Watching us on cspan. Kate obenchain has a long history with Young Americas Foundation. She is the alumnus of our programs, has been a popular speaker for more than 25 years and has served as both Vice President and director of the foundation. She is also a frequent fox news guest and author. In addition, kate has been the chief of staff for senator george allen and was the first woman chair of the virginia gop. However, among her many accomplishments, i would guess kate is most proud to be the mother of six children. Please join me in welcoming kate ob obenchain. [ applause ] okay, i am beside myself. I am so excited about this i usually have to stand up here and talk and yall get sleepy looking. Thats another going to happen today because i have the pleasure of introducing to you someone who is a good friend of mine, but i have admired her for decades. And when it was announced that this lady was going to take over running the trump campaign, i, somebody who had been a little, mm, not sure, was in completely i had complete confidence at that point. Kellyanne conway is counselor to the president of the United States of america. [ cheers and applause ] she is she is the first woman ever to successfully run a president ial campaign. [ cheers and applause ] she is the coauthor of what women really want you know, we conservative women know what women really want she has appeared on thousands of television programs. This year she was Clare Boothe Luce policy institutes woman of the year. She has been president and ceo of her own company, the polling company, and on top of that, she is an amazing mother of four children. Now, the toronto sun called her the hero that feminism ignores. I wonder why. [ laughter ] Jonah Goldberg said of kellyanne, because of the unprecedented, and frankly, sexist attacks that she has been sustaining, that she is Kellyanne Conway is good at her job, and the media hate her for it. Well, we love her and i ask you to join me in welcoming a true hero and a great champion of freedom, Kellyanne Conway. [ cheers and applause ] its like a rock concert. If she walks down there, it will be awesome, right . Hello, yall kellyanne, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Were so happy, as you can tell. Love the introduction that my mother wrote, i guess. I know she and i are like this. No, youre amazing. You have this ridiculous resume. It is so impressive. Phi beta kappa from trinity college, George Washington school of law. She graduated with honors. Thats right. Yay, yay. You have been president of a mul multimillion dollar company, the polling company. And i just think its amazing that nobody mentions this, of course, in the media, but you are the first woman to successfully run a president ial campaign. Now, i have known you for years and have always been so impressed with your grasp of trends and polling. Youre one of the smartest people i have ever met, but you are definitely the best in the country at understanding these trends. How did your background with polling help you in the president ial campaign . And basically, tell us a little bit about what that was like running that campaign. Kate, first of all, thank you, and thanks to Young Americas Foundation, to ron robinson, i think one of the longest serving leaders in the conservative movement in one consistent position, which is very rare these days. And i also just want to take an opportunity to thank each of you, certainly for being here, but just for being such loud voices for freedom and democracy and free markets and National Security and prosperity and for really standing your ground. I know how difficult it may be, but its fun and its worth it, and shes not the president , so let me answer that question. [ applause ] so, to answer your question, i actually think that it was very helpful to be a data specialist and become campaign manager, why . Because in politics, true political pollsters, they only know what voters think and what voters are doing. So were missing basically half of the country. And in president ial elections, about a third of the country or 25 of the country. So, part of the job was to understand how people really felt about issues and themes outside of the electoral context. Ill give you a couple good examples. One is, instead of just talking about jobcreators or jobseekers. So, the Republican Party for a long time was talking about entrepreneurs and jobcreators. The famous you didnt build that meme in the 2012 what do you call it convention. Right. And i think thats fine. Check, check jobcreators. I was one for 21 years, entrepreneurs, but thats about 7 of the country. Another 7 or so of the country are jobseekers. Well, we need to talk to the vast majority of households that are neither jobcreators nor jobseekers but are jobholders. Because its the jobholders that are saying, wow, we have two and three jobs in our household. Were not worried about losing the job and replacing a lost job. But why is the job not enough to get ahead . Why am i whiteknuckled at the end of each month to pay these bills, to decide whether my child can afford a Community College or the college, the Fouryear College that he or she was welcomed into . Also recognizing that themes motivate voters, not necessarily just issues. So, i think one thing donald trump did masterfully was elevate the theme of fairness, and he did that without really saying the word that often. An example would be how he wants to reform the tax code to make it more fair and simple and to give people relief. Another example is his views on School Choice and charters, that is it fair . Just asking somebody, is it fair that a child goes to school based on his zip code or where he or she lives . He also, i think, elevated the issue of fairness by changing the way we looked at trade and immigration. Trade was such an unsexy issue, it wasnt even mentioned in most polling choices, but he basically took this issue of trade and said its not fair to america and American Workers that we make onesided trade deals. No wonder the other countries love us. Theyre taking us to the cleaners every single time. So he wants something thats more fair. And perhaps the best example of it is his views toward immigration, where for years this country was asking, whats fair to the illegal immigrant. And he changed that to whats fair to the American Worker that may be competing with that immigrant for the job or whats fair to the local resources, whats fair to a sovereign nation that should have borders. We have spent billions of dollars helping other countries protect their borders, and he just figured, its fair and its high time we do that here. Data also helped me to understand the difference between biased questions, which are easy to detect, and useless questions, which are not easy to detect but which were sucking the lifeblood out of republican president ial politics, in my view. So, a useless question is, for example, do you support or oppose protecting the environment . Its like, well, it will say like 88 . Well, who the heck were the other 12 , you know . Thats silly. But that wasnt somebody would look at the 88 and go right for the liberal policies and be forced to adopt them as a republican because theyre not asking the tough questions beneath, which is, here are four views about how best to balance Economic Growth and environmental stewardship. I coined the term undercover trump voter last july right before i came campaign manager. I was already part of the campaign. And i coined this term undercover trump voter and said that he was doing about four to six points better in most state polls, and i was literally universally ridiculed because i said it on a london station first, universally ridiculed. But it was my data background that helped me to realize that there were going to be people who either had never voted or had never voted republican who are going to vote for donald trump, and they were going to do that based on him coloring outside of the lines and getting out of the comfort, partisan comfort zone, and reaching out to the forgotten man or forgotten woman and saying, you know, you are doing the best job you can, but youre forgotten by the special interests, the system and the swamp, and were here for you. Ill do this for you, to really appeal to people and have that connective tissue. He really is the best communicator ive ever seen, and it mattered to people. At the same time, and i want all of you to remember this as Young Conservatives im still conservative, im just not young is i want you to remember this, which is he would not have gotten elected unless he had a program, unless he had run on issues. Hes the best communicator ever, but its the issues that he ran on, it was his message. If you can tell me what Hillary Clintons message was, id love to know, because im still a year later wondering. Every day id wake up and say, please, god, dont let this be the day that she gets an optimistic, positive, cohesive message, please. And days would come and days would go and there would be no message other than hes bad and im not him, which is not a message. It was discrete. But it was his message, repeal obamacare, build a wall, put isis in defeat on its way to retreat. Make America Great again, but number one again, american exceptionalism. He ran for our veterans, the military, the taxpayers, property owners, our first responders, and with specific, a tenpoint program to reform the va, one of i think his greatest sets of accomplishments in the first six months, so much that has been done for our veterans, for example. But the data, back on its importance, on the science side to recognize that there are people who call themselves republicans or democrats or undecided, and to make them feel comfortable to tell you that maybe theyre going to be a little less comfortable in their voting behavior this time and go outside of the norms. And secondly, from the art perspective of the question wording, just to try to ask things a little bit differently so that people would feel comfortable to tell us. Maybe they dont know all the ins and outs of an issue, so thats an opportunity to help inform. Or maybe the answer is, oh, protect the environment, of course. Well, we all agree with that, but the question is how. How do you get there, and with what level of priority, with what level of, i guess federal involvement in this case. So, it was helpful, but i want the report to reflect it took donald j. Trump to elevate a woman for the First Time Ever in the republican president ial campaign dynamic. Without him, that would not have happened because it never had happened, and it wasnt happening with the other candidates. And i always want history to show that more than anything, which is that this man who was comfortable for decades elevating and promoting women to positions of power, in new York Real Estate before it was cool to do so, certainly in the trump corporation, the trump campaign, trump cabinet, and trump west wing. Well, he sees quality and sees professionalism and excellence and did something about it, so we were all pretty happy that he recognized that in you. A lot of the young people in this room are Trump Supporters and were Trump Supporters. And i will tell you, they took, as you know, they took a lot of heat on campuses, and they still and still do, sure. Take a lot of heat. If you dare say, i support donald trump, then they come after you and youre being vilified, just like what obama did for eight years. Theyre still doing it on campuses, probably more intensely than anywhere in the country to you guys. So, what advice do you have for these young people and Trump Supporters out there who are still enduring this . First of all, thank you. Thank you, obviously, for your support of the president , and im sure maybe there are some people in this room who dont always support us and what were doing or maybe had a different candidate last year in the primaries. But remember what President Trump said just as he was elected and as we are as of november 9th. He took to the podium and he said i will be the president of all americans, including those who did not support me. And hes really made good on that. He has me working on the Opioid Crisis along with other people, obviously, in the white house and in the administration. And i have yet ive gone around the country and will continue to do that. I would never in a million years ask somebody, so, did you vote for him . What are your politics . Are you registered to vote . You know, before we help you with the Opioid Crisis. So, i know personally he doesnt feel that way. And i know that he believes some issues should prevail and others should fail. And hes made very clear as to why hes there. So, you should remember that, too. You should have a 7second and a 70second and a 7minute version, and you should tell everybody this, whether they ask you the question or not. Answer the question, even when youre not asked. Why am i a conservative or why am i a trump supporter, or why am i on this side of that issue and not where everybody else seems to be . And tell them, because you have a couple things that we simply, that i simply lack. One is the largest part of the future. You do. The future belongs to those who are the youngest. And you have the long you will vote in more elections than the rest of us. You will be more involved in civic participation, in workplace participation than those of us already decades into that. And the thing about you thats so unique and so important and consequential, i would say, is that you have an opportunity for somebody to look at you on your college campus, in your communities, in your extended family, anywhere where you happen to be, and theyll look at you and theyll say, you know, i like you and youre like me, so im listening. That connective tissue is so unique, and its so powerful, and i would argue its much more powerful than some random Television Appearance or a speech somebody gives or me with you today, because you are the best ambassadors for your peer group. And yes, it is tough. People will say, well, i cant believe you could support this or i cant believe youre not a liberal like us. And i mean, i remember, and this is decades ago, long before there was social media i dont think there was an internet where there would be a little bit of ostracization involved in did i just make up that word . In actually being on one side of the issue or the other. I think as a prolifer, ive experienced that first and foremost, most of all. But if you believe it, youll be able to articulate it and youll be able to defend it and explain it. And i dont want to emphasize the word defend as much as i emphasize the word explain. You have an opportunity to tell people how you came to that conclusion, because i bet that there are as many viewpoints, as many lifes experiences and as many motivators as to what compels you to be a conservative than there are people in this room. So tell people. For some, it may be youre prolife, for some its schools and charters, others its National Security, others its taxes, repealing obamacare. Others is you feel the culture is so coursened and so politically correct that it bothers you and you dont want that. It could be for any reason at all. But for whatever reason it is, be willing to tell your story, because people will look at you i want to repeat it i like you and youre like me. Youre accessible, youre affable, but also, youre a costudent with them right now on the campus. Youre in the place of worship where they go. Youre in the community. Youre part of a larger peer group that got invited to some event together, so youre a friend of a friend of a friend, and you meet other people. And that is i think the most effective way to grow and deepen this movement of ideas. Thank you. Boy, do we all need to hear that, whether were on campuses or not. Now, heres something i didnt know about kellyanne, and i dont think you all probably know it, either, unless you really study her wikipedia page. God, i hope i know. Yeah, you know. Yeah, you do. Wikipedia, its probably yeah, its probably wrong. Somebody probably made that up. So, for eight summers, you worked on a blueberry farm. That is true. Is that right . Yes, it is. So, you guys, i hate to tell you, but youre called the entitlement generation. So, whether thats right or wrong, kellyanne, you know, schlepped away. I think you won like the best packer award . I was the fastest, because you got paid by the crate, so we had to put the cellophane into the crate, 12 times, 12 times for a crate. So, i was the fastest because the faster you were, the more you got paid. Awesome so, i learned how to do that. A little bit of a maniac about it. Well, we like that. I said somewhere in an interview and it got covered quite a bit, thankfully, kate, that so much of what i learned about hard work and comradery i learned on that farm, because i started working on it when i was 12. And yes, you were allowed. I think weve been outsourced to machines now in that position, but yes, you were allowed to be. And many of my friends worked and we worked really hard. But we learned so much about teamwork, and honestly, the tax code. We had to pay them. But im all for you know, this is a time in your life, if i may give you unsolicited advice, where you can try things and not make a full commitment, that thats your total career path. Go take an internship in something that youve never actually thought you might like. Its a great way to figure out in eight or ten weeks whether you do or you dont. Ive also i mean, the advice i would give, because im sure there are other things i wanted to do over the summers, and i was hardly, like, supporting the family with my summer job on the blueberry farm, but i did it because i looked at it as an opportunity to say yes instead of saying no, and ive been trying to say yes, even though i tell women all the time specific, saying no is a gift you give to yourself ultimately, because we tend to overextend ourselves. But saying yes. Opportunity d