Exclusive: Riley Gaines defends the fairness of women's sports. Will that lead her to the campaign trail?
The former NCAA swimmer-turned conservative activist has vowed to help free Democrats who have enabled the inclusion of trans athletes in girls and women's sports. That list added 45 senators Monday night after all Senate Democrats voted against “protection of women and girls in sports law.”
Gaines spent Monday in Minnesota, gathering supporters and advocating state legislation aimed at protecting female athletes from trans-inclusion. But the bill also failed to pass, which was short in the Minnesota House of Representatives.
After Gaines helped President Donald Trump and Republicans use public anger towards the Democrats to allow girls to be transported to sports, she now turned her attention to bringing more outcomes to the DNC in the middle of 2026, as the party appears to have refused to thwart the issue.
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Riley Gaines, a former American University swimmer in Kentucky, will speak in front of Florida Governor Ron de Santis at the Greenville Convention Center on Friday, June 2, 2023. (McKenzie Lange/Staff/USA Today Network)
But Gaines also hasn't ruled out the possibility of putting the matter in her own hands and ultimately taking up public office, she told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview last Friday.
“I've never seen myself doing it,” Gaines said.
“But now, of course, I'll say the whole American first agenda, including this issue. I'm so passionate, I care so deeply about it, and I love it.
Gaines said Tarshi Gabbard, director of national intelligence, will be her top role model in a potential political career.
“She's so intense, she's so strong, what you see is what you get,” Gaines said. “She stands firm for knowing that she is true, knowing that she is right, just, moral, and fair, and I think we need it more.
Gaines' political resume contains three years of highly visible activism in a space that protects women's sports. Over the past week, the “The Riley Gaines Act,” a law named after her, was passed in the Georgia House of Representatives.
After campaigning for Trump and Republicans in 2024, Gaines quickly becomes a figure of hypersensitive, conservative counterculture, leading the popular figure. “Gaines for Girls” Outkick podcast.
Over the past week she also led her pre-race prayer. NASCAR Cup Series'Ecopark Automotive Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.
If Gaines gets mad enough to throw a hat into the arena in her political campaign, she already has confidence in at least one prominent GOP figure.
How transgenderism in sports changed the 2024 election and sparked national counterculture
R-Tenn. , Senator Marsha Blackburn is working closely with Gaines in the fight to keep men out of women and girls' sports. Blackburn is a co-sponsor of the protection of women and girls in sports law, and has proposed three laws to address this issue in total.
Blackburn is confident that in partnership with Gaines on the issue, the former swimmer and aspiring dentist can accomplish anything she wants.
“I think Riley has the ability to pursue what he wants to pursue,” Blackburn previously told Fox News Digital. “She thought she would become a dentist, so life has taken some interesting turns. I'm very happy to see the work she does to protect women and girls.”
Gaines is already openly speaking about issues beyond women's sports, and is in the mainstream of Trump and the Republican Party, including issues such as immigration, border security, US relations with Ukraine, and Day's rewind. She clarifies these stances, with social media activities going back several years ago.
For the time being, however, Gaines is focusing on retreating the political careers of Democrats who voted to keep trans athletes in women and girls' sports.
Shortly after the Senate vote Monday night, Gaines took her to social media to summon Democrats who opposed the protection of women and girls in the sports law, and rallyed her supporters to oppose them. Gaines pointed out Sen. John Ossoff, D-GA in particular.
“You have a daughter. Are you embarrassed? Georgians are watching. I'll make it my mission to do what I can to remove you from your Senate seat in 2026.”
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President Donald Trump has recognized former Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines before signing the law on February 5, 2025 to Nomen in the Women's Sports Executive Order in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP)
Gaines previously told Fox News Digital that he hopes to support elected Republican officials, including Trump, in his efforts to settle these senators. She also argues that some of the Democrats she appears to be leaving are already opposed to trans-inclusion.
“In some of these private, confidential conversations I had with a few democratic senators, they assure me that men know that it's absurd for women to play sports, and they wouldn't want their daughter to have that happen. But they're hiding behind a lot of different excuses,” Gaines said.
Those who are allegedly hiding behind the excuse, after officially making enemies from Gain, the DNC may have to prepare for Gain to become enemies for years to come.
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