closed-door hearing Wednesday over the Mueller report and matters covered in the report. White House lawyers said she had immunity and was not required to answer. the questions. Representative Ted Liu, Democrat of California, said per USA Today, she is basically relying on the Department of Justice to assert objections every single time it's related to anything during her tenure in the White House. There is no such thing as absolute immunity. The White House is just making stuff up. Meanwhile, also per USA Today, Representative Doug Collins of Georgia, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said, quote,

there's nothing new here. Democrats continue to try to relitigate the Mueller investigation. On Wednesday, a House Judiciary Subcommittee held a hearing on slavery reparations. Danny Glover and Toneheesey Coates were among the Democratic witnesses, but what created stir was the Republican witness, Coleman Hughes. He's a writer for Quillette and a lifelong Democratic voter. He prefaced his remarks by saying that he in no way intended to minimize the horrors of slavery and that the failure to pay reparations to freed slaves after the Civil War was, quote, one of the greatest injustices ever perpetrated by the U.S. government, end quote.

But today he opposes reparations. He made that known, and the audience responded. Reparations, by definition, are only given to victims. So the moment you give me reparations, you've made me into a victim without my consent. Not just that, you've made one third of black Americans. Americans who poll against reparations into victims without their consent. And black Americans have fought too long for the right to define themselves to be spoken for in such a condescending manner.

The question is not what America owes me by virtue of my ancestry. The question is what all Americans owe each other by virtue of being citizens of the same nation. And the obligation of citizenship is not transactional. It's not contingent on ancestry. It never expires, and it can't be paid off. For all these reasons, Bill H.R. 40 is a moral and political mistake. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hughes. Chill, chill, chill, chill. He was presumptive, but he still has a right to speak. The UN looked into the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist who disappeared after visiting the Saudi Arabia consulate in Turkey last fall. The UN released a report which states, per the Wall Street Journal, that the special rapporteur has determined that there is credible evidence warranting further investigation of high-level Saudi officials' individual liability, including the Crown Prince's. The UN Special Rapporteur involved in this report was Agnes Kalimard. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's Adele Al-Jubier, who handles foreign affairs for the state, shot back in a tweet.

Nothing new. The report of the rapporteur and the Human Rights Council contains clear contradictions in baseless allegations which challenge its credibility. Dutch investigators have charged four suspects in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, the flight that was shot down over Ukraine back in 2014, killing all 298 people on board, including 196 Dutch citizens. Among the suspects are three Russians and one Ukrainian. According to the Washington Post, two of the Russians have ties to Russia's military intelligence unit, the GRU, and the other Russian previously served in Russia's domestic intelligence agency, the FSB. The Ukrainian suspect has no military background, but reportedly once led a separatist unit in eastern Ukraine. All four men are believed to be either in Russia or in eastern Ukraine and thus outside the reach of Western law enforcement.

In a 6-1 vote, the St. Paul School Board in Minnesota voted this week to strip the name Monroe from an arts high school due to the fifth president, James Monroe, being a slaveholder. According to the Fox affiliate in the area, a committee looking into the name determined that the name Monroe, quote, does not reflect the values and aspirations of our diverse school community. Next up, we're going to feature an interview that our colleague Kelsey Buller conducted with Selena Sewell, a track athlete who will. lost out on a scholarship opportunity because of a transgender athlete. The interview was recorded for the Problematic Women podcast, which we encourage you to subscribe to. If you're tired of high taxes, fewer health care choices, and bigger and bigger government, it's time to partner with the most impactful conservative organization in America. We're the Heritage Foundation, and we're committed to solving the issues America faces. Together, we'll fight back against the rising tide of homegrown

socialism and we'll fight for conservative solutions that are making families more free and more prosperous but we can't do it without you please join us at heritage dot org and this week's problematic woman of the week is selina soul some of you might remember selina from a documentary that our team produced for the daily signal detailing her story of being forced to sit on the sidelines at a major tournament in Connecticut because two transgender runners who were born male but identify as female landed the number one in two spots. Selina is joining me in studio today with Christina Holcomb and attorney at Alliance Defending Freedom. Selina and Christina, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. Thanks for having us. Let's start with you, Selena. For those who

didn't see our video and aren't familiar with your story, can you? you recap what happened? So in the indoor season at the State Open Championship, I came in eighth place in the 55 meter dash and the top seven qualify for the finals of the 55 meter dash and the top six qualify for the regional New England meet. And I came in eighth place overall, but I would have been sixth place because the first two spots are taken by two transgender athletes. And just to clarify, you are a rising. And just to clarify, you are a rising. Senior. Yes. From Glastonbury, Connecticut. Yes. Okay. We're going to get more into the backstory of how this happened. Not only did you fight back by speaking up about your ordeal, which I'm going to get to more later,

but there's been a big development in your case. This week, lawyers on your behalf actually filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education. Christina, can you tell us more about the step and why you decided to take it on Selena's behalf. Sure, absolutely. So girls like Selena deserve a level playing field in athletics, right? We know Title IX was designed to ensure that women were free of sex discrimination in education, and secondly, in athletics so that they could have the opportunity to compete, to move to the next level to compete for scholarships and potentially even launch their own athletic careers. But what the Athletic Association in Connecticut has done by allowing biological males to compete on Selena's female track tournaments is actually completely undermined and

violated Title IX. So Alliance Defending Freedom on behalf of Selena and two other very courageous female athletes has filed a Title IX complaint with the Department of Education. So what that basically means is we've asked the department to investigate and ultimately to restore fairness to women's sports. And explain the laws, regulations, or just policies at the state or even athletic level in this case that are enabling biological boys to be competing as girls in high school sports. Sure. So I'm happy to jump in here.

So the Connecticut, it's basically the statewide athletic association in the state of Connecticut decided that biological males who identify as female may now with no other transition or homeowner or any standards whatsoever quite. frankly, may now compete with the biological girls if they choose to do so. And we're aware of at least two boys who are now not just competing against the girls, but absolutely dominating female track and field events in Connecticut. And Selena, this is a big step for you. As if speaking out in front of millions of people weren't hard enough, now you're actually filing a complaint before the U.S. Department of Education.

Why did you decide to take this step? I think that it's important for fairness to be returned to not just track and field, but all female sports. And we've tried to talk to the Connecticut Athletic Association. And we've tried to talk to my school's officials. And no one wants to hear us. And I think that this was the best way to get our voice out there and try to find a solution. It's crazy to me that you say nobody wants to hear you because the reaction. to the seven-minute documentary that we published on your story at The Daily Signal has been

incredible. It has 2.65 million views on YouTube and 3.8 million views on Facebook, and every day those numbers are still climbing. That is our highest performing video we've ever published in the five years the Daily Signal has existed. Were you surprised by this reaction how it went viral, or did that scare you a bit? I'm certainly surprised by it, even to this day, because I thought that it would be gaining a lot of attention for maybe a couple weeks after it was just released. But even now, to this day, there's still people watching it,

and there's still more comments being posted, and I'm having kids from other schools and other states that track me, it's coming up to me and thanking me for this. I'm having hundreds and hundreds of people reaching out to me on social media, thanking me for speaking out. So I'm a little overwhelmed by it, to be quite honest. Wow, and has there been backlash mixed in with that? I've gotten some backlash, but I don't pay too much attention to it.

The amount of hatred that I've gotten has been so many school compared to all the love and support. So for me, I'm focusing on that and focusing on trying to bring back fairness to my sport. The comments are overwhelmingly positive when you read through them on Facebook or YouTube. I wanted to read you a couple and get your. reaction. This girl is risking her entire future by speaking out in this manner. I hope you all can appreciate that. Good job on this high school student displaying true bravery in a world that would crucify people for voicing opinions. I agree with her 100% and I'm trans. Not all trans people are so radically left about gender and this stuff. This is so sad. I don't think people should be

afraid of speaking up. Facts are facts. Biological males will be able to compete at a higher level than biological females. That's just biology. Were you surprised by any of this feedback? And to some extent, yes. I know that not all transgender people have the same viewpoints as the rest and the far left. But some, I know because I have some. transgender athletes in my school, they are transgender males, and they also don't agree that this is fair. And it's coming down to common sense and realizing that men are physically superior to women, and that's just science. It's not subjective. It's objective. And you weren't the only athlete that I interviewed when I visited you in my home state of Connecticut. I interviewed a

handful of other girls, but I talked to them off the record. I got their voices on audio, but they did not want to show their faces. And when we published their voices, we actually had to alter them to protect their identities. We didn't use their names. We didn't use any identifiable characteristics. Understandably, they were concerned about being labeled a bigot and facing backlash. Have you heard, without using their names, have you heard from any of them, their reaction to how this video has gone viral?

I don't think anyone was expecting it to become this popular and to really go viral. We all knew that it would probably be spread along the track community, not only in Connecticut, but maybe across the U.S., but none, I don't think any of us expected it to get this much attention and still continuing to. And Christina, what do you, think it says that so many Americans who probably could care less about track are watching this

and sharing feedback and sharing the video and having such a strong reaction to it. Yeah, I think it means that the unfairness of what's happening to Selena and these other girls in Connecticut is just really clear, right? There's not a whole lot of room for debate. Every boy who is standing on the podium or meddling in a women's sporting event is one fewer girl that is meddling or standing on that podium. And I think Americans of all shapes, sizes, affiliations, and so forth get the basic unfairness of that. Yeah, and I can't help but think after reading through the comments that so many people are just relieved and refreshed that a young girl like yourself is willing to speak honestly about the situation and share how it's impacting you.

because unfortunately there is so much intolerance surrounding this issue. So I think that they really do value your voice in this conversation. This conversation is also about legislation that Congress is considering the Equality Act. Christina, can you break that down? Sure. So the Equality Act is a piece of legislation, as you mentioned, introduced into Congress, passed by the House, but is still pending in the Senate, thankfully. But what it would do is essentially impose a gender identity law across the entire country.

So the particular policy that is that Selena is fighting in the state of Connecticut that's allowing biological males to compete in sports designed specifically for women, that would become the law of the land in all 50 states at every level, city, state, and federal, which frankly I think is a really scary proposition. and I think it has massive, massive ramifications, particularly for young women like Selena. And Selena, you've spoken out against this legislation. Why are you taking it there, the conversation there? I'm taking it to that point because I know once this law is passed or if it is passed, that it'll completely destroy women's sports.

And women will be on the sidelines watching their own events. Because no matter how hard we try and how much effort we put in in the gym and the track on the court in the field wherever, we will never be able to be competitive with a man. It's not possible. So I don't know if you heard, but there's a newly released music video by Taylor Swift, reiterating her call for the Senate to pass the Equality Act. Again, the Equality Act could enable biological boys who identify as girls to compete as girls in sports across the country. Taylor Swift, of course, has not acknowledged that part of the conversation. She's brushed over it.

But in her new song, Taylor is effectively telling those like you, Selena, who oppose the Equality Act, quote, you need to calm down, unquote. Have you heard this song? And how does that make you feel? I have not heard this song. And I'm upset by that because I only have an issue with it for athletics. For everyday life, it doesn't matter. And I fully support anyone who wants to identify as whatever they are. To me, it doesn't matter.

And in everyday life, a man and a woman are going to do an office job the same and learn in a classroom the exact same. But athletics have always had separate rules because of great physical differences between a man and a woman. You are a junior, well, you just finished your junior year. This is an important time for you as someone who wants to compete in terms. in college. How is this affecting those dreams? It can greatly impact my future because when the college coaches are looking at the results

from these meets online, there's no indication that these athletes are transgender. They're either listed under the boys category or the girls category. So unless they've somehow heard about this story or they type these athlete's names into Google, then they would have no idea that they're transgender. And with the current CAC, or the current, excuse me, NCAA policy, transgender athletes cannot compete until they have completed hormone therapy. There's a certain regulation and policy for that. And the coaches wouldn't be able to recruit them yet until they have completed that.

So I haven't directly had any effects from this yet, but it certainly could have an impact. And for the record, we very intentionally did not use the names of the two transgender student athletes. They have been public. They have participated in their own interviews in the media. But we felt it was incredibly important to let your story be told and let the focus be on you. Because the mainstream media and the liberal media does a pretty good job of sharing how they feel. you really were one of the first voices to really be heard from the other perspective. And clearly a lot of people identify with that.

Christina, I want to know regarding the complaint you filed, what are the next steps? How long is this process going to take? What can we expect? Yeah, all great questions. So next step is the Department of Education should open an investigation that will happen very quietly behind the scenes. So it'll be investigating the policy, the athletic policy that's in place allowing transgender athletes to compete in female sports. And we're just optimistic that ultimately they will come back and say, clear Title IX violation and really remedy the wrong. What we want

is for a level playing field for Selena and her fellow female athletes to be able to compete against fellow biological girls and really, yeah, have a chance to be recruited and earn those college scholarships. And Selena, as we wrap up this interview, I can't help but ask you this question. I don't know if this is something you have thought through much at your age, but it's a question we love asking women who come in because there are a range of different answers and none of them are wrong. Do you identify as a feminist? I don't really know how to answer to that. I haven't dove too deep into that, but I believe that women should be equal to men. There shouldn't be a wage gap and there should be paid maternity leave and that women should have an equal opportunity in athletics and in other areas.

But I don't know if I would label myself as a feminist at this point in time, maybe in the future, but I'm not sure. Would you go so far as to label yourself a problematic woman? Yes. I think you've been very problematic. Well, Selena and Christina, thank you so much for joining us in studio today. Thanks for having us. Are you looking for quick conservative policy solutions to current issues? Sign up for Heritage's weekly newsletter, The Agenda.

In the agenda, you will learn what issues Heritage Scholars on Capitol Hill are working on. What position conservatives are taking and links to our in-depth research. The agenda also provides information on important events happening here at Heritage that you can watch online, as well as media interviews from our experts. Sign up for the agenda on heritage.org today. I'm joined now by Stephen Rowe. He is deputy director at the Leadership Institute based in Washington, D.C., where he trains thousands of young people in digital technology every year. Every year. Thanks, Stephen, for joining me on the podcast. Absolutely. Thank you for having me. It's exciting to be here. So tell me, you're with the Leadership Institute. Some of

folks may have heard of it, some may have it. What is the Leadership Institute all about? Tell us how you train conservatives. Absolutely. So the Leadership Institute, we've been around since 1979, doing our best to empower conservatives across this entire country, whether it's students, activists, and leaders on Capitol Hill, we turn soldiers into super soldiers in terms of training. And so if you're a student activist out there, you might have seen us on college campuses, helping you build your chapter and effectively reach people with the conservative message. And And if you're a little bit older trying to, you know, be persuasive and be, you know, empowered in politics, we also help you with that. And my primary goal is in digital.

And so I do digital training across the country, both online and in person. Three big buckets are social media, web development, and programming. And I can't tell you how far behind sometimes you can see some conservatives when I say the word programming, they get a little scared. When I say social media, they get a little nervous, right? And so I think it's important, super important that we are talking to people, getting them engaged. and putting them on the front lines of the digital world, which is only becoming more and more impactful on politics every single day. So that's kind of a little bit about us and kind of what we do.

Well, that digital world is so critical for reaching young people, which is what you try to do. Yeah, definitely. Tell me about that. I mean, millennials, we hear more about how millennials like socialism. Yeah. What is the key to reaching millennials with a conservative message? Yeah, that's a great question.

And I think a lot of people, too, discount millennials and discount college students right off the bat. And I think that's the first mistake that a lot of people do. A lot of people say that millennials tend to be liberal, well, what we find at the Leadership Institute, and we've been across the country in all 50 states, and every single time we find that the cases that most college students are apathetic, not liberal, and they just don't care. They want to know who the next bachelor is. They want to know when the football game is on rather than who their politician is. And so when you actually go out there and just reach them with a persuasive message, then they're very responsive to it. And we can actually then, you know, get them going from there.

I think another misconception that a lot of people have is that, you know, the old axiom that, you know, you're a liberal in college and then when you start paying taxes, you become a conservative. I'm not sure that's necessarily the case. It's important that we reach them with a conservative message, though, that, you know, it's not CNN or MSNBC that's telling them what we think and that we're evil and we're, you know, the cause of all the destruction in the world, it feels like sometimes when you look at their news outlets, but rather we have ideas and we're trying to help and reach people as best as possible and empower people. with the tenants of capitalism, the free market, etc. It's a beautiful thing. And college students just don't know what the conservative mentality is. You know, we know that their professors and academia are not teaching conservative principles in college campuses. And if they won't, it's up to us to do it. And that's why we're here and that's why we're doing it as much as possible. Yeah, well, and you've been doing it for a long time. Yeah, 40 years. 40 years, this year. Wow. How about that? Yeah, big good arm. So you're also passionate about reaching minority Americans, young minority Americans. Tell us,

how do you go about that? Yeah, absolutely. So I find myself in a minority a lot. So first of all, I'm a Montana, right? Not a lot of Montana is out there. It's about a million of us total. Second of all, I'm a black Montana, right? And that's even less.

I think there's about seven of us last time I checked. It might be six now. I just left. I live in D.C. now. So it's good. The number's getting pretty low. I think people are losing scholarships. I don't know.

But yeah, and then even more, I'm Native American, too. I'm a half of Rosebud's two of the Indian tribe. And, you know, all of that really culminates to, how do we reach these people? And I look back at my path of how I became a conservative and how we can then, you know, replicate that as much as possible. And the good thing is, and the good news here is that, you know, black Republicans are becoming more and more in common. You know, black support for Trump, we saw a huge jump, you know, with the Kanye thing way back in the day and the unemployment numbers speak for themselves.

But the jump is really growing. I think the last approval poll had black support over 20%. It used to be 11% back in 2008. And so we are trending in the right direction. but the secret to reaching these people is asking them to vote their values. And that's really the conversation that we need to have. Because what we find is that eight out of ten black Americans on average believe in God. And the same goes for Mexicans.

It's almost nine out of ten. They're Catholic, they're Christian. They really love their religion. And the best thing about that is that aligns almost perfectly with conservative worldviews. And if we just ask them to take a step back for a second, don't say vote for art, vote for deep. Say vote your values. And I promise you're going to keep getting more and more than. on our side when they realized that we have the answers and the policy prescriptions that fit their

moral worldview. That's how we reach them. Yeah. You know, you maybe just think of the 2016 Democratic Convention where they were debating whether to keep God in their document was. Yeah. And there was like an equal yes and no yelling on both sides. They're trying to take a voice vote. And, you know, if it's that split in the party, at least among the party elites, how much within constituencies who are typically considered Democrat, but still believe? almost all believe in God. Absolutely. And if you believe in God, then it's a hard, hard thing to rationalize, you know,

the evils of abortion, right? And all of a sudden it starts to crumble apart. The facade that the Democrats have put up is it starts to crumble. But it starts with telling them to vote their values. But the second step is actually being there and being in those communities. I think it's easy to write people off. Like I just said with college students, we think that they're liberal, so we're not going to go talk to them.

We're going to focus on our base. The same applies for these minority communities, you know? We need to go into Chicago. We need to go into Detroit and actually visit them and knock on their door. and say, hey, you know, we're here and we're not going away, and it's not just during this election cycle. You know, it can be 2017, right, boy, you know, 2018, 19, 20, 21, 22. You get the point. Every single year we're there, it's not just the election cycles.

And I promise you, they're going to start seeing us as a much more viable option, which is super important. Yeah, and that's so encouraging, given the rise of identity politics, when so many folks across the political spectrum have a kind of default political identities just because of, you know, a certain demographic there are a part. of. But when you talk about actually having a conversation about issues that affect them in real life, that starts to change the conversation. So it changes a big time. Yeah, I know. Identity politics, it kind of starts to crumble a little bit too as you dig a little bit deeper into it, which is a good thing because it's on the face like, oh, you're a woman, so you should be voting like this. Right, exactly.

It just, it doesn't hold up to any test of any, you know, logic if you actually start digging into the identity politics. And so really it's just peeling it back and going beyond like the surface level stuff. But attacking. them with just like, you know, this is what conservatives believe may not be the right course. It's actually just saying, what do you believe? And then where does that, what party actually aligns with what your, what your Christian faith, you know, uphold or you're just moral values. And then it starts to paint a very clear picture that, you know, abortion on demand is a very negative thing. And, you know, when we're looking at freedom, we're looking at

people being able to exercise their will, that's going to be a tenant of the Republican Party. That's going to be a tenant of conservatism. And so it's super important to push them more towards the conservative side. Well, you're really an expert in all things digital. Sure. What tips would you give to our listeners who are active on social media, whether it's Twitter or Facebook, trying to have some sort of an impact? I mean, social media is such a convergence point for people who have family members and friends who disagree with them.

What are some of your best tips? Yeah, absolutely. So a couple quick ones. First and foremost, the biggest tip is actually do something, right? I can tell you the perfect playbook of do X, Y, and Z and you'll be successful. And I do that oftentimes at a lot of the trainings across the country. and then people fail to take action. And so I cannot stress this enough.

Just do something. And so I always challenge... You mean on social media or outside? Exactly. On social media. Start posting, start testing it out, start figuring it out. And I always challenge people to this. It's a 30-day challenge.

And if anybody who takes this challenge does this, by the end of 30 days, I promise you'll be a better person for it. And here's the challenge. Every day for 30 days, you're going to work on one social media site, whether it's Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, down the list. Every single day for 30 days. And you're going to post once every single day. And I promise you, the first.

post on day one, it's not going to be very good. Day two, it's still not going to be very good. But by day 30, you're going to be an entirely different person and understand how the social media platform works and a much better person for it who's able to advocate the conservative message. So the first thing is the 30-day challenge just to get you to start doing things. But even more, on Twitter, let's say you want to grow your Twitter following. I recommend the piggyback technique. And you see this all the time. So let's pick someone that you love and someone that you hate. Let's make it real easy. We love Donald Trump and we hate, you know, let's call, let's hate AOC, right?

She's real popular right now. Alexandria Akezio-Cortez. And so when they tweet, the next time they tweet, drop a comment below where they're tweeting. Because when they tweet, the eyeballs are on this tweet. And this is your opportunity to actually input your voice of support or objection. And I recommend picking those two, and that's the audience. So the person that you like, it's going to be someone who wants to, you want to build the audience like. And I promise you, you look at these tweets underneath Trump's, you know, latest tweet.

There's going to be 2,000 likes, 4,000 likes, 25,000 likes, not 20, excuse me, 22,500 likes below his initial tweet of people just reacting to what he said, both positive and negative. And you can be one of those people. And the people that actually get these likes are the people that are growing their followers and building their engagement. And it's called the piggyback technique because you can piggyback onto the message that you want to deliver. And it's going to allow you to grow an audience that's concentrated around the people that you're trying to target in the first place. And so pick someone you like, pick someone you don't like. And I promise you, as you start tweeting below their tweets, you're going to grow very, very quickly on Twitter.

Well, there's never a shortage of content or tweet content with Donald Trump and AOC. No shortage at all. They're there every day. They're there every single day. But like I said, I just want to circle back to the main thing here. We just have to start doing things because so many conservatives are so passive on social media, they're scrolling Twitter, they're scrolling Instagram, and they're not doing anything. They're just looking at it. And they're upset with it or they don't like it, but they're not saying anything.

And so it's so important that we just take that step of action to say, here's what I think. Here's what we could do in any instance, depending on what the particular person is saying. Just take that action. I promise you, once you start doing it, you're going to start seeing some success, and you're really going to start growing from there, which is super important. Well, you and the Leadership Institute offer your services to conservatives across the country. Yes. How can our listeners explore that?

Yeah, absolutely. So I've got a free social media boot camp, absolutely free, no strings attached. It's for conservatives only. I guess that's the only string. You have to be a conservative to take this course. It's a free social media boot camp. It's leadership institute.org, forward slash teachable. T-E-A-C-H-A-B-L-E, Leadership Institute.org forward slash teachable.

And my free social media boot camp is there. We've got a campaign tech academy that's free there. We want to give conservatives the resources for free. We're a non-profit. We're not in the business of making money. We're in the business of empowering conservatives. And we want to make the people that are listening to this right now as strong as possible when it comes to online, you know, influence.

Fantastic. Well, Stephen, thank you for all your work that you do, and thanks for joining me on the podcast. Absolutely. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. And that's going to do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to The Daily Signal podcast, brought to you from the Robert H. Bruce Radio Studio at the Heritage Foundation. Please be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, or SoundCloud, and please leave us a review or rating in iTunes to give us feedback. We'll see you again tomorrow. You've been listening to The Daily Signal podcast. Executive produced by Kate Trinco and Daniel Davis.

Sound design by Michael Gooden, Lauren Evans, and Thalia Ramprasad. For more information, visit DailySignal.com.