Gabriella Hoffman, who is a first generation American, talks in great detail about her grandparents and parents growing up in a collectivist Soviet Union. In a phone interview, Gabriella said, “Most young people would be conservatives if they understood history. I meet students everyday that don’t understand the brutality or inhumanity of communistic regimes. Since my family had to live through it, I have a deeper appreciation for the country we live in.”
I am one of 14 co-authors of the e-book. Order your copy today!
The 22Q is an informal interview series with young conservatives, connected to LI, who are working in the public policy process. The 22 questions ask them to explain what they do, and how they see politics and the next generation of the conservative movement. Their opinions are their own, and are not endorsed by the Leadership Institute.
How I describe my job in 10 words
Working with students to advance conservatism on campus is rewarding
My day-to-day at work…in three sentences
Checking my email; updating our database with student contacts; reaching out to students via phone call, Facebook, or email; eating; talking with co-workers; researching and finding liberal bias.
I couldn’t do my job without
Sunny optimism. I try to be positive and happy all the time. Challenging the left can be daunting, so I try to make the best of things handed my way.
Most important moment in my career (so far)
Being mentioned on the Rush Limbaugh Show for an interview I did for FoxNews.com on January 11, 2013. He mentioned my thoughts about payroll tax expiration. I was in disbelief! My dad, a huge Rush fan, called me the moment he heard my name on the air. It was amazing.
Unexpected skill that has helped me the most
I would say that multitasking has helped me the most. Juggling many things can be difficult at times, but it has proven to be beneficial in the work I do.
The best advice I have received
My dad once said, “In order to be equal, you have to be three times better than the rest.” My parents taught me to work hard, to enjoy the fruits of my labor, and to be the best individual I could possibly be.
I have excellent news: I’m going to be a published author! Well, sort of.
Don’t expect any full-length books from me anytime soon. I’m only 21 and still need more life experience before chronicling events, activism, and thoughts. I still need to grow, adequately educate myself on history better, and become more well-read. But I digress…
Yesterday it was revealed that an e-book I co-authored with 13 other young conservatives entitled “Young, Conservative, and Why It’s Smart to Be Like Us” will be published this April 9, 2013.
The e-book features yours truly, RJ Moeller, Liz Thatcher, Liberty Betts, Kevin Eder, Allen Ginzburg, Mary Chastain, Daniel Webb, Brady Cremeens, Brandon Morse, Katelynd Shaw, Erin Brown, and Dina Fraioli.
Some of you are aware that I’m quite the Twitterholic. I tweet under the handle @Gabby_Hoffman and am not afraid to say that I tweet up quite the storm. My Twitter musings range from conservative politics to historical events. On occasion, I also include fashion and animal posts. Whenever I’m traveling for work or for leisure, I tweet pictures of monuments or interesting points of observation. All in all, I’ve grown to like and rely on Twitter.
Why would a young conservative like me use Twitter, you ask? Easy: we’ve got to win the social media war against the Left.
January 12, 2013 will mark three years since I started on Twitter. (In twitterspeak, I’ll be celebrating my third Twitterversary.)
At first I was reluctant to tweet. This social media medium was extremely confusing and foreign to me. I was perplexed by the RT symbol, follow button, and hashtags. It was not until a young conservative conference in Summer 2010 that I started to use Twitter. Once I got the hang of Twitter, I couldn’t stop using it.
In the nearly three years I’ve been on Twitter, I’ve garnered almost 22, 000 followers. What’s the key to this? Playing hashtag games, helping tweets turn into news stories, and promoting friends and fellow activists. I’ve also used Twitter to promote my articles.
I hope all of you are enjoying the holiday season with Chanukah, Christmas, and New Year’s celebrations. As we say goodbye to 2012 and hello to 2013, I offer you my final blog post of the year.
This year will go down in history as one of the most eventful years to date. Somehow President Obama – arguably one of the most corrupt and dangerous presidents in American history – clinched a second term in November. SCOTUS ruled the individual mandate provision in Obamacare constitutional as a tax. Shockingly, but not surprisingly, Mitt Romney lost the election. Our side witnessed devastating losses in U.S. Senate contests, as well. Unemployment rose. The country cared more about birth control politics than preserving free enterprise this election year. And the list goes on and on.
2012 was not a good year for America. Don’t kid yourselves if you think higher taxes, the implementation of Obamacare, and other policies ushered in by this administration are going to benefit us. They’ll incur more harm than good.
If you want to be encouraged for the battle ahead, check out Rebooting America founder Justen Charters in his viral “Six Trillion Dollar Man” music video for ChristinePAC. Share it with your friends and family.
Although there’s much to complain about 2012 and the consequences surrounding Obama’s re-election, I recognize that much good came out of this year. I graduated from UCSD with a B.A. in Political Science on the three-year track in June. Shortly afterward I moved from Southern California to Northern Virginia to intern at the Media Research Center’s CNSNews division. I then got hired to work for the Leadership Institute as the Northeast Regional Field Coordinator, which has been a great experience thus far. Working with conservative students is fun, hard work, and great. I’m also grateful for wonderful co-workers, and find myself incredibly happy with the work I’m doing. I’m very blessed for gainful employment!
I was also graced with many opportunities in 2012. I was a youth speaker at several conferences, appeared on many radio shows, and continued to write for various conservative media outlets. I befriended and strengthened friendships with great people and fellow young conservative activists. I met many people who I look up to including Michelle Malkin, Ken Cuccinelli, Mark Levin, Dana Loesch, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), and incoming U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), to name a few. I got to explore this country more and ventured to Texas, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Massachusetts for the first time. FreePAC Dallas was a blast, and my various trips to the Northeast to meet with students were equally worthwhile. I also co-founded another youth movement – Resistance 44- with my good friend Justen Charters and gauged young people with our conservative message.
2012 wouldn’t be complete if it weren’t for my family, friends, and fellow activists. Thank you for keeping my spirits up. I’m thankful for all of you and your continual support!
Despite impending tax hikes on all Americans come January 1st (thank you, President Obama and Congress), Americans should look forward to 2013.
-Pro-life? Attend 40th Annual March for Life event. The march will be taking place on January 25, 2013 in downtown Washington, D.C.
-If you live here in the Commonwealth of Virginia, you have the opportunity to help pivot our state red and elect Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli as our next governor. Outside support is also appreciated. This is the first and most important electoral contest our side must win. (Visit Cuccinelli’s website, sign up to be a campaign volunteer, and donate money to his campaign.)
-Get involved with the National School Choice Week movement. Next year’s event takes place during the week of January 27, 2013 – February 2, 2013. This is how we outreach to people.
-Defend free enterprise and make the moral case for it. Don’t support higher taxes.
-Champion family values and undermine the welfare society.
-And most of all breathe, exercise, eat healthy, travel the country, be frugal, surround yourself with good people, and don’t succumb to pressure. Take the occasional break from politics and your electronics to enjoy the world around you.
What will I be up to in 2013? Here’s what you can expect from me:
Speaking engagements: I’m scheduled to speak at a CUFI on Campus’ SALT conference panel on student activism in San Antonio, TX on January 3, 2013, which is followed by my participation in “The Cheated Generation” panel at Maryland Conservative Action Network’s Turning the Tides conference on January 12, 2013 in Annapolis, MD. More appearances are likely throughout the year.
Look out for an e-book featuring yours truly: I, along with other young conservatives, wrote a chapter for an e-book slated for release in March 2013.
National appearance: Can’t reveal this yet, but you’ll be seeing me on the national stage in mid-to-late January.
Blogging: I’ll continue blogging for CNSNews.com, Counter Cultured, Right Wing News, and make my debut on The Blaze. Some other opportunities might come up. I’ll keep you posted.
Work: Work is my first priority, so it’ll come first before outside activities. Nevertheless, I’ll be documenting my travels, crazy professors, and leftist abuses in the Northeast if anything comes up. If you’re a student in the Northeast looking to be active on campus, please contact me here.
Rebooting America: I’ll be more involved. You should join the movement too.
Twitter: Follow my musings and tweets @Gabby_Hoffman.
L’chaim and cheers to a happy, healthy, and productive 2013!
I received this email today from a 17 year old girl named Caroline, and it touched my heart. I believe she read my column in Counter Cultured called “Keeping Tradition Hip in a Modern World.” She wouldn’t disclose where she’s from (I think she’s from Europe), but she has an important message for young conservatives here in the U.S. Take a moment to read it.
Hello, my name is Caroline and I just want to share my story with you. I live in a severely socialized country, I won’t mention which country, but I wanted to share with people what it’s like to live in a country like that for a 17 year old girl who loves tradition and has values. Basically, our political scale is a lot more to the left than the American one so the Democrats would be the most right-sided party in Sweden. Our most right-sided party even went out and supported the Democrats and their candidate in the 2012 election. So, I’ll share my reality. I wish I could be proud of my straight As and my passion for my school work. I wish I could say that education is crucial to me, that succeeding in life requires education and knowledge. I wish I could be proud that I’m working extremely hard in school and that I see school as a place to learn, not as a place to be impolite towards my teachers and treating other students without respect. I wish people could stop calling me a suck-up just because I see my teachers as superiors and treat them with extra respect and grace. I wish I could proudly say that yes, I’m 17 years old so I have a curfew. My parents care for me and watch out for me and won’t let me be out late. My family and I eat dinner together every single night and we spend a lot of time together. We go through rough times just like any other family but we face things together and that’s something I’m proud of. My parents have been together for 25 years and they struggle just like any other couple but they won’t give up, they are married and they would never dream of breaking that commitment. To me, those are the best role models there is, but the situation in my country is different. You barely see any married couples lasting longer than a few years and the commitment of marriage is easily scattered and thrown away, which scares me. I wish I could be proud of the fact that I visit church every Sunday, that I pray for people when I feel like they need it, and that I turn to God for guidance. I wish my friends would join me, but religion and faith is not something popular here. We’re still a Christian country so most babies get baptized, most couples get married at church and most old people get buried in the graveyard. I wish people here would look at belief differently. I wish I wouldn’t be the only human under 40 when I visit church. I wish I wouldn’t be almost completely lonely when I visit my family’s grave and place flowers and decorations to honor them there. I wish I wouldn’t be the only one of my friends who owns a Bible. You do have to realize that a lack of faith and belief, no matter which religion, will come along when a country gets as socialized as ours. Abortion is extremely easy here. It’s something that is so accepted in our society, that it doesn’t require a lot in order to go through with an abortion. I never tell people that I’m against abortion; I tell them that I’m pro-life. I believe that abortion itself isn’t the issue here, it’s the lack of morality and values that causes the extreme amount of abortions, every year between 30 000 and 38 000 babies are killed (and we’re a very small country I may say) due to the fact that people here has no values or respect for life. I’m a virgin. 17 years old and a virgin. Let me tell you that I definitely don’t fit in the mold here. I’m the only one of my friends that still has my virginity left. I truly wish that I could say to people that I’m proud of that. I’m proud of the fact that I have saved something special for someone special and that it means more to me than doing it drunk at a party just to get it done. I wish I could tell people that yes, I want to wait and do it with someone I love, truly love, and make it matter. Girls and boys here look at sex with concerning easiness, they are not anywhere near ready to make such a big commitment but people here don’t see it that way. Really, the sooner the better. I don’t even believe that I’m in a hurry, I’m soon 20 years old and that will only be a fifth of my life. I wish I could tell people that I’m waiting, for the special one that I’ll be ready to make a lifelong commitment to. I value my self-respect and would never lower myself to that level. Also, I don’t party. People here directly assume that I’m boring, that I hate having fun and can’t feel free. Let me tell you something, I feel free when I’m not lying in the street puking. I can have fun without alcohol or drugs and I prefer a night at home with my family, reading, over being at a shabby home-party. I wish I could tell girls my age that please, don’t wear clothes that shows more than it reveals. Don’t search boys’ attention by putting less clothes on your body and see your body as something to guard. Value your self-respect, your dignity and your appearance. It’ll be worth it, when you meet someone who respects you for who you really are and not for how little clothes you’re wearing. I wish I could tell men and boys that I expect more from them. I wish they could be gentlemen, proud and respectful. I wish they could step up and make themselves worthy of women like me, just like I want to tell women to step up and make themselves worthy of men like that. So, how can I tie this all together? I am proud of myself and my values, but I have to tell you, it’s exhausting. There is no space for values and tradition here. A lot of the times I feel like I have nowhere to fit in and that is devastating to be honest. People here don’t understand me; don’t understand why I feel like do or why I have my values. As a fellow conservative and lady-in-the-heart, please make sure you keep your place in the US. As I said, there is no space for me here, but I believe in America and the space for conservatism and class. Fight for this, fight for the future and for a place I dream of living in in the future.
All conservatives and libertarians in the DC metro should attend Maryland Conservative Action Network’s “Turning the Tides” conference in Annapolis, MD.
Join us for frank discussion about where we go from here. Topics will include what to expect from both Washington, DC and Annapolis, improving our ground game, national security, the left’s war on the suburbs, how “green energy” schemes are hurting our national and state economy, and more.
Yours truly will be a youth panelist. I will give a talk about my activism coupled with my family history. Hope you come and hear from me and countless other speakers:
Dan Bongino
Brad Botwin
Brandon Cooper
Myron Ebell
Pamela Geller
Gabby Hoffman
Stanley Kurtz
Steve Milloy
Mark Newgent
Neil Parrott
Richard Rothschild
Jim Rutledge
Ken Timmerman
Blaine Young
and more.
Registration details:
Sponsorship opportunities and vendor tables are available. Please contact tonya@mdconservatives.com for details.
The DoubleTree Hotel has set aside overnight rooms at a special conference rate of $99/night for Friday and/or Saturday.If you would like to book a room, please call 1.800.222.8733, and ask for the Conservative Action Network block (group code: CAN).
Online registration is being handled through ShowClix.
Register by December 12 and get the discounted early bird rate of $50!
After December 12 the regular price of $75 takes effect and walk-in registration on January 12 will be $100.
A student rate of $25 is available for anyone with a current high school or college ID!
Note: The following post was written by me as an individual, not as an employee of Leadership Institute.
“I don’t always campaign, but when I do, I campaign for Romney-Ryan in Virginia.”
I spent the past two Saturdays campaigning in Louduon County, VA with my dad and some friends who are also active in the conservative youth movement. I met some great patriots along the way and got to bond with my dad more. Additionally, I got to see Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli again (mark my words, he’ll be the next governor of Virginia) and finally met conservative talk show host Mark Levin.
I have no regrets.
I feel embarrassed to admit this, but I never campaigned before until last Saturday. Admittedly, I primarily focus on social media, blogging, and youth activism – which are my niche areas. I’m not really into party politics after seeing the CAGOP’s incompetence on display. I grew into a disillusioned Republican voter – not disillusioned in the sense that I’d vote Democrat (God forbid), but disillusioned in the sense that the party I registered for at 18 was not going in line with conservatism. Not everyone in the CAGOP should be blamed, but many people are at fault for letting the GOP slip in California. Step it up. Yes, I voted (R) in 2009 (referendum election), 2010 (midterms), now in 2012 – and I will continue to do so. Yet, I’m sick and tired of wishy-washy Republican candidates. And many fellow conservatives agree: we need CONSERVATIVE Republicans in office.
Now that I live in Virginia, which is a huge improvement from my home state Commie…er, California, I was proud to campaign for Republicans here. (Mind you, VAGOP is not perfect either – but at least it’s active.) I hope I don’t sound cliché, but it is imperative that every person vote, campaign, make calls – whatever – to make sure our side wins on Tuesday. Obama’s failed policies have wrought doom and gloom on our country. Our economy is suffering. Our liberties are under attack. Our country is weak. Can we really afford four more years of this Marxist president? NO.
I implore every young person (and American) who wants a future in this country to vote Romney-Ryan. Your future and our livelihood depend on Obama’s defeat.
All conservatives – especially young conservatives – should attend Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C. this September 14-16, 2012, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel.
The 7th annual conference will be more exciting than ever given the fact that this year’s conference falls right before the general election.
This will be my 2nd VVS conference, having served on the 2011 VVS NSEAB youth board and attended the conference last year. I am on the NSEAB youth board again, and look forward to recruiting more young folks to the conference.
Our 2011 board was fantastic. I made some of the greatest friends from that experience. (All board members are pictured minus Aaron Wong.)
We recently expanded our youth board and welcomed some great youth activists to the team. (Stay tuned!)
That being said, this year’s student activities will be bigger and better than last year’s.
Here’s what to expect:
Friday Night Student Mixer: FREE Pizza and a great opportunity to network.
Keynote Address by Gen. William Boykin, former commander of Delta Force.
Right vs. Left Debate: The Chairman of the College Republicans, Alex Schriver, will take on Rod Snyder, Chairman of the Young Democrats of America. The debate will cover many hot topics of the day and be moderated by Alex Pappas of the Daily Caller.
Job and Internship Fair hosted by the Leadership Institute’s ConservativeJobs.com.
Saturday Afternoon Breakout Session: Millennials and the Future of Political Engagement
Students can apply for conference scholarships here.
For those of you who follow my blogging/writing, I want to update you about my whereabouts with respect to this.
I started blogging my freshman year of college and have contributed to many places over the course of three years. I wrote for the conservative paper at UCSD (California Review), David Horowitz’s NewsRealBlog, The College Fix, The Washington Times Communities, TheCollegeConservative, San Diego Rostra, RightWingNews, and countless others.
I will continue to write for RightWingNews and edit for TheCollegeConservative, but couple it with two other outlets: CNSNews.com and ViralRead.com.
I started interning/reporting for CNSNews.com last week. It’s the Media Research Center’s news publication. You can subscribe to my posts here.
And I joined ViralRead.com as a contributor. It’s slated to be the conservative alternative to Buzzfeed.
I can't imagine my life differently. Grateful to be where I am in my young adult life. Steady job, good friends, supportive family = lucky. 5 hours ago
