The former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines has long been an activist for girls and women in sports. Now, she is hinting on possibly taking her fight against trans athletes to the next level by running for office herself.
Gaines has vowed to remove any Democrat promoting the removal of trans athletes in girls’ and women’s sports
Almost every Senate Democrat voted against the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act” last week, per Fox News.
“It’s never what I saw myself doing,” Gaines told Fox News.
Gaines majored in health sciences at the University of Kentucky. She had planned to pursue dentistry.
“But now, of course, with this issue and more, I would say the whole America-first agenda. I am just so passionate, I care so deeply, and I love it, so we’ll see. It’s definitely not something I would rule out,” she said. “I don’t think I’m that crazy yet, because I do think you have to be a bit clinically insane to voluntarily do that. But I do believe that maybe eventually influencing policy in that way is something I see myself doing.”
Gaines also said what politician she would like to emulate — Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
“She’s so fierce, and she is so strong, and what you see is what you get,” Gaines said. “She stands firm for what she knows to be true, for what she knows to be right and righteous and moral and just. And I think we need more of that. We don’t have a lot of that, it is a very rare trait, especially in the political sphere.”
“The Riley Gaines Act,” recently passed in the Georgia House of Representatives. The act seeks to ban trans athletes in girls’ and women’s sports in Georgia.
She has rapidly risen through the ranks as a notable conservative figure, including becoming involved in the “Gaines for Girls”OutKick podcast.
She also led a pre-race prayer at the NASCAR Cup Series’ EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, recently.
Gaines already has the support of Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.).
The senator worked closely with Gaines to keep males out of women’s and girls’ sports. In fact, Blackburn was a co-sponsor of the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act.
“I think Riley has the ability to pursue whatever she wants to pursue,” Blackburn said of the former swimmer. “She thought she would be a dentist, and life has taken some interesting turns, and I am so pleased to see the work that she’s doing to protect women and girls.”
Gaines’ stances on other matters, such as immigration and border security, U.S. relations with Ukraine already fall in line with President Donald Trump’s.
