GOP/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WOMEN: “The young women had come from 48 states across the country, yearning for moments of belonging they rarely found at home. Cheyenne Martin, a 19-year-old student at Georgetown University, described being ridiculed by classmates for her desire to lead the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency one day. But this weekend she was met with a standing ovation. Kyasia Benjamin used stealth social media accounts to hide her love of President Trump from her family, she said, but the 22-year-old was now proudly sporting a bright red skirt patterned with Republican Party elephants. Laci Williams, 20, said she felt so isolated as a conservative in Denver that she started a young women’s conservative magazine to connect with like-minded women across the country. But now, for four days at a Dallas airport hotel, Ms. Williams felt like she wasn’t the exception but the rule…For many of the women here, the conference was a rejoinder of sorts to the many female Democrats running for office and organizing in the midterm elections. While liberals are hopeful about a blue wave this November, the women here had a different message: Republicans are energized this year, too — by a growing economy, a president they believe in, and a belief that a ‘silent majority’ of Trump supporters will again shock the political world this fall.”
-Astead W. Herndon, “Trumpism Finds a Safe Space at Conservative Women’s Conference,” The New York Times online, June 17, 2018